State highlights: track titles for Guilford's Zariah Burnett and West Carroll's Emma Randecker

Saturday was a big day for the sprinters and jumpers of the Rockford area to show off.

The nine locals and two area relay teams that made it all the way to Saturday's IHSA girls state track and field finals got the spotlight, and most of them stepped up their game.

The NIC-10 even produced the top two, and three of the top five, high jumpers in Class 3A, and the entire state.

More girls track and field: 'I want to be the fastest girl.' Auburn's Essence Horton-Graves sprints to IHSA state meet

Guilford's Zariah Burnett staved off Hononegah's Jordan Dimke as the two sophomores dueled once again, this time early on in Saturday's state finals in Charleston. Like at the NIC-10 meet and at sectionals, Burnett pulled out the win, this time for the state championship. They both cleared 5-foot-7 3/4, but Burnett edged Dimke on misses.

"It feels good," Burnett said. "I was really looking forward to this win. It makes me feel good because last year, as a freshman, I took fourth and I was thinking, 'I can really get somewhere with this.'"

One year later, she got all the way to the top of the podium.

And not far behind her and Dimke was Auburn's Jaeda Benford, who placed fifth in the state in high jump with a make at 5-4 1/4 as the NIC-10 showed its high jumping prowess.

Burnett also tied for 13th in the long jump at 17-8 1/4, and Dimke also got 34th in the 300 hurdles and helped lead the Hononegah 4x400 relay squad to a 17th-place finish and the 4x800 relay team to a 22nd-place finish.

At the 1A level, West Carroll junior Emma Randecker, the NUIC's fastest girl, attempted the rare trifecta, and came close to pulling it off. She won the 100-meter dash in 12.11; she took second by a head in the 200 dash in 24.51; and she placed fifth in the 400 run with a time of 57.44.

The 1A winner of the 200 dash, Althoff Catholic's Alaina Lester, clocked a 24.49.

"That 200 was kind of tough, but what are you going to do?" Randecker said after running the fastest 200 of her life. "I'm just going to have to push harder, and really go for it all next year. I want all three."

Also in 1A, Lutheran sophomore Abagail Baumann ran a more physically tasking double, taking sixth in the 3,200 run in 11:26.86, and placing seventh in the 1,600 run later in the meet. Her freshman teammate Gabriella Davis came in 10th in the 100 dash prelims in 12.64 — one spot, and 3/100ths of a second, out of a finals' berth.

What else happened in Class 1A, 2A

Freeport's 4x200 relay team of Aaliyah Martin, A'nyla Routen, and sophomore twins Taniah and Ta'Leiah McElroy placed fifth in the 2A finale, clocking a season-best 1:43.97. They moved up from their sixth spot in prelims.

Taniah also took 14th in the 100 dash in 12.71 for the best showing for any individual Rockford-area competitor in 2A. Ta'Leiah got 16th in the 100 in 12.77, and the pair also helped Freeport's 4x100 relay crew to a 12th-place finish in 49.35.

While no other locals medaled in the individual events at the 1A or 2A levels, Winnebago's 4x400 relay crew took seventh place in 4:09.13, and Forreston's Letrese Buisker came close with a 15th in the 1A 300 hurdles.

Essence Horton-Graves leads rest of 3A

There were two other medals hauled in by Rockford area competitors in 3A, including one by the fastest girl in Rockford.

Auburn senior Essence Horton-Graves, the three-time defending 100-dash champion in the NIC-10, flew to an eighth-place finish in the 100 at state with a 12.33, falling just short of her seventh-place finish two years ago, but that was with a 12.66. Last year she took 10th in the 100, missing out on a finals' berth by one spot, and that came with a time of 12.14. Horton-Graves also finished in 16th place in the 200 dash.

Guilford's Natassja Bowman placed eighth in the discus, earning her spot on the medal podium with a throw of 117-11. She also got 28th in the shot put.

And while Burnett and Bowman were the only ones from Guilford — the three-time defending NIC-10 team champs, to claim a state medal — there was a slew of others that pushed the boundaries.

Guilford's Lillian Jarrett placed 16th in the 400 run and her senior classmates and teammates Anna Jones got 19th in the 100 hurdles and Madison Harmsen wound up 22nd in the 1,600 run. The 4x100 relay team from Guilford, that included Jones, placed 35th.

Jay Taft is a Rockford Register Star sports reporter. Email him at jtaft@rrstar.com and follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @JayTaft . Sign up for the Rockford High School Sports Newsletter here at rrstar.com . Jay has covered a variety of sports, from the Chicago Bears and Blackhawks to local youth sports, since the turn of the century at the Register Star .

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: State highlights: track titles for Guilford's Zariah Burnett and West Carroll's Emma Randecker