ROCKTON—This season’s senior class is special to Hononegah track and field head coach Ashley Kentner.
The group was freshmen when Kentner took over as the head honcho back in 2020, and they have helped steadily build the program back up.
And grow it they have. In Kentner’s first two seasons the Indians sent just one individual to the IHSA 3A Girls State Track & Field Championships. Last season, including relays, seven total athletes punched their tickets to Charleston, Ill.
Hononegah stayed consistent this season as with two relays and four individuals qualifying, seven athletes will once again head to Eastern Illinois University in hopes of becoming a state champion.
“This is a culmination of all the hard work that they’ve put in,” Kentner said. “We’ve worked so hard from January till now with indoor and outdoor seasons. These girls are just pure perfectionists. I feel like the height is qualifying. The hard work has been done, and now it’s just seeing how far they can push themselves. If they can get qualified into some finals, that would be amazing.”
The Indians finished third as a team at the Huntley Sectional on Wednesday with 66 points, trailing only Rockford Guilford (77) and host Huntley (148).
“It all starts with the relationships that the girls have,” Kentner said. “They all push each other to be the best they can. They all have high expectations and they hold each other accountable, but they also just have fun going out there and doing the best they can. They have that taste for success.”
And that bond may be a reason why Hononegah is sending a pair of relays on to state. The 4x400 team of Jordan Dimke, Sophia Hedges, Lauren Frake and Kylie Simpson finished in 4:01.47 to win the event in Huntley. The 4x800 team of Dimke, Simpson, Frake and Ally Niedfeldt placed third (9:38.81) to also move on.
“Our teamwork, our cooperation with each other and just how well we work together, all of that goes into it,” Dimke said. “We all support each other in every way that we can, and that just boosts everybody. It carries us as far as we can go.”
Simpson, Niedfeldt and Frake were a part of the relay qualifiers last season. Simpson and Niedfeldt have qualified for state in cross country the past two seasons and all three were on the 2022 IHSA 3A Cross Country State qualifying team.
“They really help because all of them are on cross country,” Dimke said. “They’re good to work out with because they have the drive and determination to keep going.”
Of course, Dimke’s drive and determination are nothing to scoff at either.
The versatile sophomore placed second in both the 300 hurdles (a PR of 46.60 seconds) and the high jump (1.67 meters, 5-foot-5.75 inches). Last season, she finished fifth at state in the high jump.
“It’s really good to be able to go show what I’m worth at state,” Dimke said. “(At Huntley), high jump was first and I knew my mood for the rest of the day was going to depend on that. So, as soon as I qualified for that, everything started going uphill and it just never came down.”
“We haven’t had a girl qualify in four events since 2016 with Nicky Althoff,” Kentner said. “So Jordan is going to be busy, but she likes being busy. She doesn’t like too much downtime.”
The field side will be headlined by senior pole vaulter Amelia Bronnimann, who continued her stellar season and took second in the pole vault at sectionals (2.97 meters, 9-9).
“I broke the indoor record and I also PRed at 10-feet,” Bronnimann said of her year. “It’s because of my coach (Michael Stonehocker). He’s been able to come down from Beloit College and help us every week and just keep us going when we’re having bad days.”
Not bad for an athlete who taught herself the ways of the vault back at the beginning of high school and has been steadily improving ever since.
“I learned this from diving, but when I’m competing I don’t look at it as a competition against other people. I mainly just look at it as competition against myself,” Bronnimann continued. “I just try to do the best I can.
“I’m looking at state as a reward for what I’ve done throughout the year. No matter my performance, I’ll be happy that I’ve at least been able to go. Obviously I want to make an opening height and hopefully break the outdoor record, too.”
The Indians will have two competing in the long jump as Hedges qualified with a PR of 5.53 meters, 18-1.75 and teammate Kali Schlies also recorded her best distance with her jump of 5.43 meters, 17-9.75.
“Kali’s performance was crazy,” Kentner said. “She literally just pulled that out of nowhere. She PRed by over a foot and got everything right. It was a perfect storm of awesomeness.”
And Hononegah will hope to replicate a storm of awesomeness as they prepare to compete on the campus of Eastern Illinois beginning on Friday.
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