Marx and Boyd shine at Class 2A track and field state meet
By Fred Kroner
Madalyn Marx and Ava Boyd each put their best foot forward during weekend competition in the IHSA girls’ Class 2A track and field state meet and both Mahomet-Seymour athletes came away with an impressive individual feat.
One day after shattering the Mahomet-Seymour school record in the 400 meters prelims, Marx placed second in her specialty in the state finals on Saturday (May 20) at Eastern Illinois University, in Charleston.
Boyd had the eighth-best qualifying time among all finalists in the 1,600 meters, but made a strategic change and took fourth in a photo-finish in Saturday’s finals. In the process, she dropped her personal-best time by 3.49 seconds.
And when a third M-S underclassman, junior Meah Beacham, placed ninth in the triple jump, with the best leap of her career, the Bulldogs had three individual all-staters in the same year for just the second time in the past 12 years. It also happened in 2015.
“The girls had a tremendous day,” Bulldog head coach Benjamin Hankes said. “All three girls PR’d at the state meet, which is extremely hard to do.
“I couldn’t be more proud of the way those three handled and took on the best in the state.”
Marx, a freshman who has chased the school record in the 400 meters throughout the outdoor track and field season, officially claimed it on Friday (May 19) when she was clocked in 57.0 seconds in the Class 2A IHSA state prelims.
Her school-record time ranked second among all Class 2A qualifiers for the finals.
The previous M-S record, held by Jessica Franklin, was 57.02 seconds.
Marx came back with a time of 57.18 seconds in the finals. She was the runner-up to the defending state champion, Kankakee sophomore Naomi Bey-Osborne, who clocked a 56.20 in the finals.
Of the two days, Marx regarded Friday’s prelims as the toughest.
“If I had a bad race, there’d be no finals,” she said. “(Saturday) was a little easier because everyone would place.”
She was the lone ninth-grader to make the 2A finals in the 400.
Despite the times she clocked on back-to-back days, Marx knows she can reduce her time even more.
“(Getting out of) my blocks are not really good,” Marx said.
Her summer track coach with the Vipers, Marques Lowe, was attentive to the 400-meter race. During the high school season, he is the head coach at Kankakee.
“She is not the fastest starter,” Lowe said, “but when she gets her legs turning, no one can beat her.
“Watching her close for second was amazing. My girl (Bey-Osborne) happened to be ahead of her at the right moment. Mady closed hard.”
Lowe said that Marx had both the physical and mental aspects in harmony during the weekend meet.
“She did an amazing job as a freshman in the field of understanding she could be one of the best,” he said.
She is a relative newcomer to the one-lap race.
“In seventh grade, I was never put in the 400,” she said. “I usually focused on the 200.”
Boyd, a first-time state-qualifier in track and field, improved her position more than any other runner from the prelims to the finals in the 1,600 while earning the fourth-place medal.
“I came up with a new race strategy,” Boyd said. “I had been going out fast in the first 400, but I went out slower and trusted my training.”
Her opening lap of 1 minute, 15 seconds, was about three seconds slower than she registered the previous day.
“I wanted to be able to use that energy in the second 800,” Boyd added.
From Lowe’s point of view in the stands, it was the right call.
“She was leading one of the fastest girls in the nation (in the prelims),” Lowe said. “The fact that she could take it out and lead her was amazing, but she did a great job of trying something different (in the finals).”
Though Boyd and Marx specialize in different distances, Boyd said Marx helped in her preparation.
“Mady is my hype girl,” Boyd said. “She keeps me calm and is my healthy distraction.
“My focus was in enjoying the moment.”
Their pre-meet routine is relatively simple, Marx said.
“Me and her laugh, make jokes and chill out,” Marx said.
Boyd’s qualifying time in the Friday prelims was 5:14.78. She closed with a vengeance on Saturday, clocking a 5:07.64.
Boyd and fifth-place finisher Zoe Carter, from Normal University High, had identical 1,600-meter times that had to be broken by going to thousands of a second.
“We both had to lean in,” Boyd said. “I thought I got fifth. I was shocked when I heard I got fourth.”
Her previous best time was 5:11.13.
Both Marx and Boyd will take a week off from training before starting competition with the Vipers’ club team for the summer. Boyd is thankful she joined the program last November, two days after her high school cross-country season ended.
“I’m a completely transformed runner,” she said.
Lowe said most of the credit is of her own doing.
“She has been coachable, very respectful and has improved her form and technique,” he said. “She’s not only faster, she is also stronger.”
Entering her junior season, Boyd’s top time in the 1,600 meters was 5:33.16. She exceeded expectations this year.
“My (pre-season) goal was to make it to state,” she said. “I didn’t picture a 5:10 at all.”
Meacham, for the second postseason meet in a row, achieved a new personal-best.
Her top mark at state in the triple jump was 35 feet, 4 inches, an improvement of four inches from her sectional performance.
With the points the Bulldog trio earned, M-S placed 21st at state with 15 points. A total of 66 teams scored points in Class 2A.
Kankakee amassed 66 points to successfully defend its state title.
M-S had state-meet entries in four events besides the ones where points were earned.
Marx did not make the finals in the 200 meters. She was timed in 25.60 seconds and ended in 15th place, the highest place for any freshman at state in 2A in that race.
She was also part of the Bulldogs’ 400-meter relay, which was clocked in 50.62 seconds and wound up in 21st place. Sharing the baton with her were Lauren Burr, Karlie Fuoss and Beacham.
The Bulldogs’ other individual state competitors were Burr in the 200 meters (32nd in 26.50 seconds) and Kelsie Fuoss in the pole vault. Fuoss did not clear the opening height.
