Ashley Anderson and the 3200-meter relay team are representing Orion at the IHSA state track meet this week in Charleston.
The Gazette’s press time is Wednesday afternoon, May 19, and the Class 1A meet began on Thursday, May 20.
Anderson was to run in the 800 and Cara Christal, Sophie Maciolek, Megan Miller and Anderson in the 3200.
O’Brien Stadium, Eastern Illinois University, is hosting the finals on Saturday, May 22.
If the girls qualified for finals, the 3200 relay will be on the track about 11 a.m. and Anderson about 1:55 p.m.
Anderson qualified for state by winning the 800 in 2 minutes, 24.80 seconds, at the sectional meet on Friday, May 14, in Edgington.
The 3200 relay finished third at 10:22.08, faster than the qualifying time. Orion’s runners dualed with Canton’s all through the race, with the last Charger reaching the finish line only 16-hundredths of a second ahead of the last Lady Giant. Canton also qualified for state.
On Friday night, the only other Charger to medal was Brittany Scott. She was fourth in the 100 hurdles at 17.30.
Orion girls in sprints were Katie DeBaillie, 14.80, and Morgan Martin, 16.04, in the 100 preliminaries; Martin, 32.53 in the 200 prelims; and Kiah Kostka, 1:07.65 in the 400.
Miller ran the 1600 in 6:00.57.
In the 300 hurdles, DeBaillie clocked 52.45 seconds.
The 400 relay of Baillie Hancock, DeBaillie, Kostka and Scott recorded a time of 55.02 seconds.
Hancock, Sara Marshall, DeBaillie and Scott finished the 800 relay in 1:58.98.
During the 1600 relay, Christal, Maciolek, Kostka and Anderson pushed the baton through the four laps in 4:27.21.
Hancock reached 13-7 1/2 in the long jump.
In the triple jump prelims, Scott landed at 32-5 1/4 and Marshall at 29-4. Scott advanced to finals and recorded the same distance as in prelims.
Paige Diamond spun the discus 65-7.
Sherrard topped the 15-team field with 112 points.
Olympic Conference schools included Monmouth-Roseville, third, 63; Rockridge, seventh, 32; Orion, ninth, 20; and Farmington, 12th, 14.
Henry County schools at the meet were Ridgewood, 13th, 6, and Galva, 15th, 2.
Other schools were Riverdale, second, 89; Alleman, fourth, 59; Mercer County, fifth, 48; Elmwood, sixth, 43; Canton, eighth, 28; Alexis United, 10th, 18; Knoxville 11th, 16; Biggsville West Central, 13th (tied with Ridgewood), 6; and Fulton, 16th, 1.
