By Michael Newman, [email protected]

Plainfield --- They started with a win in the firs running event and duplicated that effort at the end of the meet winning the 1600 Meter Relay. Throw in some points in the middle and that was enough to give the Neuqua Valley Girls team the team championship at the Plainfield North Girls Relays Friday evening.

Neuqua Valley ended up with 8 points to win for the second year in a row. Host Plainfield North was next with 73 points. Joliet West scored 50 points to finish third.

The Lady Wildcats started off their night with a win in the 3200 Meter Relay. Olivia Nizolek gave Maine South a six second lead in the opening leg of the race. Neuqua Valley’s Caitlin Horn was the difference maker in the race making up the deficit and giving her team the lead by five seconds when she handed off the baton. Neuqua Valley went on to win by eleven seconds ahead of Maine South with a 10:04.65 winning time.

Horn ran in the second of three sections in the 1600 Meter Run. She pulled away from the field to win her section (5:25.44) by ten seconds. It gave her second place overall in the event. Olivia Nizolek and Plainfield North’s Juliana Stogsdill were close together in the final section of the event for the first 800 of the race. Nizolek made a strong surge in the next 400 to pull away from Stogsdill to win the race by (5:19.46). Stogsdill finished third overall (5:25.80). Neuqua Valley’s distance depth showed in this event as they placed four runners in the first ten.

MiKenna Robinson was another star for the Wildcats in this meet. She ran 1:01.31 to win the 400 Meter Dash ahead of teammate Lizzie McCadd who ran 1:02.89. Robinson came back in the 1600 Relay to give her team a five second lead on the opening leg. McCadd anchored her team home to the win (4:19.56). Lemont, who won the second section of the event, finished second overall (4:19.56).

Neuqua Valley also captured the 800 Meter Relay from Section 2 of the event. Their time of 1:52.01 was enough for the win two seconds ahead of Section 3 winner Plainfield North (1:54.01).

The only running that Neuqua Valley did not win was the Distance Medley. It was close early in the race as Neuqua Valley and Hoffman Estates pushed each other in the opening 800 meter of the race. Hoffman Estates opened a big lead in the second 400 leg that almost disintegrated when the exchange between Anna Miller to Megha Ramanathan was not the best as Ramanathan lost her balance on receiving the baton and fell. She kept the lead on the 1200 meter leg but it was cut down by Neuqua Valley to two seconds. Hoffman Estates’ anchor runner Misbah Baig opened the lead in the first 400 and cruised from there. Her 5:32 anchor leg brought the Hawks home in 13:19.27. They finished 31 seconds ahead of Neuqua Valley.

The individual star of the meet was Joliet West’s Melzina Johnson who picked up three individual wins. The senior started the night with a 17-6.50 effort to win the Long Jump. She won the 55 Meter Dash (7.44) to edge Plainfield North’s Aja Bradshaw by seven hundred of a second. Johnson ended her night again against Bradshaw in the 200 Meter Dash. The outcome was closer as Johnson edged Bradshaw by one hundredth of a second (27.46-27.47).