By Doug Goodman
ROCKTON — A NIC-10 veteran standout and an impressive newcomer cruised to victories Saturday in the first major girls track meet of the indoor season.
Belvidere North junior Baily Murphy easily won the pole vault at the 27-team Hononegah Girls Indoor Classic, while Hononegah freshman Courtney Clayton topped a talented field in the 400-meter dash.
Murphy, who finished second in the pole vault at the Class 2A state outdoor meet last year, cleared 10 feet, 9 inches Saturday for first and a meet record. Her teammate Ashley Graff was second at 8-9.
“For the first meet that was good,” said Murphy, who started at 9-9 after everyone else was already out.
She hopes to challenge the Hononegah dome record (11-6) at the NIC-10 meet there March 18.
Murphy also placed second in the 200 low hurdles (31.78 seconds).
“That was good for me because I’ve never run that race before,” said Murphy, who qualified for outdoor state in the 300 hurdles in 2009.
Clayton grabbed the 400 victory in a meet record 1 minute, 1.21 seconds, which was a full second ahead of runner-up Natalie Chavez of Niles West. Only Hononegah’s Sophia Ponce (59.1 in 2004) has been faster than Clayton in the Indians’ dome.
“I was really nervous,” Clayton said. “It was a lot fastest than I thought I would go especially since it was indoors.”
Clayton also ran a leg of Hononegah’s sixth-place 1,600 relay with Kelsey Laska, Mandy Coleman and Courtney Reese (4:32.51). In addition Clayton was fifth in the 55 (7.74).
“We just wanted to get here a lot of experience so she’ll be ready to go when we get to conference, sectional and state,” said Hononegah coach Danny Savage.
“She going to complement the girls on our team very well and push the envelope with everybody to make them better.”
She finished fourth in the 400 and seventh in the 100 at the eighth-grade state meet last year.
Belvidere North junior Cetrena Simmons tied for second in the high jump (5-0) Saturday.
Downers Grove North captured the team title with 114.5 points, followed by Aurora West (103), Homewood-Flossmor (78) and Niles West (57). Belvidere North was top local finisher at seventh (33.3).
Niles West junior Kellion Gordon was the track MVP, winning the 200 (meet record 26.21) and the 55 (meet record 7.32). Aurora West senior Shanice Andrews was the field MVP as she won the triple jump (meet record 35-10) and was second in the long jump (16-2).
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