Published: May 10, 2008 03:27 am         

Buffs, Storm have solid showing

CATLIN — The Salt Fork IHSA Class A Girls Track & Field Sectional meet featured far from ideal conditions for such an event, but produced a quality showing by the two local teams competing.

Georgetown-Ridge Farm/Chrisman finished in fifth place overall with a team score of 55, and Salt Fork finished in 10th place with a score of 28, but both teams will send individuals on to the state meet next week.

Salt Fork’s lone representative next weekend will be Hannah Wilkins, who took first place in the shot put with a winning throw of 38 feet, 7.5 inches and second place in the discus with a throw of 104-9.5.

The results were not her best as the competitors dealt with unseasonably cold temperatures, but Salt Fork head coach Gail Biggerstaff was very happy with her results.

“It was tough for her, but she pulled through and I’m very, very proud of her,” said Biggerstaff. “She worked really hard.”

Salt Fork just missed sending a second competitor to state when Danielle Biggerstaff finished in third place in the 100 meter hurdles, missing the qualifying time by four-hundredths of one second.

“We had a few disappointments, but we also had a lot of girls run personal bests in their events,” said Gail Biggerstaff.

“Now we have to look forward to state with Hannah, and then on to next season,” she added.

Georgetown-Ridge Farm/Chrisman started the day with Jade Beals winning the triple jump with a distance of 33-5, and taking second in the long jump with a jump of 15-6.

The two strongest relay teams for the Buffaloes followed up with winning performances, first from the 400 meter relay featuring Lindsey Swick, Shelby Porter, Beals, and Kaci Lierman.

The same four runners teamed up to blow away their best time of the year in the 800 meter relay, finishing in 1:49.97 to edge out a strong Warrensburg-Latham group.

“That was by far our best performance of the year, we really improved our time by a lot,” said Beals, who got a big lead in third leg before handing off to Kaci Lierman, who finished it off for the Buffaloes.

Lierman rounded out the day for the Buffaloes with a second place finish in the 200 meter dash, finishing with a time of 27.13, giving the team five events to compete in at the state meet.

“I really expected the girls to do well, especially the two relay teams,” Georgetown-Ridge Farm/Chrisman head coach Jim Mills said. “They were a little worried about the 800 meter relay with some really good times out there from the other teams, but I just told them to give Kaci a lead and they’d win, and they did it.”

“We’re very happy with the effort from everyone today,” added Mills.

Both teams will focus on those events for the state meet next weekend, which takes place at O’Brien Stadium on the campus of Eastern Illinois University in Charleston on Friday and Saturday.

“You never quite know how things will go at state,” said Mills. “It can be a whole different world down there, but we are excited about our chances.”