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Rocks roll behind Johnson

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By Shannon Heaton | Saturday, May 10, 2008 11:37 PM CDT | () comments

OTTAWA, Ill. — Genesis Johnson had a mission to accomplish. So, too, did the Rock Island girls track and field team.

In large part because Johnson accomplished the former — defeat Maple Park Kaneland’s Lindsay Gierke and Lindsay Gruenke — the Rocks took care of the latter, too, winning the Class AA Ottawa Sectional meet Saturday afternoon.

Highest on that list was earning a measure of redemption against Moline, which edged the Rocks to win the Western Big 6 Conference meet nine days ago in Galesburg.

“Conference shows who’s the deepest, but not the best, team. Moline’s deeper than us, and it was a very difficult loss for us last week,” Rock Island coach Michelle Lillis said. “You don’t do this meet to be a team champ, but when you pit your best against everyone else’s best, and your team comes out on top, I think it shows who is strongest.”

In a meet loaded with top talent, Johnson proved to be the strongest athlete Saturday, winning four events — including sweeps of the 100-, 200- and 400-meter dashes, where she beat a Kaneland Lindsay (Gierke in the 100 and 200; Gruenke in the 400) each time — and anchored the Rocks’ 400 relay to a win.

“Conference is in the past, sectionals is in the future,” Johnson said. “The 200, I think, was my best race. The 400 is my (usual best) race, but I felt good in the 2. We still have a week to get our (handoffs) right, but hopefully at state we’ll still get it.”

Sophomore Ciara Turner swept the hurdles races, nearly setting a school record in the 300 hurdles before pulling up to save some energy for the 200 later, an event in which she qualified for state on the basis of time.

“I didn’t even know how fast I was running,” Turner said. “There’s still state next weekend (to get the school mark).“

Michelle Strickland added a high jump title for Rock Island, which had eight state-qualifying results in outpointing Moline 99-75 for the team plaque. Still, the runner-up Maroons got two titles from Aisha Praught in the 1,600 and 3,200 runs, plus a pole vault title from freshman Jennifer Roche, and qualified six entries for state.

“Our 4x8 (the 3,200 relay, in which the Maroons were second) didn’t go quite as planned, but I’m glad our girls qualified,” Praught said.

“I felt really relaxed during the (3,200), not really running that hard, so that was enjoyable. In the mile, I worked my strategy, to run an OK time, but not too fast.”

United Township’s girls team hasn’t had a lot to cheer about in 2008, but one of the Panthers’ best athletes put together a sparkling day in the discus. Senior Rachel Medina achieved became the Panthers’ only state qualifier in winning the event with a throw of 128 feet, 9 inches.

“I gave (my coach) a heart attack this week, because practice didn’t go as well as we would have liked,” Medina said, asked where her season-best throw came from. “I always do good at the end of the year.”

Medina beat Geneseo throwers Alyx Dykema and Andrea Egan, the Maple Leafs’ only qualifiers, for the discus title.

Alleman’s Kathleen Hogan advanced in the 1,600 with a second-place finish behind Moline’s Praught.

“I have gone (to state) every year since freshman year, so not making it would be devastating. I couldn’t imagine not going to state at all,” Hogan said.