Lincoln-Way East repeats as Girls Relay Rankings champions

By Michael Newman

mike@dyestat.com

Lincoln-Way East won their fourth straight 3A championship in Charleston this year with the help of their strong relays. That showed in this rankings competition. The Lady Griffins repeated as the DyeStat Illinois Girls Relay Rankings Champions. They set a new scoring record with 189 points bettering their 2015 title by one half point.

The story in this competition was the strength of the 2A Girls schools as three schools finished in the top ten overall. The top 2A team was Dunlap  who scored 145 points to finish second. O’Fallon scored 140 points to finish third. There was a three way tie for third with 2A Kaneland, Oak Park-River Forest, and New Trier all scoring 139 points. Rich South was the other 2A team to finish in the top ten as they scored 122 points to finish eighth overall.

The DyeStat Illinois Relay Rankings are based off of the DyeStat TFX leaderboards (as of May 31, 2016) for the four relays that are contested at the IHSA State Meet. In the All Class, 3A, 2A, and 1A categories, the top 50 quartets are ranked with 50 points given to the fastest school down to 1 point for the 50th fastest.

Overall Relay Winners

2016 – Frankfort Lincoln-Way East – 189 points

2015 – Frankfort Lincoln-Way East – 188 ½ points

2014 – St. Charles East – 165 points

2013 – O’Fallon – 172 points

2016 Girls Overall

Class 3A

Lincoln-Way East repeated as the champion in 3A duplicating their point total from the overall rankings (189 points). New Trier finished second (157 points) placing in the top five in the 1600 and 3200 Relay. O’Fallon scored 150 points to place third. The West Suburban Silver had the most teams from one conference in the top twenty placing five of their seven schools within that group. The Southwest Conference was just as dominant putting four schools in the top twenty.

Overall Relay Winners

2016 – Frankfort Lincoln-Way East – 189 points

2015 – Frankfort Lincoln-Way East – 189 ½ points

2014 – St. Charles East – 174 points

2013 – O’Fallon – 178 points

Class 2A

Dunlap and Kaneland were the top two teams in this classification in 2015. Both schools duplicated the finish this year with their performances being even more dominant. Dunlap placed all of their relays within the top four to score a 2A record 192 points to win the title for the second year in a row. Kaneland also was better than a year ago placing all four relays among the top six including the fastest time in the 1600 Relay. The Lady Knights scored 188 points to finish second. Both point totals are the most in the history of these rankings. Vernon Hills scored 164 ½ points to finish third.

Overall Relay Winners

2016 – Dunlap – 192 points

2015 – Dunlap – 173 points

2014 – Springfield – 187 points

2013 – East St. Louis-Senior – 168 points

Class 1A

St. Joseph Ogden captured the relay rankings for the first time placing three of their four relays in the top six to score 184 points. Decatur St. Teresa had three relays in the top ten to finish second with 172 ½ points. Pleasant Plains finish third with 162 ½ points. Two time defending champion Illini West scored 128 points to tie for tenth place. This was the first year that the 1A relay rankings had scored 50 places for 1A. The previous three rankings, only the top thirty were scored.

Overall Relay Winners

2016 – St. Joseph-Ogden – 184 points

2015 – Carthage Illini West – 111 ½ points

2014 – Carthage Illini West – 103 points

2013 – Erie-Prophetstown – 107 points