CL Central’s Cordes gets lucky break

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CHARLESTON – Fate smiled on Crystal Lake Central’s Taylor Cordes in the Class 2A 300-meter low hurdles.

Fate tried to frown on Richmond-Burton’s Lindsey Wilkins in the 1,600 meters, but she spat in its face.

Both girls will be competing in two events at the finals of the IHSA Girls Track and Field State Meet today at Eastern Illinois University’s O’Brien Stadium. Cordes also will run on the Tigers’ 4x800 relay, Wilkins also will run in the 800.

The other local qualifiers in Class 2A were Hampshire’s 4x800 relay team of Tiffany Phu, Cassie Kruse, Autumn Chomenko and Liz Sicheri, and Marian Central’s Amy Miskowicz in the shot put.

Cordes was in fifth place in the 300 hurdles, closing in on the third- and fourth-place runners when something shocking happened. The race’s leaders – Rock Island’s Ciara Turner and Antioch’s Erin Schoenfelder – both fell on the last hurdle.

“I didn’t quite know how to respond. I just kept going,” Cordes said. “I felt really bad. I ran against the Antioch girl at sectionals, and I didn’t know what to tell her.”

Turner somehow fell across the finish line and still qualified, but Schoenfelder missed. Cordes felt so badly for Schoenfelder that, while walking through the bullpen, she quieted her teammates’ cheer.

“I didn’t want [Schoenfelder] to hear it,” said Cordes, who also ran the 100 high hurdles and the 4x200 relay.

Wilkins won her heat of the 800 and was cruising along in fine shape in the 1,600, but another runner clipped her right heel with two laps remaining. She finished the last two laps with her heel on top of the heel of her shoe.

As she crossed the finish line, she kicked off the loose shoe with disgust, although her 5:23.88 still made the finals.

Wilkins wore a big blister on the ball of her foot, which causes some concern for today’s races.

“It’s the last two races of high school; I’m going all out,” Wilkins said. “If I have to crawl across the finish line, I’ll do it. It stunk because I was saving myself a little bit for this race. I didn’t know if I should kick my shoe off or just run with it like I did. I was just trying to hold on.”

Central’s 4x800 team of Stephanie Peisker, Cordes, Molly Flood and Taylor Miller had one of the best seed times from sectionals and ran 9:51.32, and Hampshire was 13th. The Whip-Purs knocked 13 seconds off their sectional time with a 9:52.29.

“It was amazing,” Hampshire coach Patti Nihells said. “I asked them to run 2:27s, and they almost did it.”

The team is comprised of a junior (Phu), a sophomore (Chomenko) and two freshmen (Kruse and Sicheri).

“I was really proud of everyone,” Phu said. “It was an amazing feeling. We told ourselves we wanted a sub-10:00, but I didn’t think we’d drop that much.”

Miskowicz threw 36-103⁄4 in the shot put and sits in fifth place heading into the finals.

“It was good,” Miskowicz said. “I went [to state] last year, so I knew what to expect. I was more relaxed.”