CHS Lady Jackets are runners up at conference meet
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The Chester High School Lady Yellow Jackets Track and Field Team competed in the 2010 Southern Illinois River-to-River Conference Meet Thursday, May 6 at Harrisburg High School. The Jackets fought hard and beat out Sparta and Anna-Jonesboro to finish 2nd Place yielding only to the ever-powerful and very deep Nashville Hornettes squad.
Coach Jennifer Stumpe stated after the meet, "Every single one of the girls stepped up and performed well. It was a very exciting day and the girls really pulled together to cheer each other on from the beginning till the end of the meet."
Nashville (1st, 162) won the Mississippi Division title followed by CHESTER (2nd, 102), Anna-Jonesboro (3rd, 98), Sparta (4th, 97), DuQuoin (5th, 48) and Pinckneyville (6th, 46).
Stumpe exclaimed, "We scored in every event except one. It was the unexpected points that really helped us squeak out the 2nd Place finish. These unexpected points allowed us to push ahead of Anna-Jonesboro and Sparta. Even freshmen scored points and it is nice to have freshmen place at the Varsity Conference Meet."
Chester had a 1st Place finish in Jordan Clendenin in the Pole vault. Clendenin's 9-0 effort won her the title of Conference Champions and earned her an All-Conference honor.
The Jackets had five 2nd Place finishes, four which were individuals and one relay team. All of these young ladies also earned All-Conference honors for their 2nd Place finishes.
Devon Hecht, a senior, was runner-up in the Triple Jump (31-2) and Hanna Knop, a sophomore, placed 2nd in the Discus (98-11). Senior Rachel Young finished second in two events, the 100-Meter Dash (13.11) and the 400-Meeter Dash (1:02.65). Finally, the last individual to earn All-Conference honors was junior Tiffani Marshall who was runner-up in the 100-Meter Hurdles (17.47).
The 4 x 200-Meter Relay Team of junior, Kristy Pulliam, sophomore, Jenna Wingerter, junior, Jade Jolly and junior, Tiffani Marshall also placed 2nd in their event earning them All-Conference honors. The foursome recorded a time of 1:54.8 to finish right behind Pinckneyville (1:53.3).
Coach Stumpe proclaimed after the day's events, "Sophomore Hanna Knop threw a personal-best 98-11 in the Discus and freshman Libby Bollman finished 5th in the Pole vault to earn points for us. Freshman Danielle Smith earned us points finishing 6th in the High Jump and Chelsea Schroeder finished 6th in the 100-Meter Hurdles. All of these underclassmen contributed extensively to the success of the team and helped put us over the top in the standings."
Other individual contributors at the Conference Meet included Taylor Yankey (4th, 3200-Meter Run); Kristen Maes (6th, 800-Meter Run); Jillian Yankey (7th, 800-Meter Run); Tiffani Marshall (3rd, 300-Meter Hurdles); Jordan Clendenin (5th, 30-Meter Hurdles) and Rachel Young (3rd, 200-Meter Dash).
All three of the other relay teams also placed to earn points for the overall CHS 2nd Place finish for the meet. The 4 x 800-Meter Relay Team of Kristen Maes, Emily Reid, Hanna Knop and Jillian Yankey placed 4th; the 4 x 100 Relay Team of Kristy Pulliam, Jenna Wingerter, Jade Jolly and Tiffani Marshall finished 4th and the 4 x 400-Meter Relay Team of Jordan Clendenin, Kristy Pulliam, Jade Jolly and Devon Hecht placed 3rd.
Coach Stumpe was very excited with the efforts put forth by all of the Chester girls and their team effort truly earned them the title of runners-up in the 2010 SIRR Conference Mississippi Division Meet.