Maljevic Scores Three Wins At Palatine Relays

Part of the tradition at the long-running Palatine Relays co-ed track invitational meet is to name a male and female Athlete of the Meet, an extra reward for the top individual performers.

But whoever made that selection at the 93^rd annual meet Saturday didn’t get it right.

Meet officials overlooked Evanston senior Lejla Maljevic --- who won three events and finished second in the other --- and picked Hersey hurdler Emilia Rogowski instead.

Maybe it was a bias in favor of a fellow Mid-Suburban League athlete by the hosts at Palatine.

Maybe it was a bias against a field event performer like Maljevic.

At the end of the day, it certainly didn’t impact one of the best days Maljevic has enjoyed wearing the Orange and Blue uniform for ETHS.

Rogowski scored an individual win in the 100-meter hurdles, in an eye-catching 14.93, and was also part of the shuttle hurdle relay team that placed first for the Huskies. She also ran on the runner-up 400 relay team.

Maljevic checked more boxes than that.

She registered victories in the shot put (12.30 meters, or 40 feet, 4.25 inches), triple jump (personal record 10.5 meters, or 34 feet, 9 inches) and long jump (season best 5.24 meters, or 17 feet, 2.25 inches), and added a 2^nd place finish (37 meters, or 122 feet, 5 inches) when she volunteered to join the discus lineup after another ETHS competitor failed to show up for the meet.

The senior standout’s big day helped the Wildkits score a sixth place finish in the team standings even though they only actually entered half the events. Brie Noel added a triumph in the 400-dash and the Kits captured the 1600-relay title in a sizzling time of 3 minutes, 54.79 seconds, one of the fastest times recorded in the state of Illinois this spring.

Evanston finished with 66 points to finish right in the middle of the 12-team girls field. Hersey scored 107 points and beat out York (94) and Jacobs (80) for the team crown in a format where times and distances were combined as “relays” to determine the scoring.

How happy was Maljevic about her medal haul leading into next week’s Central Suburban League South division meet, and the Deerfield Sectional meet the following week?

Really happy.

“I was really happy with my first throw in the shot. And I was really happy with my long jump, too, because I had four jumps without a foul. I know the coaches were satisfied with that,” Maljevic said. “I have been consistent on the (takeoff) board and that’s something I’ve been working on. Now, the coaches say I’m on the right path. Hopefully, things will click for me when it matters most the next couple of weeks. The jumps are there and I’m beginning to be more aggressive with them.

“Last year I threw 12.40 in the shot here. So I’m not better than that at this point, even though I feel like I’ve been more consistent. I feel much more confident now in the circle, and I think I’m getting close to peaking at the right time.”

Maljevic’s ability to manage a heavier work load this spring has led to more incremental improvements in each event, even when challenged to be two places at once sometimes according to various meet schedules. She’ll probably focus on the shot, where she was a state qualifier last year, and long jump in postseason competition.

She got a bonus Saturday --- one last fling in the discus --- when head coach Fenny Gunter came up one competitor short in that event.

“We had a sophomore young lady who didn’t realize she was supposed to be at this meet,” Gunter explained. “So I knew by then (the discus was the last event on the schedule for the field event competitors) Lejla wouldn’t have anything else to do, and it wouldn’t disrupt anything. I said just make a couple of throws and you can make a difference for the team.”

Maljevic hadn’t competed in the discus at a single meet this spring and didn’t devote any practice time to that skill, either. But the only one who beat her Saturday was Carly Uehlein with a best toss of 43.53 meters for Jacobs.

“I worked on discus a lot when I was a sophomore and a junior. I guess it was just muscle memory,” Maljevic smiled after scoring another PR. “That one was for the team. Coach asked me to do it, and obviously I said yes. It was really fun.”

“Overall, Lejla has just been so consistent for us this year,” Gunter pointed out. “She has such high standards and she still puts too much pressure on herself. I know she’s still upset that she isn’t jumping farther. But we tell them don’t be such a critical thinker --- just go out and do it.

“As a group I think we made the most of what we had today. They’ve been very competitive all year, and that’s all we can ask.”

Gunter ended up loading up the lineup for the final race of the day, the 1600 relay, pulling Ingrid Sylvestre out of the 100 hurdles and following his wife’s suggestion to put senior Hunter Vandergriff on the second leg of the relay instead of Noel.

Leadoff runner Francesca Decastro gave the Kits a lead they extended behind Vandergriff and Sylvestre, and Noel added the finishing touch with an anchor leg of 55.8 even though there was no opponent anywhere near her. The next best team, York, finished in 4:06.75. almost 12 seconds slower than the meet champs.

Earlier, Sylvestre joined Decastro, Amari Robinson and Nikoletta Dandelles to place third in the 800 relay in a solid 1:45.38.

“Ingrid didn’t run that well in the (300) hurdles (third in 46.85, a personal record) and this was her first race since she had a really bad fall at Niles West (last week),” Gunter said. “So we didn’t think it was a good idea for her to run another hurdles race today. She still needed some work, so we put her on the 4 x 200.

Noel and Vandergriff ran 1-2 in the open 400, in 56.87 and 59.32, respectively. Also scoring top five individual finishes for Evanston were Ebony Turner, 3^rd in the shot at 10.60; and KyNia Hunt, 4^th in the discus at 34.29.