The Waterloo Junior High School girls track team won the Southern Illinois Junior High School Athletic Association Class L state meet Saturday in Carterville. 

According to coach Neal West, the team championship came down to the very last event.

“We needed all 12 of our events,” he said. “One event can’t be more important; it just so happened that the 4×400 relay had to do what it’s been training to do.”

Waterloo’s 4×400 relay squad of Hazel Rau, Reese Davis-Grandcolas, Addisyn Crain and Kaidyn Moore placed first in that final event with a time of 4:21.22, setting a school record in the process. 

That gave the WJHS girls a 77-72 edge in points at state over second place Belle Valley. 

The girls team had other individual champions on the day. 

Lydia Huffman won the 1,600 meter run with a time of 5:27.36. Huffman also placed fourth in the 800 meter run at state with a time of 2:32.74. 

Candace Zlatic won the seventh grade 100 meter dash with a time of 13.28 seconds. Zlatic had an amazing day at state, also placing second in the 200 meter run with a time of 26.76 seconds, placing eighth in the long jump at 14 feet, 2.5 inches, and also being part of a 4×100 meter relay squad that placed fourth with a time of 53.41 seconds. Other members of that relay squad were Nichole Gum, Erin Lunk and Jordyn Keller.

Karigan Littlejohn placed second in the pole vault with a throw of eight feet, six inches.

In addition to her 4×400 success, Moore placed fourth in the 400 meter run with a time of 1:01.30, setting a new school record.      

Lizzie Davis placed fourth in the discus with a lifetime best throw of 85 feet, 11 inches.

Charlie Funk placed fifth in the 800 meter run with a time of 2:37.76, and also placed seventh in the 1,600 meter run with a time of 5:53.26

The seventh grade 4×200 meter relay squad of McKenna Sternau, Mya Jenkins, Addisyn Crain and Evelyn Deutch placed fifth at state with a time of 1:58.85.

While the WJHS boys tracksters didn’t see the same team success as the girls, there were some highlights of note. 

Luke Smith won an SIJHSAA Class L state title in the 800 meter run with a time of 2:02. That was good for both a school and state record.

Also for the WJHS boys, Liam Gilbert placed fourth in the 1,600 meter run with a school record time of 4:46.

The seventh grade 4×200 meter relay team of Sam Beck, John Huntley, Titan Tomanovich and Noah Whitaker placed sixth at the state meet.