Pickett Earns Top Honors at Junior Olympic Competition

Recent Glenbard West graduate Kathyrn Pickett keeps taking her versatility in track and field to another level.

In May, Pickett became the Hilltoppers’ first girls track athlete to earn four all-state medals at one meet for top-nine finishes, taking second in long jump, third in the 100 meter high hurdles, fourth in the 300 low hurdles and eighth as part of the 400 relay. Her seven career all-state medals also are a program best.

Pickett intends to improve those skills this summer with the Zephyrs Track Club in preparation for competing at Western Michigan University. Teammate Simone Bunsen suggested trying the heptathlon, an event the recent Lyons Township graduate plans on doing at the University of Wisconsin.

“She just told me to sign up for it and said, ‘OK.’ It’s literally how it happened,” Pickett said. “It was fun. I liked it. I might try it in college. It was so fun.”

And yes, she’s really good at it, too.

In just her second time trying the heptathlon, Pickett earned All-America honors by finishing fourth at the USA Track & Field National Junior Olympic Championships July 26-31 in Wichita, Kansas in the Young Women’s division for 17- and 18-year-olds.

Also competing for the Zephyrs at nationals were Glenbard West seniors-to-be Kinn Badger and Caroline Maloney, and Glenbard South freshman-to-be Kamaria Bush.

Top-eight finishers earn All-American medals. Pickett’s total of 4,454 points, just eight points shy of third, is the highest longtime Zephyrs coach Pat Wilson could remember one of the club’s young women’s athletes scoring in the event.

“I really can’t explain (my reaction to All-American honors). I don’t know how I feel. It’s like I’m happy and it’s there all at the same time,” Pickett said. “I didn’t expect to do as well, but I knew I wasn’t going to be terrible. There was like no reaction because I don’t know how the heptathlon works, what the points mean.”

The heptathlon combines points based on performances over a two-day period in seven events – the 100 meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200 meter dash, long jump, javelin throw and the 800 meter run.

Pickett scored an impressive 314 points better than her winning 4,140 points at regionals July 9 and 10 at Plainfield Central High School. At nationals on July 26 and 27, Pickett had better performances in all seven events, improving by at least 27 points in everything but javelin, the lone heptathlon event not offered in Illinois high school track.

Pickett received her highest point totals in the 200 (807 points/25.89 seconds) and 100 hurdles (804/15.29) and shared the third highest totals among competitors in long jump (17 feet-2 ¼ inches) and high jump (5-3), an 115-point improvement from her 4-11 at regionals.

Pickett, who starts school Aug. 29, might have just found herself a new college event.

“I’ve talked to my coach and he’s mentioned [the heptathlon] before so there’s a chance I could end up doing it. I don’t care where I go as long as I’m running something,” Pickett said.

“I don’t like javelin, shot was fun, I don’t like the 200 but everything else was fine. I’ll learn to like javelin when I learn how to do it, but I don’t want to learn how to love the 200. (My goal in college is) not to be a terrible freshman, somehow make my way to the middle-ish or top, Knowing that I can do some events and still have a positive attitude and have fun through it all, that’s going to help. If I have fun doing what I love, I shouldn’t have any issues, even if I lose.”

In other Young Women events at nationals, Badger was on the Zephyrs’ 400 relay that placed 12th(47.35), Pickett was on the 1,600 relay that placed 11th (3:59.74) and Badger and Maloney on another 1,600 relay that came in 15th (4:02.09). The day after the heptathlon was completed, Pickett tried to come back in the individual long jump but ended up 32nd (16-10).

Bush was 28th place in triple jump (30-3 ¾) in the Youth Girls division (ages 13-14).

Pickett, Badger and Maloney were roommates at nationals after helping the Hilltoppers finish sixth at state, the highest team finish since the 1980s. In May, Badger and Maloney also were part of the Hilltoppers’ all-state 400 meter relay as well as the all-state 800 relay and 1,600 relay, in which they placed seventh and ninth, respectively.

“State is nothing compared to nationals. Nationals is intense. State is rough, but nationals is insane,” Pickett said.

“Hopefully I’ll be able to like my team [at Western Michigan] as much as I liked West. I’ve met some of the girls and they seem cool so I hope I like the rest of them. Having a strong team to push you all of the time helps a lot. I’ve always loved (track) pretty much around when I did it sixth to eighth grade. But West probably did help a lot because there was always the team pushing to be better year after year so that motivation probably did help me love it more.”

The Zephyrs, a non-profit organization, brought roughly 50 athletes to nationals from its two summer training sites of Hinsdale Central and Proviso East high schools. Volunteer coaches at the Hinsdale Central site were Hinsdale Central girls track assistant coaches Wilson and James Conyers and LT girls track head coach Greg Frandsen.