Maljevic Joins Relay Mix For Champion Kits

Growing up in her native Montenegro, Lejla Maljevic was a runner first in her track career.

Her focus switched to the long jump and shot put after she emigrated to Evanston. That didn’t keep her from lobbying ETHS head coach Fenny Gunter for a spot on a relay team now and then all of last spring.

Gunter only relented a couple of times. But after an off-season in which Maljevic put in the work training as a runner --- with an eye on a possible collegiate future competing in the decathlon --- he opened the door to some relay possibilities for the senior standout.

So far, so good. Maljevic won both the shot put and long jump Saturday and contributed to a pair of top three relay finishes as the Wildkits eased to their first team title ever at the Boiler Invitational hosted by Olivet Nazarene University in Kankakee.

Evanston only had entries in 10 of the 15 events held Saturday, but blew away the competition by racking up 88 points to 61 for runner-up Lincoln-Way West in the 22-team field.

Maljevic’s busy day included individual wins in the shot (12.40 meters) and long jump (season best 5.26) in addition to legs on the 800 and 1600 relays. The Kits came up short in the 800 after Maljevic’s best season split of 27 seconds provided a brief lead on the third leg, settling for third in 1 minute, 52.39 seconds after the anchors from both Marian Catholic (1:51.52) and Plano (1:52.36) ran down Evanston freshman Sally Weinberg.

Maljevic teamed up with Francesca Decastro, Ingrid Sylvestre and Brie Noel for a winning time of 4:05.77 in the 1600 relay.

No one on the ETHS coaching staff is ready to call Maljevic a game-changer in the relays --- not yet. The Wildkits won the 1600 by a whopping 14 seconds Saturday over St. Laurence and clearly could have ruled that race with someone else in the lineup, But the emergence of the senior as a more versatile competitor will give Gunter even more options when the scene switches to the outdoor season and qualifying for the Illinois High School Association state finals will be a priority.

The Hall of Fame coach would rather not use sophomore star Brie Noel on that 1600 relay. Noel placed 6^th in the state last year in the open 400 and won that race Saturday in Kankakee in 57.10, the second fastest time in the state for any girl in Class 3A so far during the indoor campaign.

The way Gunter sees it, the more choices he has to pick relay lineups, the better he likes it.

“Lejla was a runner before, so I don’t think it will be a hard transition for her this year,” Gunter said. “I think she’ll be ready to move up to the 800 (for decathlon competition in college) by next year. What we’re trying to do is to find a group (of four runners) who can survive without Brie in there and make it to State. I think we should be able to run the qualifying time without her. Lejla has put in the work, and will hopefully just be in the 1600 by the end of outdoors (a chance to get a speed workout put her in the 4 x 200 Saturday).”

“I did a lot of running work this fall because I wanted to run on the relays,” said Maljevic. “Coach Gunter thought it would be a good idea so I’d be there if the team needed me. We pushed each other every day in practice and this is an amazing opportunity for me to challenge myself, to get out of my comfort zone. I’ve never run the 400 before this year.

“With the speed work and endurance work and the competition, that’s all something I’ll need for next year. In those workouts I kept up with the good girls in our program. I surprised myself a little bit, because it’s so new for me, but with all the work we do I expected it, too.

“Competing in four events requires me to be here (focused) 100 percent, mentally and physically. It’s a challenge to manage all of it and it does take a lot of energy out of me. I just go from one event to another and try to remind myself there’s still more to do, the job’s not done.”

Gunter got meet officials to switch Maljevic to an earlier preliminary heat in the long jump to try to avoid conflicts with her shot put attempts. But the finals overlapped and she only took one throw --- the winning throw --- before finishing off the long jump title.

She matched her season best in the long jump and considered it a step forward because she only fouled twice among her six tries.

“Some of my long jump results are not where I was at last year at this time,” she confessed. “I just need to put everything together. Today I was able to get on the board (legally) four out of the six times, so that was an improvement. Before whenever I had a good jump, I scratched. I just need to apply everything I’ve worked on, and I think it will happen soon.”

Evanston’s other first place effort came from Noel in the open 400, where she burst to an early lead and was never challenged by runner-up Niyah Crockett of Bradley-Bourbonnais (1:00.65). And she didn’t let up in the 1600 relay, lapping three other teams in the field with her anchor leg.

Noel also scored a personal best time of 7.99 in the open 60-meter dash, good for sixth place.

Both Hunter Vandergriff (fourth in the 400 in 1:03.81) and Ebony Turner (second in the shot put at 11.91) came off the injured list to contribute valuable and unexpected points for the Wildkits. Also scoring top 6 individual finishes were Sylvestre, second in the 60 hurdles in 9.26; Amari Robinson, fifth in the 800 in 2:41.49; Bailey Sterling, sixth in the 200 in 27.04; and KyNia Hunt, sixth in the shot at 10.31.