When Shamier Little is winning race after race by wide margins, it’s hard to spot any flaws in her performances.
But they’re there and Little will keep working to eliminate them.
The Lindblom senior’s last Public League meet was a good one by anyone’s standards: wins in the 100-meter hurdles (14.15 seconds), 300 hurdles (43.70) and 200 dash (24.26).
She broke the 300 hurdles meet record for the second time in a week, having run 43.87 in the preliminaries. The 100 hurdles time was a tenth of a second off her own meet record set last year.
But Little judges herself against herself. This 300 was good, she figured, compared to her winning effort in the 400 hurdles at last weekend’s Penn Relays.
“I stutter-stepped [too often there],” she said. “Today I did much better with my form. I stutter-stepped one time.”
Little is focusing on both the IHSA state series, which begins with sectional competition later this week and also on her college career at Texas A&M.
“Once I get my 300s together, my 400s [are] going to be better,” she said.
As for the 200? “It’s hard to tell,” she said. “I know my form was bad. It’s not how my coach wants it to be. Hopefully I get it together by the end of the year.”
Young’s Shianne Baggett had an even busier and more successful day than Little, winning the open 800 (2:17.93) and running on three winning relays: 800 medley (1:50.25), 1,600 (4:06.51) and 3,200
(10:09.73).
“In two weeks, my goal is 2:11 [in the 800],” Baggett said. “I can pull it off.”
Young’s relays have been a strength all year and Baggett likes how those races went on Saturday. “I’m really happy that my team handed me the baton in the lead because I was really nervous for the 800,” she said. “On the sprint medley, the [3,200], they had it in first place.
I knew I didn’t have to struggle or strain to get the win.”
Payton’s Cameron Pettigrew won the 400 (56.88) and high jump (5 feet, 3.5 inches), but may have gotten more satisfaction out of finishing third in the 200 (25.09) behind Little and Johnson’s Ryan Preacely (24.79).
“My parents tell me you have to visualize someone in front of you,” Pettigrew said. “[But] it’s always nice to have someone to run down.
For me personally, I run better when I am focused on chasing someone else.”
Preacely won the 100 (11.92) after anchoring the winning 400 relay team (49.87). “I was nervous the whole time,” she said. “I was like, ‘Calm down, calm down.’ ’’
Lane earned the team title 138-127 over Young, with Joanna Podosek winning the 1,600 (5:30.15) and taking fourth in the 3,200 (12:31.71). Morgan Park (78), Brooks (47) and Johnson (36) rounded out the top five teams.
