| By Cody Cutter, NISB Publisher [email protected] Today is Friday, May 22, 2009. There are 22 days remaining in the high school sports year. Only 56 days until the start of the 2009-10 prep sports season, and 75 days until high school football starts. IHSA Girls Track and Field State: Day 1 The 36th running of the Illinois High School Association Girls Track and Field State Meet took place Thursday. This year marks the first time the event is conducted using the three-class system. In order to accommodate the expansion, an extra day was added to the Meet schedule. Class 1A preliminaries took place Thursday. Over 50 Class A athletes from the NISB area attempted to qualify for the following day. Byron's Paige Knodle and Rockford Christian's Molly Ellis advanced in three events. Knodle advanced in the 100 Hurdles, 300 Hurdles, and the Pole Vault, where she is tied with several athletes with a 9' 6� mark. Ellis advanced in the 100 Dash, 200 Dash and 400 Dash. Hall's Kendall Rush and Princeton's Sarah Maynard advanced in two events. Rush advanced in the Long Jump and the Triple Jump, where she leads with a 39' 3.25� leap (tops in the NISB Honor Roll). Maynard also advanced in both categories. Kewanee's Macie Huff, Princeton's Alyssa Donner and Seneca's Alyssa Applebee also have top marks in the Pole Vault at 9' 6�. Plano's Olivia Moody and St. Bede's Kayla MacDavitt have top marks in the High Jump at 5' 3�. Field event advancers were: Lena-Winslow's Chelsea Rimington (shot put, 40' 4.5�), Bureau Valley's Melanie Thompson (shot put, 39' 1.75�), Amboy's Alyssa Hopps (shot put, 38' 3�), Stockton's Jackie Cahill (triple jump, 34' 8.75�), Seneca's Candice Carajohn (triple jump, 36' 0�), Polo's Kristi Naylon (discus, 122' 5�), Galena's Ashley Rojemann (discus, 133' 7�), and IVC's Christina Frank (discus 126' 2�). Track advancers were: Riverdale's Alexa Allen (100 hurdles, 0:15.66), Rockford Christian's Courtney McKibben (100 hurdles, 0:15.76), Oregon's Lynea Axelson (800 run, 2:18.98), Lena-Winslow's Emily Anderson (800 run, 2:20.62), Newman's Amanda Trancoso (800 run, 2:21.84), and Winnebago's Hayley Thomas (1600 run, 5:16.61). Three relay teams advanced for Riverdale: their 400, 800 and 1600 teams. Annawan/Wethersfield, Lena-Winslow and Winnebago had their 3200 team advance, and Rock Falls had their 800 team advance. Annawan/Wethersfield's time of 9:41.45 is tops on the NISB Honor Roll. The event continues Friday with Class 2A and 3A preliminaries. Finals for all Classes will take place on Saturday. More New Conference Board Action The area's newest, and yet-unnamed, athletic conference was recognized by six more school boards this week. The conference will form in 2010. School boards of DeKalb, Kaneland and Rochelle of the Western Sun Conference voted to go forward as members of the new conference. Boards of LaSalle-Peru, Ottawa and Streator of the NCIC Reagan Division also voted to join. Yorkville of the Western Sun Conference was the first school to vote to join two weeks ago. Five schools � Dixon, Geneseo, Morris, Sterling and Sycamore � will vote either this month or next. Batavia and Geneva, two of the three other Western Sun schools, could land in the Upstate 8 Conference. The Western Sun Conference was formed in 2006 as a result of the breakup of the Suburban Prairie mega-conference. Six of the eight current Western Sun schools came from the Suburban Prairie. DeKalb came from the Upstate 8, while Rochelle came from the NCIC. Four years is not the shortest existence of an athletic conference in Illinois. According to Illinois High School Glory Days' Great Conferences list, the Heartland Conference, whom IVC was a member of, lasted from 1978 to 1982. The Northwest 7 was in existence in 1972 and 1973. Schools in that conference were Ashton, Franklin Center, Hanover, Leaf River, Milledgeville, Mount Carroll and Rockford Lutheran. Formed as a merger of the Blackhawk and Route 72 conferences, these schools formed the first version of the Upstate Illini (1972-1977). Streator Alum Wins in MLB Debut Streator native Clay Zavada made his major league debut for the Arizona Diamondbacks on Thursday night against the Florida Marlins. Zavada entered the game in the seventh inning, replacing starter Max Scherzer. With his team down 3-2, Zavada got Florida pitcher Andrew Miller to pop out to begin the inning. He followed that with strikeouts of leadoff hitter Emilio Bonifacio, and Jeremy Hermida. Arizona went ahead 4-3 the next inning after a home run by Mark Reynolds. Tony Pena and Chad Qualls pitched scoreless innings the rest of the way, giving Zavada the win. Zavada was called up from double-A Mobile, filling in a void by Scott Schoenweis, who was placed on MLB's bereavement list. The Diamondbacks' 2006 30th round draft choice was Minor League Baseball's Class A Relief Pitcher of the Year for South Bend last season. ESPN's late-night version of Sportscenter featured Zavada as the storyline of their recap of their game. Zavada, who sports a mustache, was compared in a side-by-side photo with Hall of Fame reliever Rollie Fingers. Zavada is one of three Illinois Valley pitchers playing Major League Baseball. Spring Valley natives J.A. Happ and Chad Durbin are pitchers for the Philadelphia Phillies. Bass Fishing Future Looks Bright There were 160 fishers at the inaugural IHSA Bass Fishing Tournament earlier this month. Out of all the participants, 56 fishers were underclassmen. That's roughly one-third of total participants. Moline's team of Devon Gamboe, Zach Latting and Austin Paytash is entirely underclassmen. The Maroons placed sixth in the tournament, one spot ahead of Newman's team of Ryan Gilbert and Jared Kelly. Get Your Info on Friday 5 The Friday 5 is becoming one of the top news and information pieces on Northern Illinois Sports Beat. As the high school sports season winds down, information for publication in the Friday 5 becomes somewhat scarce during the summer months. We'd like to keep it running for as long as possible. Stories normally covered in full during the prep sports season will be a part of the Friday 5 during the summer months. Go ahead and browse past editions of the Friday 5 to get a glimpse as to what is written. If you have any information that would like to be a part of the Friday 5, please contact me at the e-mail address below. The Friday 5 is published with a 3:00 a.m. Friday deadline during the sports season, and 12:00 p.m. Friday otherwise. Cody Cutter is the Publisher of Northern Illinois Sports Beat, and writes columns about Illinois high school sports. He can be reached at [email protected]. |
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| Friday 5: 05/22/09 |
| IHSA Girls Track and Field State: Day 1 � More New Conference Board Action � Streator Alum Wins in MLB Debut � Bass Fishing Future Looks Bright � Get Your Info on Friday 5 |
| Northern Illinois Sports Beat - May 22, 2009 |
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