Fanella sweats it out, advances

Huntley senior Amy Fanella competes in the 4x400-meter relay during Class 3A preliminaries Friday at the IHSA Girls Track and Field State Meet in Charleston. The relay team did not advance to today’s finals, but Fanella qualified to compete in the triple jump. (Clark Brooks – For the Northwest Herald)

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CHARLESTON – Huntley senior Amy Fanella had resigned herself to the fate that, for a second consecutive year, she might not be competing on the final day of the track and field season.

Fanella, one of the area’s top performers the past two years, had missed the finals in the IHSA Class 3A 300-meter low hurdles by one spot, just as she did a year ago. She feared her triple jump of 36 feet, 4 inches also would come up short.

“My teammates and I were planning on going swimming at our hotel,” Fanella said.

About that time, Fanella started making other plans. Her father, Mike, called her from the north side of Eastern Illinois University’s O’Brien Stadium with the news – Fanella had made the triple jump finals in today’s IHSA Girls Track and Field State Meet.

Crystal Lake South’s Marianne Collard, one of several returning medalists, turned in an eye-popping time in the 1,600-meter run with a 4:59.65, taking third in her heat behind Chicago Whitney Young’s Lavinia Jurkiewicz (4:58.78) and Benet Academy’s McKinzie Schulz (4:59.42). Jurkiewicz won the Class 3A state cross country title last fall.

Other area girls advancing in Class 3A were McHenry’s Ashley Conway (high jump and long jump) and Cary-Grove’s Carly Loeffel (high jump).

Fanella dealt with the disappointment last season when she was a spectator for the finals. She was talking to her coaches at Indiana State, which she will compete for next season, when Mike gave her the good news.

“I went up each time [in triple jump],” Fanella said. “State’s different though. You’re used to getting three jumps in prelims, then three more in finals [that day].”

Collard took eighth in the 1,600 last year and will be fresh for today’s race after South’s 4x800 team narrowly missed the finals.

“I definitely knew we were going fast when I looked up in the last lap [at the scoreboard] and saw 4:18,” said Collard, a junior. “I was so happy, 5 minutes has been my goal. I wanted to run under what our passing period [between classes] is. I don’t know why. I just thought it’d be neat to say, ‘I could have just run a mile.’ ”

Collard’s time ranks 38th on the state career list, according to ihsa.org. The only other area girl to break the five-minute mark was former Crystal Lake Central runner Haley Staples, who ran 4:56.96 in 2006 to win the Class AA title.

Conway is in position to medal in the same events she did last year. Conway’s long jump of 17-81⁄2 has her in fifth place heading into the finals. She and Loeffel both cleared 5-3 in the high jump, which will start over today.

“I’m pretty good with that [long jump],” Conway said. “That’s a solid jump.”

Conway had a busy hour as she started with the high jump, then the 4x100 relay, then back to the high jump before finishing with the long jump. Conway said she benefitted from running the relay’s anchor leg.

“I usually do better in long jump after I do a full 100 sprint, so that [relay] helped me a lot,” Conway said. She hit her finals-qualifying jump on her first attempt.

Loeffel struggled with the high jump last year after developing a stress fracture in her left fibula, her takeoff leg. She has enjoyed a healthier season and said she was forward to today’s finals.

“It felt really good and I was really relaxed,” she said. “Sectionals were way more nerve-wracking. Everything felt perfect today.”