SJO girls’ track and field aiming for another banner year

Hoisting a state championship trophy is how the St. Joseph girls’ track and field team ended its season last May.

Fourth-year coach Kelly Steffen would certainly like the scenario to repeat itself this spring. And if it does, she’ll know where to direct the praise as the Spartans chase the third state championship in program history this spring.

“All the credit would be given to the girls,” said Steffen, who has guided SJO to a state runner-up finish in 2016, a state third-place effort in 2017 and a state championship in 2018. “They understand that hard work pays off. Watching them never settle year after year is what has allowed them to bring home the hardware the past few years.”

The indoor season is complete for the Spartans, who are slated to begin the outdoor season at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday with a home meet against Danville, Monticello, Rantoul and Urbana. This begins a month-long schedule full of competitive invitationals and meets designed to help the Spartans peak in the postseason come mid-May.

SJO is slated to compete at the Unity Invitational (April 12), the Falcon Invitational in Gibson City (April 18), the Monticello Invitational (April 26) and the Urbana Invitational (April 26) before the Illini Prairie Conference Meet on April 30 at Bloomington Central Catholic. SJO will host its annual Spartan Classic on May 3 to cap the regular season, with SJO also set to host a Class 1A sectional meet on May 10. This all leads up to the 1A state meet at O’Brien Field on the campus of Eastern Illinois University in Charleston arriving on May 16 with 1A prelims before the 1A finals take place on May 18.

“Exposure to good competition is important to keep the girls focused on this season,” Steffen said. “We are lucky to have so many talented programs around us. Therefore, we get to see competition in every meet we compete at. Taking the season step-by-step and trusting our training will hopefully keep our eyes looking forward to May understanding that it is a new year with new expectations.”

SJO brings back 11 athletes who competed last season at the varsity level, including 2018 returning state qualifiers in seniors Rylee Sjuts and Maclayne Taylor, juniors Hailey Birt and Hannah Rajlich and sophomore Atleigh Hamilton.

Taylor, Birt and Hamilton each ran a leg on the 800-meter relay that won a state championship, while the trio also helped the 400 relay place second at state. Taylor, Sjuts and Hamilton also ran on the 1,600 relay that finished second in state, while Sjuts and Rajlich were both on the 3,200 relay that placed third in state. Hamilton also gives SJO some versatile scoring options considering she won a state championship last season in the long jump as a freshman.

Rajlich (1,600), Sjuts (300 hurdles) and Taylor (100) also qualified for individual state events last season and will look to contribute again to any postseason success by SJO.

Steffen can also count on seniors Cassidy Bagby and Brianna Suits, along with juniors Ally Monk and Jillian Plotner in distance races, while junior Danie Kelso can help out in the sprints for the Spartans and sophomore Payton Vallee is a promising talent in the throwing events for SJO.

“Although our team is known for its relays, we would like to see a few of these girls step into a few more individual events this year in addition to relays,” Steffen said. “We should again have solid relays (and) we have numbers on our side this year. Over half of our team are first-year competitors, so we are very young. Gaining competition experience will be a huge focus this year for our future. We have great senior leadership, which not only helps for our current season, but helps set the tone for seasons to come.”

But for now, the focus is on making sure the 2019 season is one to remember for the Spartans. All the pieces are there for that to happen, which is why it’s no surprise Steffen and her program aren’t shying away from some pretty lofty goals.

“We want to have athletes step into individual events to hopefully score points beyond relays at the state meet,” Steffen said. “We want to work on technique with the newcomers in order to develop events for years to come. And we want to embrace the goal every team should have: bring home a state trophy.”