Coaches love to talk about senior leadership. Then along comes someone who throws that concept out the window.
At Shepard, that someone is Makynzee Harris, a precocious freshman. All she did in the South Suburban Red Conference Meet on May 8 at the Astros’ track was anchor their 4×100 relay team to victory in a season-best time of 50.72 seconds, beat sophomore teammate Salina Towers to the finish line in the 100 by a hundredth of a second, win the 400 in 1:03.27 and run leadoff for the Astros on their winning 4×400 relay squad.
That’s all. You get the feeling she would have done more but for the limitation to four events for an athlete.
“She does whatever you ask with a smile,” Astros track coach Scot Rybarczyk said.
And has great fun doing it.
“Coming here for my freshman year, and doing this with everyone else that I actually like, it’s amazing and fun,” Harris said. “We all went to indoor state together. It’s not about us winning, it’s about us cheering each other on and making each other better.”
Harris ran the 100 in 12.79 seconds to Towers’ 12.80 in a pulsating race.
“I felt that she was in front of me and I felt I should get in front of everyone,” Harris said. “I want to win. I pushed myself. I get tired, but I just keep going.”
“I knew we were pretty close,” Towers said. “I can’t see her, but I can feel her next to me.”
By the time of the 4×400, Shepard had long clinched the conference title, with Harris’ 40-point contribution a large chunk of the 197 they piled up. Evergreen Park was second with 114 points, and Oak Lawn took third with 100.75.
It’s not as if Shepard is devoid of upperclassmen with speed and skill. That list starts with senior Kyla Motley, a state-title threat whose season-best 20 foot, 0.25 inch long jump won the meet easily and moved her into first in the Illinois rankings.
Motley, Northern Illinois-bound, also won the 100-meter hurdles, took third in the 200 and third in the triple jump. That added up to 32 points for the Astros.
“I usually talk to myself, ‘You got this, you can do good,’ ” Motley said. “After that, I just go on the runway. I talk to myself a lot.”
Shepard’s outstanding performances augur well for a solid showing in this week’s 3A sectional at Oak Park-River Forest, where the Astros will see conference foes Argo, Eisenhower and Richards again, as well as perennial threats Lyons and Hinsdale Central.
Evergreen Park was led by winners Brianna Uwajeh (200), Nia Shakir (300 hurdles) and Jordin Pittman (shot put), along with the 4×200 relay squad, which Uwajeh anchored to a team-best time of 1:45.21.
Molly Cameron scored Oak Lawn’s only varsity win, a 5-foot clear in the high jump. The senior also took second in the triple jump, at a career best 37 feet, and fifth in the long jump, and ran a leg of the 4×800 in which the Spartans finished fifth.
“I’ve really got to focus on what I’m doing before I jump,” Cameron said, noting she goes for height in the long jump and distance in the triple, doing so by a subtle change in how she propels herself at the start of the jump.
Reavis’ lone varsity win came in discus, via Alexa Pena Flores’ 112-1 throw.