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People cheered her false start and disqualification.

Maybe they just were not ready for Kim Schofield, the first superstar of IHSA girls track. As a sophomore she won the 50-yard dash, the 100 dash and long jump and was on a winning relay team that accounted for the rest of the 20 points as Springfield Southeast won the first girls meet in 1973.

No one outran Schofield the next year either, but she lost. The junior was disqualified in the 50 yard dash after her second false start. “I false started a lot, I can't say I didn't,” said the sprinter who is now Kim Werth. “But the girl next to me was 20 yards out and they charged me with the false start. I remember standing in the middle in the track. What's a shame is that the stands were as full of parents and coaches as kids. For adults to stand and cheer because a 15-, 16-year-old girl false started is sick.”

But that is what the girl heard. “That crazy kid was just a generation ahead of her time,” said Sandy Spengler, who was the coach of Springfield Southeast's state championship team the previous year. “She'd be on Wheaties boxes if it was now. She was 15 years old. There were no female role models so instead of people at the state meet being in awe of her, they were jealous.

“It was even within our school; there was jealousy. There really weren't great role models — maybe at the Olympic level but not at the high school level for girls. I think it hurt here that she was so pretty, too. She was not a snot. She was not conceited. She was not anything that would have contributed to that.”

In the 27 years of IHSA girls track meets, fans at Eastern Illinois University's O'Brien Stadium have had much more to cheer that false starts. They have seen Jackie Joyner, who went on to win Olympic gold medals and be called by many the world's greatest woman track and field athlete. She was part of the East St. Louis dynasty of the 1980's that has given way now to Chicago Morgan Park and Evanston. They have seen distance running queen Suzie Tuffey of Peoria Bergan miss her senior year's state meet because of an injury but then bounce back to win an NCAA cross country championship as a freshman.

But the state series started with one of the all-time greats in Schofield, whose father, grandfather, uncle, son and second husband played professional baseball. The Iowa State University recruit went on to qualify for the 1976 U.S. Olympic Trials where an injury erased any hopes of her making the team.

Her track and field career began as a fifth-grader. As an AAU Peoria Pacette she had made a name for herself before the IHSA first girls state meet in her sophomore season. Springfield Southeast had a team and competed in some city and area meets a couple of years earlier. Then on the strength of Schofield's three individual wins and a relay victory, it outscored runner-up Park Ridge Maine South 20-15 for the team championship.

“It really was a bizarre meet,” Spengler said. “The kids were exhausted. I come from a family of boys. Here was a meet that was being pulled off for the first time and they had not called upon the men to help them. It was really kind of a fiasco in a lot of ways. I just kept thinking of that perception. It could have been better done. Now I think it has come full circle.”

Officials apparently lived and learned. “What's happened to girls sports in these days is fantastic,” Spengler said.

Illiopolis thought the second year of the meet was pretty fantastic as the small school edged Springfield Southeast 17-13 for the team championship. Debbie Kilhoffer won the first of her three straight 110-yard low hurdles championships for Illiopolis. “Debbie Kilhoffer was just mind-boggling as a hurdler,” longtime East St. Louis Lincoln coach Nino Fennoy said.

Kilhoffer's first hurdles title came the year Schofield won only two individual state titles because she false started twice in the 50-yard dash, to the delight of some of the spectators. “To this day, I don't know if in all my years of sports that I saw anything so sad as a stadium full of people to clap because someone made a mistake,” Schofield-Werth said 25 years later. “It times like that that make you very strong. It makes you better. I thank them.

“With my son, I've gone through competitive sports as a parent. I'm very competitive but I'm not mean. I see adults — they will do anything to get their chance to shine at the expense of hurting someone else. I think it's been going on for boys. It was just starting for girls.

“I came back and won the 100 and thought, ‘Are you going to cheer for that?' ” Schofield got another triple win as a senior in the 50, 100 and long jump.
In 1978 the state meet split into two classes and East St. Louis won the first of its 14 Class AA championships under Nino Fennoy. “The first state meet was mind boggling, the second was enlightening and the third was rewarding,” Fennoy said.

“But all of them were equal.”
The dynasty included a state-record 140 points in the 1986 championship year and then 121 the following season. With the meet expanding to eight scoring places from the original five and doubling the first-place points to 10, ESL Lincoln topped the century mark in team scoring four times, the only times that had happened in a state meet until Morgan Park amassed 108 to win the 1999 title.

How did the Tigerettes do it?

“That's interesting,” said Fennoy, whose Lincoln school was absorbed by East St. Louis Senior in the 1998-99 school year. “If it was that easy these last few years we'd be back on top of it. There are not secrets in my life. My reference point would be, No. 1, having had the opportunity to start on the elementary level and to have them bitten on the bug.”

East St. Louis might not have had top facilities but it had the coaching, athletes and work ethic to become the state's best. “Many things broke when they were supposed to and we took advantage of it,” Fennoy said. “Success begins to breed success. We would use the negative to breed the positive. We may not have the best facilities, but we used that as an asset. You can always develop fundamentals in a park. You don't have to be limited.

“Our school district contributed tremendously to the success. When I started we had maybe 32 elementary schools. One of the great contributions of Lyndon Johnson was the rec centers in the inner cities so we could challenge our kids in the extras of physical education as well as developing better reading skills.”

While considerably short than East St. Louis Lincoln's, Peoria Bergan had a dynasty of its own winning Class A championships in 1981, '82 and '83. In those three years Bergan had three different head coaches — Luis Rubio, Diane Francque and Tim Daugherty.

“I think characteristically they were all pretty similar,” Daugherty said of the three teams. “They were pretty talented and they were hard-working kids. As proven with the change in the coaches, those three constants can perform well.

“Those Bergan track years were very, very special,” said Daugherty, now the head football coach at Edwardsville. “I knew it was special when I was there, but as the years go by I see more and more how special those years were. I've had kids who work just as hard but when you put the talent with it.”

The talent included Carrie Eggerichs, Cheryl Geier, Jill Mattern and Julie Szidon, whose Class A 800-meter medley relay record of 1 minute, 48.8 seconds set in 1983 stood throughout the 1980s. Eggerich was also a 400-meter dash champion in 1983. Three years later Bergan's Chaille Torrey set a Class A long jump record of 18-7 that remained going into 2000.

But probably the most prolific of the Bergan stars was Tuffey, who has the IHSA records regardless of enrollment class of 10:13.0 in the 3200 meters and 4:46.5 in the 1600. Those were set her junior season. As a senior she set national indoor two-mile record of 10:05 but then a late-season injury kept her out of sectional and state competition. “It's maybe best that she didn't run because it may have been unfair to anyone else who stepped on the track,” Daugherty said. “It was a shame for Suzie, but she went on to bigger and better things.”

East St. Louis Lincoln's individual state champions and superstars are probably longer than most school's list of state qualifiers. Best known is Joyner, whose long jump of 20 feet, 7 1/2 inches in 1979 stands 20 years later as the state meet record.
“The physical training, the stress when we first started doing summer track programs got her started,” Fennoy said. “Jackie talks about it all the time. Gwen Brown was probably the best at her age group.”

Then came stunning Carmelita Williams, who as an ESL Lincoln sophomore in 1987 became the first girl in state meet history to sweep the 100-, 200- and 400-meter dash titles. She also anchored the winning 1600 relay team to put an exclamation mark on the Tigerettes' 70-51 team championship margin over Wheeling. Williams repeated her sprint triple as a junior and then had to settle for the 200 victory as a senior.

The amazing Williams was as soft spoken as she was incredible. Asked how she pulled off her 1600 relay leg shortly after the 200-meter dash, she answered: “I just laid down to cool off.” And about her amazing feat: “I feel all right.”

“Carmelita Williams was the first to come to mind,” Chicago Morgan Park coach Derrick Calhoun said when talking of the all-time great individuals. “She had a tremendous career. It was like on the cutting edge. Others wanted to emulate what she had done.”

They did, too. Rockford East's Donna Cargill, the 1990 Class AA 400-meter champion, won the 100, 200 and 400 in both 1991 and '92, and Shakedia Jones pulled the same trifecta as a Waukegan junior in 1997. But Jones' biggest claim was being the first in the meet history to win the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes for four straight years. To make sure of that she opted out of the 400 finals as a senior even though she qualified in the previous day's preliminaries. “When they called my heat I was in there,” Jones said, pointing to the staging tent at the south end of O'Brien Stadium that Friday. “I said, ‘Why not.' I tried to run slow. They told me nine make the finals so I said ‘I'll be 10th or 11th.' I told the other girls to run fast.' “

Jones said Waukegan coach Leslie Garcia forced her to run the 400 prelim. “She is not going to see me before that (400) race tomorrow,” Jones said. “I'm going to come up to her after the race and say, “Darn, I missed it.' “ Joking or not, Jones saved her energy for the two short sprints and got her four-year 100-200 double.

“This feels great,” Jones said after completing the four-year sweep in 1997 on her way to UCLA. “This was the last day of my high school career and I accomplished what I had set out to do. Four years ago I never would have dreamed this was possible. My next goal is to win a college national championship.”

Two others have won state titles in one event for four straight years — Wheeling's Dana Miroballi in the Class AA 3200 from 1985 through '88 and Belvidere's Heather Nelson in the shot put in 1988-91. “I don't know what it is I just always seem to run well down here,” Miroballi said after one of her victories. “I didn't just run for myself. I also ran for the team.”

The only girl to capture four individual titles in the same meet was Downs Tri-Valley's Kristin Owens, who won the Class A 100, 200, 400 and long jump in 1998. “After my junior year, I just wanted to defend my title in the 100 and 200, and improve in the 400 and long jump,” Owens said. “I just wanted to go there and do my best. It was a goal of more than other people. I wasn't going to the state meet thinking of winning four events.”

But she did, scoring all 40 of the points Tri-Valley needed to win that year's Class A team title.

“Before the 200 my coach said, ‘We have enough points to win, just don't worry and do your best,'” Owens said. “I thought if I don't win this one I'm going to kick myself. I thought winning the 200 was just the best thing ever. When I crossed the finish line I knew I had the four wins but also the team championship and that's what was most important.”

Her efforts led to signs at the edge of Downs, population 650, proclaiming her state conquering achievements. “I was happy for the town,” Owens said. “At least some people know where it is.” If not, many track fans now about Owens. “She was quite a special individual, “Tri-Valley coach John Pearson said. “She was driven, she had goals. She never really had the goal of being a four-time winner but it was in the back of her mind. She really dedicated quite a few months to work on improving her times and they were good enough to win.”

The stars of the 1990s included Owens; Cargill, Jones; Class AA discus record setter Doré DeBartolo of Aurora Rosary, Decatur MacArthur's Deana Simmons, who was a hurdler, long jumper and the state's first great in the triple jump after it was added to IHSA meets in 1996; Class A distance stars Treasure Schultz of Gardner-South Wilmington and Eureka's Heidi Knapp; and St. Joseph-Ogden's Class A thrower Jennifer Brown.

Chicago Christian won three straight Class A team titles under coach Jim Kwasteniet to start the 1990s and coach Dan Pryogyen's Elmhurst Timothy Christian team won in 1993, '95 and '99 while by the end of the decade Chicago Morgan Park emerged as the Class AA power.

Relying on domination in the sprints, Morgan Park won the 1994, '95 and '96 titles and then was second the next two years to Coach Fenton Gunter's Evanston team before Morgan Park regained its crown in 1999. Tameeka McFarland set a 300-meter low hurdles record of 42.33 seconds, also won the 100 highs and ran on a winning relay team for Evanston's 1998 champion. Then Crystal Riley did not win an event but placed second in both hurdles races and both horizontal jumps to lead Morgan Park to the 1999 title when the lady Mustangs won two relays, took second in another and third in another.

Basically, it's a lot of time,” Calhoun said of Morgan Park's rise to the top. “People always inquire. They think there is some secret or a special workout they can give the athletes. The main thing is you have to spend time with athletes.”

“It's become something that just as coaching track has been a part of my life and my assistant's, it's become a part of their lives. Some of them have a close-knit atmosphere because they have spent a lot of time at it. I think that's good for our young adults, teenagers at this point of their life that they feel they belong.”

Turning a Chicago Public League school into the state's best track squad was certainly not automatic. “I'd have to go back to the beginning and maybe my first year with them in '90,” Calhoun said. I think that '90 team was significant and I talked to them about what we wanted to do. At that point it was unheard of, going to the state and scoring points. That first year was getting them to believe they could do more than just go run on Friday.

“Kathy Williams was probably the most significant athlete. She had been there and then she placed in long jump and 400 and kind of helped lead the way. From then on they knew they could come and score.”

But heading into a new century, Calhoun does not consider this a time for his program or Chicago to rest on laurels. “I haven't seen it grow to the extent that I know that it can,” he said. “With the number of schools, there should be a lot more teams down there doing well, being in contention and scoring.

“Facility-wise we're all about the same. We practice in the hallways. There is a lot of turnover here for teachers and coaches. And as soon as they can get out of it, they're gone and a new coach comes in. I think there needs to be a better system of keeping coaches. Part of that would be a salary of what suburban coaches get. The city of Chicago is one of the largest cities in the country. The city does not have an indoor facility. The indoor season is so vital. Where are schools to go? It's not seen as a top priority, especially for the girls. I think the grade school programs, there's a lot of room for development for them.

“We're way behind other states even in the Midwest in terms of track and field. Track and field in general, we do a lot of traveling in the summer and get to talk to coaches from different parts of the country. We're so far behind in the amount of time. I think we have a tremendous amount of talent that is untapped. We went to an invitational track meet at Ohio and the stands were filled like it was a state meet.

People say it's the weather. It's part of it, but it can't be used as a cop out.”
Schofield-Werth noted as well: “I think what I find interesting is kids still are not running any faster. I think some of them are jumping pretty well. Speed is something you're going to have or don't have, but you're either born with the fast twitch or a slow twitch.”

Lisa Ferry, who won three straight shot put titles for Greenville in Class AA in 1978 and '79 and A in '80, more recently has viewed the meet from the press box as a public address announcer and a FOX Sports-Chicago television commentator.

“I think it's still very exciting,” said Ferry, who is now the athletics director at Kankakee. “As a competitor I just loved the state meet. I thought it was very well run. It's still as exciting. Each year I go back, it brings back memories of when I started. When it started raining it was very similar to my junior year.

“I really don't think there's a lot of changes. Probably the biggest change is that I remember East St. Louis Lincoln girls in the stands were so dominating in their chantings. It seemed like all the athletes stayed grouped together in the stands. Now people are more in their tents or on parts of the beautiful campus.”

Fennoy paints a bright picture of the state meet his team once dominated and now still stands as a perennial contender. “Nothing compares to the Illinois state meet,” the East St. Louis coach said. “Maybe California but I think Illinois puts on excellent boys and girls state meets. That's always been a drawing card. It's always been run in an extremely well-run meet. It's been a home away from home for us. It was always a motivation to get to the artificial surface.”

Why wouldn't Fennoy look to the future with optimism after East St. Louis's Dawn Harper as a freshman broke the IHSA record in the 100-meter high hurdles with a time of 14.03 seconds and also won the 300-meter low hurdles in 1999? That does not mean Fennoy's teams necessarily have to return to a streak of nine straight titles that Lincoln won from 1982 through '90 to be happy. “I think when we lost in '91 we were going back to grasp what we were really about from '76 to '91, even though we lost in '81. We weren't operating in a vacuum. Just because we didn't win didn't mean we were doing something wrong.

“I always felt whether we were in the winner's circle or not that you would be amazed by every performance at the state. Young people are evolving creatures. If I'm able to keep my program on the cutting edge in the 21st century, I'll be happy.”