St. Peter's Alec Wilson Qualifies For IESA State Meet

Eighth grader Alec Wilson has done it again. On Saturday at Plano High School, he qualified for the IESA State Championship Meet in two events and broke another St. Peter school record at the IESA Sectional. He started off the day with a school record Long Jump of 16 feet, 8 inches, good enough for fifth place. His first running event earned him a state qualifying time of 12.00 seconds in the 100 meter dash, a second place finish. Later that afternoon, in spite of the challenge of being placed in the wrong heat, Wilson won the 200 meter dash with a time of 25.90 seconds.

St. Peter was arguably the youngest team at the sectional, competing with all of their sixth grade athletes and four fifth grade athletes against mostly seventh and eighth graders. In spite of that disadvantage, the Rockets competed well and nearly every event they entered earned them a personal or season best. The highlight of the day were two sixth grade High Jumpers. Mary Tork, a perennial high jump champion placed second in the girls seventh grade High Jump competition. Her teammate August Bryan placed third in the boys seventh grade High Jump. Also of note was eighth grader Marco Anaya who held the St. Peter Long Jump record for a moment with a sixth place jump of 16 feet, 7 inches. Alec Wilson eventually beat that mark.

Other noteables for St. Peter were Aaron Beck who placed fifth in seventh grade boys Discus Throw and sixth in the seventh grade boys 110 Meter Hurdles. Eighth grader Megan Cahill placed fourth in the eighth grade girls 800 Meter Run with a time of 2:49, missing the state qualifying time by a mere four seconds.

The team heads into the Aurora Conference Championship meet this Saturday with loads of confidence after last week’s sectional. With their continuing trend of outstanding athletic performances they are predicted to win several trophies in the eight categories at the meet. The Conference Championship meet at Aurora Central Catholic High School will be the team’s final meet of the season. Wilson will be competing in the IESA State Championship Meet on Friday and Saturday at the Eastside Center in East Peoria, IL.