By Mike Clark
Jordan Hamb went out in style at her final Public League indoor track and field meet — and she didn’t even compete in her best event.
The South Shore senior is the two-time defending IHSA Class 2A champ in the 100-meter hurdles. She skipped the indoor equivalent — the 60 hurdles — at the Public League meet at Dr. Conrad Worrill Track & Field Center on March 21.
But she won the triple jump with a meet-record leap and also took first in the 200 and long jump. Hamb just missed a fourth win, taking second in the 60 by a tenth of a second.
“I felt good,” Hamb said. “I mean, I PR’d in the 60 (7.56 seconds), I got first in three events, got second in one. Shoutout to Samaya (Butler-Batista), her PR at 7.46 is amazing. … That’s my home girl and I love her so much.”
Hamb, who was a 2A state champ in the triple jump two years ago, set a meet record of 40 feet, 2.25 inches in that event. She also won the 200 in 25.25 and the long jump in 18-3, just shy of another meet record.
Hamb will be back in the hurdles for the outdoor season, when she’ll be looking to add to her career totals of seven state medals and three championships.
Four years in the spotlight has gone by quickly, the Wisconsin recruit said.
“I’m closing a chapter that I started for myself, that I built for myself,” she said. “It’s just fun, exciting and I have so many other things to come. It’s not gonna be the end of me. Y’all gonna see me in the Big Ten. …
“I just gotta come 10 times harder this outdoor season.”
There also was a three-time champ on the boys side: Kenwood senior Nicholas Segura.
He set a meet record of 6.95 in the 60, won the 200 with a PR of 22.20 and teamed with Tristan Harris, Terry Atkins and Jordan Rabb to win the 4×200 relay at 1:30.39.
Segura follows in the footsteps of an elite group of Kenwood sprinters who graduated last year, including Armond Boulware and Parrish Hartley Jr.
“I’ve known them since my freshman year,” Segura said. “So I always try to get as many tips (as I can) off of them. I’d say the biggest thing I got from them is my work ethic and knowing how to prepare and put my body in the right place in order to compete how I am.”
Segura, a defensive back on the Broncos football team, is committed to St. Xavier for that sport. Before his competitive track career ends, though, he has high hopes for himself and the Broncos outdoors. They finished fourth in Class 3A last spring.
“We know the work we put in day in, day out.” Segura said. “So as long as we continue to do that, we absolutely can compete at state and continue to keep the tradition at Kenwood (going).”
Five more meet records fell, three on the girls’ side and two on the boys’.
Payton junior Kate Murray broke her own record in the 800, running a PR of 2:14.97.
“My coaches, my parents texted me, ‘You got this,'” she said. “I put a lot of pressure on myself but I knew I could do it if I just put my mond to it.”
Outdoors, Murray could run anything from the 200 to the 1,600, along with the 300 hurdles.
“I think my distance training takes me through everything because the 800 is exactly half sprinting, half endurance,” she said.
Lane junior Ainsley Carter ran her first 3,200 of the indoor season and smashed the meet record by more than 31 seconds, running 10:51.80. That also is a Champions indoor record.
“I was super excited coming into it,” she said. “I was just trying to have fun. … It was really nice to hear my team supporting me and it was super fun to warm up with (teammate Guadalupe Lopez, who was third). We’re just trying to enjoy ourselves and compete.”
Carter also expects to be part of the 4×800 relay outdoors. Without her, Lane’s quartet of Sydney Van Aken, Kate Siffring, Hailey Skowlund and Josephine Zupko still ran a meet-record 9:43.76.
The two boys distance races also had meet-record performances. Payton senior Declan Slavin ran 4:20.11 in the 1,600 and Young junior Amilo Rajandram went 9:10.08 in the 3,200 to break the record by more than 32 seconds.
“I know there are two other really good competitors out there in (Samuel Assefa of Lane) and Quinn (Anderson of Lane),” Ajandram said. “They’re really fun to race against. … I’ve been training on my 800 speed and from cross country I have the three-mile speed.”
Kenwood won the boys title 105-96 over Lane, followed by Young (73.5), Simeon (34.83), Lincoln Park (34) and Payton (34).
Lane got past Young 106-101 to win the girls title. Next came Kenwood (86), South Shore (49) and Jones (21).
Also taking firsts on the boys’ side were Brooks’ Joshua Lendor in the 400 (51.23); Payton’s Tra’Monti Williams in the 800 (1:57.23); Kenwood’s Rabb in the 60 hurdles (8.37); Kenwood’s 4×400 team of Neil Courtney, Harris, Jacori Frazier and Adrian Smith (3:28.58); Kenwood’s Dallas Dixon, Jude Lumpkin, Eliot Swanson and Frazier in the 4×800 relay (8:11.74); Mather’s Christian Perez in the shot put (50-2.75); King’s Eric Watson in the high jump (5-11.5); Morgan Park’s Jamarrius Andrus in the long jump (21-9); and Fenger’s Omari Lee in the triple jump (43-2.25).
Other winners on the girls’ side were Young’s Kayla Riepe in the 400 (57.65); Lane’s Isabella Chapin in the 1,600 (5:13.63); Kenwood’s Camdyn Redway in the 60 hurdles (9.35); Kenwood’s 4×200 relay of Chloe Logan, Sheena Boykin, Savannah Jackson and Aaniyah Barnes (1:45.31); Lane’s 4×400 relay of Amy Herzog, Antonina Leary, Alexis Frazier and Kaila Burns (4:02.84); Lake View’s Bilqis Gbadegesin in the shot put (34-1.25); and Young’s Jordyn Ellis in the high jump (5-3.25).
Photos by Brandon Parker/OSA
