By Michael Clark
Kennedy Ross’ college choice is set and her high school track career is almost over.
But the Lindblom senior still has some unfinished business, even after having another big day during Saturday’s Chicago Public League finals at Lane.
Ross swept the hurdles, running a personal-best 14.43 in the 100s and 45.33 in the 300s. She also ran the anchor legs as the Eagles finished third in the 1,600 relay and fifth in the 400 relay.
“It feels good to go out with all of my titles intact,” Ross told MileSplit Illinois. “I was glad to PR in one of my events. I still have work to do, I need to PR in the 300 hurdles because the hurdles game is stacked in 2A.”
Ross is one of the reasons for that. She owns six state medals, including four last spring in both hurdles, the 400 relay and the triple jump.
Next up is Thursday’s U-High Sectional at St. Ignatius, her final tuneup for the 2A state finals in two weekends at Eastern Illinois’ O’Brien Field in Charleston.
“I’m getting ready — I’m ready to compete,” Ross said. “I haven’t got a whole lot of races in. But it’s time to trust the training that I have and put in the work to get to where I need to get — that’s (state) finals and PR.”
After state, Ross will turn her focus to college. She’s heading to Howard University in Washington, D.C., to study psychology.
“Howard didn’t feel like any other school I visited,” Ross said. “I got to visit some other schools. They were cool, the coaches were very nice. But the feeling I got at Howard was different and that’s where I need to be.”
Ross wasn’t the only one with a big medal haul on Saturday.
Kenwood senior Asia Thomas swept the sprints, going 11.91 in the 100, 58.08 in the 400 and 24.55 in the 200. And she was runner-up in the long jump (5.37m) to teammate Jaliyah Shepherd (5.46m). Kenwood also won the sprint medley relay (1:52.97), 800 relay (1:43.77) and 1,600 relay (4:02.23) with Kee’Lani Whitlock and Chyna Parker running on all three.
The Broncos finished second to Young, 142-141, as the Dolphins won their seventh straight Public League title. Simeon (45), Lane (41) and Lindblom (38) rounded out the top five.
Taking firsts for Young were Jade Lavallee in the 3,200 (11:10.19), the 400 relay team (49.25), the 3,200 relay team (10:19.50), high jumper Christina Jordan (1.56m) and triple jumper Morgan Cade (11.17m).
Other individual champs were Taft’s Hannah Diete in the 800 (2:22.56), Northside’s Lulu Ton-That in the 1,600 (5:11.02), Northside’s Tessa Myatt in the shot put (11.62m) and ITW Speer’s Mary Haywood in the discus (31.10m).
