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Wallace-Sipp on the mark for Vikings
Updated: May 12, 2011 10:50PM
There’s extra pressure in track sectionals when you’re a defending state champion.
Thornton’s Jazjuan Wallace-Sipp did her best to not feel it Thursday night at Homewood-Flossmoor, easily advancing to the discus competition in the Class 3A championship.
“The focus was to get me a good seed downstate,” Wallace-Sipp said. “I knew 130 feet would put me down at the bottom, so I was aiming for at least 140.”
The Illinois-bound senior should get one. Her best throw, a career-best 146 feet, 11 inches, came on the second throw in the preliminary round. After that, she focused on trying to improve the seed, fouling twice in the finals.
“After you hit your mark, you want to go higher. I wanted 150,” she said. “But in the finals, my focus was gone. I messed up in the shot put. It was my worst day of the year.”
Based on results entering sectionals, 146-11 is the second-best mark in the state among 3A competitors. That pleased Wallace-Sipp, but didn’t prompt her to do handsprings.
“I usually don’t go by standards, because that’s all talk,” Wallace-Sipp said. “I usually use that as a push.”
Wallace-Sipp has used similar motivation in the past. She was seeded 11th downstate as a sophomore and finished third. Last year, she was seeded third and won it all.
“Downstate, you tend to throw further,” Wallace-Sipp said. “I’m going to be around a bunch of other good throwers, and their vibe alone is going to get me better.”
Wallace-Sipp, Andrew’s Alyssa DeZutter (119-6) and Homewood-Flossmoor’s LaChrissa Safforld (117-7) qualified in one of the nine events completed before a thunderstorm hit at 7:25 p.m. and stopped the action for the night. The meet resumes at 4:30 p.m. today.
Minutes before Lincoln-Way Central’s Alena Pacheco (12 minutes, 9.25 seconds) and Mallory Johnson (12:12.31) finished 1-2 in the 3,200-meter run. Neither hit the automatic qualifying time of 11:22, but the top two in each event advance regardless.
“I just wanted to get (second) place,” Johnson said. “I wanted me and Alena to go, because we’re friends.”
“It’s nice to have someone going with me,” Pacheco said. “We both went to state in cross country (as part of the Knights’ team) too, so two times in a year is pretty awesome.”
The only other event to advance more than the minimum two was the high jump, where Eisenhower’s Rashidah Williams won at 5-5, and the three who tied for second at 5-3 — Bloom’s Justice Howard, Lincoln-Way Central’s Bri Tomnitz and Bradley’s Amy Harvoth — also qualified.
Other winners before the storm were H-F’s Abieyawa Ehimwenman in the long jump, Providence’s Lindsay Smoljan in the pole vault, Thornwood’s Ebony Stallworth in the shot put, Thornton’s LaDonna Caston in the 100-meter hurdles, and the relay teams of Sandburg (3,200, in 9:34.25) and Lincoln-Way East (400, in a state-best 46.83).
Class 2A Kankakee Sectional: Hillcrest (120.5 points) dominated, outscoring Lincoln-Way West (73.5), Rich South (68), Kankakee (60) and Hillcrest (54), for the sectional title. Brittany Letts won the 800 meters (2:23.73) and Mercedes Young won the 400 (56.34) to lead Hillcrest.
Contributing: Chris Murphy
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