By Randy Whalen

Sometimes things don't work out as planned. 

Mddie King was ready to continue her outstanding running at another state event. But a mishap knocked the Joliet Central junior star runner out of her 800-meter sectional race as she was disqualified.

That ended her season short of her goal of another trip to the state finals.

"Maddie had what we call a lane infraction."Joliet Central girls' track and field coach Sergio Miranda explained. "You can't step on the line outside of your lane more than three times. There was a lot of adrenaline going on, and it's happened to me before. 

"It's a very tough thing and a tough pill to swallow. She was in front, and she was going to qualify for state. She knew the job she had to do. But it was just that your body can move a certain way, and you lose form. It was a tough thing to deal with."

When she went out with the DQ, King was well within the qualifying time of 2:18.94.

Last spring, King went to state in the Class 3A 800-meter run and finished 28th out of 42 in the preliminaries. In the fall, she was at the state cross country meet and placed 29th with a PR time of 17:34.1, just missing a Top 25 medalist finish. 

She hoped to get that All-State finish in track this spring, but it didn't happen. She will regroup for cross country this fall.

"We looked forward to state," Miranda said. "But we still have a young team. Maddie was healthy this season. She will learn from this and go out and have fun this fall."

The Class 3A Rock Island Sectional took place on Wednesday, May 14, at Almquist Field. No Steelmen athletes qualified for the state meet. But junior Georgianna Majerus came close in a sixth-place finish with a throw of 10.73 meters in the shot put. 11.17 meters is the qualifying standard. 

The Girls Track and Field State Finals were held from Thursday, through Saturday, May 22-24, at Eastern Illinois University. 

At the Southwest Prairie Conference meet, which was held on Wednesday, May 7, at Minooka, King won the 800-meter with a time of 2:18.37. She had finished second in a time of 2:21.31 to Joliet West senior Janellisa Oceguera (2:17.77) the year before. 

Also finishing All-Conference (Top 6) for the Steelmen was Majerus with a fourth-place toss of 10.39 in the shot put. Plus, the 4x800 relay foursome of King, junior Jessenia Chavez, freshman Yoselin Aguilera, and sophomore Nancy Arias, was fifth with a time of 10:35.10. 

"Maddie won the conference in both the indoor (with a time of 2:17.57 on Saturday, March 27 at Lewis University) and outdoor meets," Miranda said. "Plus, we got fifth in the 4x800 relay in the outdoor season after getting sixth in the indoor season."

This was the first season for Miranda as the Steelmen girls' track and field coach. A local product, being a 2010 Romeoville graduate, he had a lot of success in the sport there and also at Lewis University, where he graduated in 2017. 

"There are a lot of weeks racing numerous events," Miranda said of the season. "We have to stay healthy, and I can't throw them into too many events. I thought a lot of girls trusted the system and did well, eating well and staying hydrated."

Miranda leaned a lot as well.

"It was a rebuilding year for me to understand and coach at this level," he said. "There were some hiccups along the way, but now going into next year, I will know things before then, 

"We had a lot of underclassmen, and also a lot of our seniors were in their first year of track. That allowed us some flexibility to move people around, and they did well."