MTZ Girls Track and Field Finish 9th as a team at state
By BLAKE FAITH
Staff Writer
The Mt. Zion girls track and field team finished tied for ninth place as a team in the IHSA 2A State Track Championships. The Braves qualified in eight finals events and finished with six medals.
“My goal was for us to finish in the top 10,” Head coach Kelly Fox said ‘We were not ranked, but I knew that they (the team) could do it. Iam absolutely thrilled. This isn’t about sports, but this is about life’s circumstances too and how you have to roll with the punches sometimes. And sometimes everything comes together for you and other times it doesn’t. But we had some adversity yesterday and today and just things out of our control. But, um, how they’ve persevered and their attitudes, um, and the work they put in this year, I couldn’t be more proud of a group. I’m so happy.”
Two Braves qualifiers faced adversity. In the 300-meter hurdles Lydia Trump finished in ninth place with a time of 49.15 seconds after tripping on two hurdles in her last individual event. Trump bounced back, picking her head up and raced in the 4×400 meter relay where Hillary Owens, Brooklyn Kondritz, Angelina Henderson and Trump finished ninth with a time of four minutes and 23 seconds.
“That’s why I think that we as coaches, it’s not just about coaching the ins and the outs of running and track and field. It’s about how you approach life in general. And, by what they showed me today, they’re, they’re gonna be successful in life because they’ve already conquered those and showed everybody, the fans, their parents, their coaches, how they persevere through the adversities.”
Sofia Munoz medaled twice as an individual and broke two school records in her final state championship for the Braves. In the 800 meters, Munoz finished in fourth place with a time of two minutes and 15 seconds in her last race alongside best friend and fellow Brave Camille Mavis who finished 11th with a time of two minutes and 24 seconds.
“I feel so good, like all my hard work finally came together and I knew I could do this, but just everything had to come together,” Munoz said. “The weather conditions, the training, I’ve been luckily injury free and I’m so grateful for my teammates and even more grateful for my coach Fox. Me and Camille are best friends and I have literally been getting emotional thinking about our last race together, and I’m so proud of her too, and I hope that she can, you know, have an amazing year next year without me.”
Munoz finished her Braves’ career with an eight-place medal in the 1600 meters with a time of five minutes and 11 seconds.
“I feel definitely emotional,” Munoz said following her last race. Definitely, a lot of flashbacks. All my good memories. I am a little happy that I’m done running for today. I am so grateful that I was given the best conditions. Best teammates, best coaches, and Mt. Zion will always have a very, very special place in my heart and I hope that I can give back hope that I can come back and all of your support.”
Brooklyn Kondritz last year, got to the state championships, but didn’t medal as a freshman. In her sophomore season, Kondritz medaled in the Pole Vault with a jump of 3.62 meters that got her fourth place.
“I’m just really proud of how far I’ve come so far,” Kondritz said. •Last year wasn’t the result I wanted, but I was very happy with how it went today. I didn’t jump my all-time PR today unfortunately, but I’m really looking forward to just getting back into practice, working on some technical things, some technique, and coming back next year, hopefully becoming a champion.”
The 4×800 team of Brooke Doyle, Hannah Gebke, Camille Mavis and Avery Sommer finished in fourth place with a time of nine minutes and 41 seconds. Ella Fritzche didn’t medal, but came back down from fourth place in the 3200 meter section one and finished in first place of her section with a time of 11 minutes and 27 seconds for a new personal record.
“My dad, my coach, my mom, siblings and everyone, they always just tell me to dream big and all that cliche stuff, but just you know, keep it in your head and you know if you want it, work for it,” Fritzche said. “When I took the lead, I was glad that the race was done and that’s where I ended. I had already done seven and a half laps at that point.”
Munoz, Gebke, Henderson, Trump all graduate along with other teammates Alexia Finch and Kallianna Becker.
“I just think the depth and the leadership is what this senior class represents,” Coach Fox said. “I get to focus on more intricate parts of track because I know that their leadership by, you know, me just saying, Hey, this is our workout today because I have to, there are so many different groups with track and field, you can’t stay with the same group the entire time. And so my leaders, my seniors have just shown the rest of what the expectations are. If we wanna be successful, this is what you have to do. And they leave by example.”
