Liberty's O'Donnell Wins IESA Discus State Title

Courtney O’Donnell treated Liberty Junior High’s old records in the shot put and discus events like so much trash.

She threw them out on the curb during a career-best performance in the IESA girls state track and field meet at Eastside Center in Peoria.

O’Donnell was crowned the sixth-grade girls discus champion with a throw of 91-8. She surpassed her pervious best by more than 10½ feet and set a school record. She also placed 13^th in the shot put with a school-record toss of 26-7½.

O’Donnell’s school-record throws stood as two of the highlights for Liberty during an action packed two days of competition. Following is a rundown of the rest of the Patriots’ boys and girls results in the IESA state meet:

6^th Grade Boys

Discus: 9. Marco Pettinato 114-6.

Shot put: 14. Marco Pettinato 36-10¾.

7^th Grade Boys

Shot put: 3. Brendan O’Hara 41-2.

1600: 9. Jake Galounis 5:05.18.

7^th Grade Girls

Long jump: 9. Dani Morgan 14-9½.

High jump: 9. Dani Morgan 4-8.

200: 18. Dani Morgan 27.97.

4x200 relay: 24. Liberty (Dani Morgan, Ife Bello, Caitlyn Schreiber, Brianna Darlage) 1:59.24 (school record).

8^th Grade Girls

1600: 20. Natalie Waters 5:52.23.

800: 29. Natalie Waters 2:40.02.

Hurdles: 30. Emma Hahs 17.84, 32. Kayla Seymour 18.02.

4x100 relay: 12. Liberty (Meghann Lange, Nina Bumstead, Stephanie McDonald, Deven Bax) 53.81 (school record).

4x200 relay: 34. Liberty (Jessi Karlic, Kayla Pohrte, Emma Hahs, Mackenzie Eckberg) 1:58.68.