Plainfield South Girls Seventh at Glenbard East Track Invite

It is widely considered to be among the toughest doubles in track and field. But Plainfield South senior Erin Fitzgerald was up to the task Saturday afternoon in Lombard.

Fitzgerald, confronted with capricious winds, placed in both the 800- and 400-meter runs to help the Cougars to a seventh-place finish of the 14-team Glenbard East Ram Invitational.

There is only one event -- the 800 relay -- between the two mentally and physically exacting races.

“She is a special type of athlete,” South coach Greg Banner said of Fitzgerald. “She is a a special enough athlete where she can come back.”

Fitzgerald was fourth in the stacked field at 800 meters, which Glenbard East junior indoor state champion Lindsay Rakosnik captured.

In the shorter sprint, Fitzgerald was third and later catapulted the Cougars’ meet-closing 1,600 relay to the last of its 42 points with a fifth-place finish.

“(The 800-400 double) is pretty hard but it’s also pretty fun,” Fitzgerald said. “I went into (the 800) and I knew I had a lot of good competitors. I was hoping to do a little better. There’s still room for improvement.”

The top point-earner for South was Moe Lincoln.

The senior was runner-up in the 300 hurdles after placing third at the shorter variety hurdles at 100 meters. Lincoln capped her day with a third-place result in the high jump at 5 feet, 2 inches.

“I’m pretty proud of my 100-meter hurdles performance,” Lincoln said. “I put myself in a good position (to qualify for the state meet). The wind was a big factor in the high jump. I tried to adjust between each jump.”

Savannah Emmrich summed up her showdown with Benet junior Anna Tessiatore in the pole vault.

“We both cleared 10-6, but we both missed all of our attempts at 11 (feet),” Emmrich said. “Since neither one of us had a miss before 11, we had a jump-off.”

The Cougars’ senior cleared the opening height of 10-6 and was awarded first place when Terssiatore failed to match her feat.

Once again, the wind was the primary influence on the event.

“Normally, you never had to deal with a tailwind,” Emmrich said. “To have it at your back is an adjustment.”

Banner was pleased with his athletes’ overall performance.

“I’m really happy with the way we did,” Banner said. “It’s a great job by the girls today. I’m real happy with it.”

Plainfield East was also in the field.

Brieanna Thompson accounted the Bengals’ entire output with her runner-up performance in the 100 hurdles.

“I was just to stay focused,” Thompson said. “I was very pleased with (my start).”
Hannah Gutierrez won her heat of the 1,600 run and had a personal-best split in the Bengals’ 3,200 relay, which nearly placed.

“This was second time doing (a 800-meter race this) season,” Gutierrez said. “I just wanted to do better than I did the first time.”

East coach Lisa Simon sees hope on the horizon.

“We just tell the girls to take it meet-to-meet,” Simon said. “I saw a lot of good things from the girls today.”