Rich South's Lewis stars at Crete

Jerika Lewis has the ability to ignore the weather, and does her best to keep her competition in its place.

That would generally be behind her.

Lewis, a senior and Rich South’s leader, did exactly that Saturday in the Lady Warrior Invitational at Crete-Monee. After losing to Dominique Kimpel in the 100-meter dash by an eyelash, Lewis rebounded to score victories in the 200 and 400, and was named the athlete of the meet.

“It’s not places,” Lewis said of her motivation. “It’s the numbers, the times. That’s the key. It doesn’t matter who you’re running against or what the weather is. You still have to try your hardest.”

Lewis did that on a chilly day in Crete, one softened by the sun but punctuated by a brisk north wind. With the wind at their backs, Kimpel made it to the line in the 100 final in a hand-timed 12.14 seconds. Lewis appeared to be right on her heels, but was timed in 12.37.

Soon after came the 400, and Lewis blew away the field with a clocking of 59.01 seconds. The 200 was conducted about an hour later, and this time, Lewis beat Kimpel to the line by about seven meters, finishing in 25.14 seconds. All the times were decent, considering it’s the larval stage of the outdoor season and the cold weather.

It could have been worse. It was barely above 30 on Wednesday, when Bremen ran in cold and wind. That made Saturday seem summery to Paige Galvin, and she warmed to the occasion by winning the 3,200-meter run and taking third in the 800.

“It wasn’t bad today,” Galvin said after winning the 3,200 in 12:30 flat, 40 seconds ahead of the runner-up Keyanna Dennis, of Hillcrest.

For Galvin, the 3,200, the metric version of the 2-mile run, comes naturally, thanks to her cross country background. But the 800, about a half-mile, is new.

“I never ran it until this year,” Galvin said.

She ran it in 2:37.45, good for third. Hillcrest’s Bianca Rockwood won in 2:35.

While Lewis and Galvin were piling up individual honors, Hillcrest was picking up first or second place in nine of the 19 events, and won the varsity title with 113 points to Crete-Monee’s 101.

No Hawk won more than one event, but they made up for that in bulk, most notable in the 100-meter hurdles, in which Hillcrest’s Althea Burke and Aireal Mays finished 1-2, Burke’s smooth 16.06 leading the way by close to a second.