Plainfield North’s Lauren Dellangelo, Aniya Poindexter named Herald-News Girls Track Athletes of the Year

Track and field is generally known as an individual sport, with athletes competing in sprints, hurdles, distance running, throws and jumps.

There also are relays involved in the course of a meet, often teaming up the team’s top runners. Many athletes focus on their individual events, relays taking second billing.

That wasn’t so for the Plainfield North girls track and field team this season.

The Tigers won the Class 3A state championship in both the 4x200- and 4x400-meter relays. Two runners, senior Lauren Dellangelo and junior Aniya Poindexter, were members of both winning teams, and both have been named as Herald-News Girls Track and Field Athletes of the Year.

The pair teamed with senior Taylor McClain and sophomore Kiya Bradshaw to win the 4x200, and with junior Tessa Russo and senior Lindsey Wenz to capture the 4x400 title. Those two relay titles helped the Tigers finish fifth as a team in the state meet.

For Poindexter and Dellangelo, although they are strong in individual races, their focus this season was on relays. Dellangelo actually qualified for the state meet as an individual in the 400-meter run, but chose to compete in the 4x200 relay instead.

“I ran the 400 a lot this season,” Dellangelo said. “I stopped after the sectional, though. We felt like we had a good chance to win the 4x200, so that’s what I did since the races were so close to each other.

“We were really focused on the relays this year.”

Poindexter said she prefers to run in relays.

“I ran most of the time in relays this year,” she said. “I ran the 100 a little bit, but I preferred the 4x200 and 4x400. We ended up having a heck of a year.”

In relays, the handoffs are quite possibly the most important part of the race, as it doesn’t matter how fast you run if the baton is dropped.

“We do a lot of workouts with handoffs,” Poindexter said. “We work on it and work on it every day at practice until it is pretty much second nature. It’s a very crucial part of the race, and when we were at the state meet, we went in with a lot of confidence because we knew our handoffs would be good.

“I like running relays because of how we work together. We are very close, not only on the track, but off of it.

“We are all working for each other.”

The Tigers’ 4x200 team won with a time of 1:37.09, topping runner-up Kankakee’s 1:38.86. In the 4x400, Plainfield North won with a time of 3:47.61, edging Lincoln-Way East’s 3:47.63.

Dellangelo said she started running track in middle school, competing in sixth grade in both track and field as well as cross country. COVID knocked out both her seventh- and eighth-grade seasons, but she picked the sport back up in high school.

“I figured out I liked sprints better,” she said. “Our coaches pick the order of how we run in the relays. We don’t have competition among the team or anything like that. It’s based on what each runner does well, like who gets off the block fastest will run first.”

The duo’s dedication to the relay teams was not lost on coach Andy Derks.

“We are very proud of Aniya and Lauren, and all of our girls who sacrificed individual pursuits this year to go all-in for the relays,” he said. “Both of them work hard and have built great relationships with their teammates.

“They are incredibly competitive as well. They have set a high standard for Plainfield North ladies track.”

The Tigers recently went to the Nike Outdoor Nationals held at Heyward Field at the University of Oregon. They finished second in the 4x200.

“That was definitely a fun trip,” Dellangelo said. “It might have been my last hurrah on the track, because I don’t know if I will run in college or not.”

Dellangelo will attend the University of Iowa in the fall, where she intends to major in bio-medical engineering with the plan of becoming a doctor.

“I might think about running if they reach out to me,” she said. “But, with my major, I don’t know how much time I will have to devote to track. Maybe after my freshman year, if I feel like I could do it, I might consider it.”

Poindexter already is looking forward to next season with the Tigers.

“We are losing some key seniors like Lauren and Taylor,” she said, “but we have a good group of runners coming back, too. It will be exciting to see if we can do it again next year.”