The Percy Julian Middle School Track and Field team are celebrating a great performance at this month’s Illinois Elementary School Association’s Track and Field State Finals — especially the 7th grade girls 4×200 relay team and shot putter Timmy Smith, who came in first during their events.
The event was held May 17-18 at Eastside Centre in East Peoria, Ill., where the middle school competed in the Class 4A.
Coach Mark Talarico, track and cross-country coach at Julian, said he was proud of all the individuals who competed and was excited to have first places among them.
Timmy Smith, seventh grader at Julian, came in first place during his shot-put event.
“When you do an individual event like that, it is just you,” Talarico said.
Timmy had qualified for the state finals with a best distance of 42 feet and 9.75 inches.
At State, he secured first place with a throw of 40 feet and 11.5 inches, winning by two and a half feet.
“I am very proud of him, he is a very independent athlete,” Talarico said. “I don’t have the most knowledge when it comes to shot put, I don’t have a background in the event. He knows what he is doing and I can really trust him to guide a lot of the athletes as well.”
Timmy has also been putting in the hard work, Talarico said.
“He deserves to win that state title.”
Timmy said he was proud of himself for doing “pretty well.”
“It was pretty cool,” Timmy said. “In the moment, it was really exciting to have my family and my sister cheer me on pretty loudly.”
Timmy, who plans to continue track and field next year, said he plans to keep that hard work up during the summer and improve for next season.
Four seventh grade girls also brought back a state championship, placing first in the 4×200 relay race.
Zoey Danley, Ava Pero, Nyah Kissoon and Maya Davis ran a one minute and 49.72- second race.
This was also a state record for the 7th grade 4A 4×200 relay, Talarico said.
This was also a “redemption” moment after the girls dropped the baton during last year’s event.
“It didn’t go the way that they wanted to and basically ever since then they have been very focused,” Talarico said. “This entire year they have been working very hard.”
The girls kept telling him they were going to do well this time around.
“Watching them executive and run the fastest that they have all year long on the big stage, I couldn’t be happier for them,” Talarico said.
Zoey said they had been working hard all year and were nervous before the race.
“I got us a good start, “Zoey said. “Ava hawked down one person, which got us into a lead and Maya and Nyah just opened that gap and finished it all for us. We won State.”
“Our team was already pretty confident since we had been doing well in the regular season, but when I saw Zoey take off, I knew we were going to get first place,” added Nyah, who ran the third left of the relay. “It felt so good to hand off to Maya and she took off.”
Maya, who was the last runner in the relay, said the girls on her team mean so much to her.
“I love my whole team,” she said. “They are all amazing, young women…they have definitely brought me to where I am today.”
