By Bobby Narang –
West Aurora High School’s Dajour Miles was surrounded by a variety of individuals throughout Saturday’s Class 3A state track and field meet in Charleston at Eastern Illinois University, in which Naperville North captured the State championship.
Whether chatting with fellow competitors, receiving congratulations from officials, or engulfed by media members who wanted her time, Miles was a star attraction.
And there’s plenty of reasons for that.
The junior sprinter captured the State championship in the 400-meter race for the second consecutive season, even though she was hampered by a left hamstring injury. Miles recorded a first-place time of 54.72 seconds and beat her sophomore State championship time of 54.75.
“I was going to do them both (including the 100 meters), but in warmups in the fieldhouse, I thought, ‘No, I can’t,’” Miles said. “I just didn’t want to set my body back. “Even in the (400), coming off the first curve I felt pain in my hamstring and thought about stopping, but didn’t. As I continued, it stopped hurting and I was like, ‘Okay, I’m fine, let’s go, let’s roll.’”
Miles elected not to run in Friday’s preliminaries in both the 100 dash and 400 relay. She injured her hamstring at West Aurora Sectional last week.
“I just tried not to think about my injury,” Miles said. “I did not think about anything.”
Miles is now the second multiple State champion in West Aurora girls program history, but she has work to do to catch Emma Spagnola’s four-career hurdles State championships. But there’s another Spagnola making waves in Charleston.
Emma’s younger sister, Tori, had a solid showing at State. The West Aurora freshman placed seventh in the 100 hurdles with 14.74, and ninth in the 300 hurdles with 47.35.
• Freshman Riley Ammenhauser of Neuqua Valley, won the triple jump with 40 feet 02.25, ninth best performance in State tournament history for girls and only the eighth girl to surpass 40 feet.
• Naperville North scored 53 points to earn the championship. Homewood-Flossmoor was second with 47 points, DeKalb took fifth, 31 points, and Glenbard West, the 2017 champion, was sixth with 27 points.
• Other class 3A individual champions included Kelly Zehnder, Lake Park, pole vault, 11-09.00; Halle Bieber, Naperville North, 300-meter low hurdles, :43.48; Katelynne Hart, Glenbard West, 1600 meters, 4:47.36; and Hinsdale Central in the 4×800-meter relay, 9:03.41.
• Dunlap won the Class 2A team championship and St. Joseph-Ogden won the Class 1A team championship.