PLAINFIELD -- Cessily Jones and Jahnell Horton are only freshmen but they performed liked seasoned veterans at Saturday's Class 3A Plainfield Central Sectional.
Plainfield North's Jones and Bolingbrook's Horton both walked away with sectional championships against a rugged field in the meet pushed back from Friday due to bad weather.
On a day where eight seniors and three juniors won individual titles, Jones took top honors in the 100 and 200 while Horton claimed first place in the 800.
And to add to their big sectional debuts, Horton anchored a winning 1600 relay while Jones competed on two relays that qualified for next weekend's state meet in Charleston.
Lockport senior Brie Poe won the shot put and Minooka senior Rachael Williams took top honors in the 3200 to round out individual Joliet-area champions.
Waubonsie Valley, sparked by new stadium records in the 100 hurdles and 300 hurdles from Shakeia Pinnick, won the team title 93-88 over West Aurora.
Bolingbrook beat out Naperville North 67-60 for third and Lockport edged Neuqua Valley 50-47 for fifth. Plainfield North (7th, 37 points), Minooka (9th, 27), Plainfield South (10th, 18), Joliet Township (11th, 14), Plainfield Central (13th, 6) and Romeoville (14th, 5) also took part.
Jones began her big day in the finals by helping the Tigers to a fourth in the 400 relay (49.9). She followed that up with a win in the 100 (:12.0). After running the anchor leg of a fifth-place 800 relay (1:44.7) she closed out her impressive effort with a title in the 200 (:25.5).
Joining Jones in both of the Tigers' state qualifying relays were Ashley Carter, Cara Hahne and Jesi Hawks.
"I'm very happy since I reached all of my goals today," Jones said. "I couldn't have asked for anything more. But I have to keep practicing hard because even though today was a good day, you never know what's going to happen at state. I had a lot of good competition so I'm just happy that I got the times that I wanted."
Other state qualifiers for Plainfield North were Natalie Moss, second in the high jump (5-3), and Lauren Stevens, who took fifth in the 800 (2:18.7).
Horton made her presence felt with her win in the 800 (2:16.5) and then closed the meet by running the first leg of the 1600 relay (4:03.5). Joining her were Chantel Stennis, Rheyanna Branch and Nicosia Henry.
"I was very excited and honored to be here," Horton said. "I've worked really hard so I can try to my best for every race. This should me in a good place for the prelims at state and hopefully I can make the finals."
Bolingbrook's Mercedes Griffin qualified in the 100 (12.0) after getting nipped by Jones. Also advancing were the 400 (49.5) and 800 (1:44.5) relays.
Samantha Horton, Kimberly Azie and Griffin ran on both relays while Rosemary Onyegbule was on the third-place 400 relay and Stennis ran with the fourth-place 800 relay.
Poe took top honors in the shot put (38-10) by over a foot to account for the Porters' only sectional title on the day.
"At conference I realized that this was my last chance to make it to state," Poe said. "Last year I fell short a little so this is my senior year and I need to make it to state. My coach has kept pushing me all year."
Also qualifying for Lockport were Stephanie Houts, who finished second in the 800 (2:17.6) and Mel Sluzewicz, who finished third in the high jump (5-3).
Williams won the title in the 3200 (11:18.9) by nearly 13 seconds to give the Indians their lone sectional championship.
"I went down to state my sophomore year but last year I got in a boating accident and missed making it there," Williams said. "I knew that this was going to be a fast race since all of the Naperville schools were here and that just pushed me more."
Minooka also qualified its 3200 relay (9:44.0) of Kiley Saunders, Rachel Morman, Alex Szymanski and Maggie Raynor, which took second place.
Advancing for Plainfield South were Lisa Sharp, who took second in the pole vault (9-6), and Kayla Worley, who placed fourth in the 100 hurdles (15.2).
Joliet's lone qualifier was Mary Daly, who took second in the 400 (1:00.0). Plainfield Central's only qualifier was Paige Morgano, who was third in the high jump (5-3).
Romeoville advanced its 400 relay (49.9) of Jessica Harrison, LonRae Buckley, Porsha Lewis and Latasha Fizer with a fifth.
Finishing in third place and failing to qualify in their events were Lockport's Stephanie Sanders in the 1600 (5:27.3), Megan O'Brien in the 3200 (11:33.5) and Sluzewicz in the long jump (17-1.5).
Also taking third but not qualifying were Joliet's Tamia Thigpen in the 300 hurdles (:48.2), Plainfield South's Savannah Emmerich in the pole vault (9-6) and Bolingbrook's Henry in the 400 (1:00.6) and its 3200 relay (9:46.9).
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