This one was a little more special.
Homewood-Flossmoor repeated its girls track state championship on May 23, and it did so while missing two key athletes. Junior Kaiya Collier and senior Mariyah Robinson, a Florida signee, were each out with injuries.
Still, the Vikings scored in 10 different events and tied Edwardsville with 76 points to win a second consecutive state title.
“It showed the resilience our team has, being down a couple athletes. The girls really did step up,” coach Tywon Green said. “Not everything went right. Some things went wrong. But those girls kept fighting and gave everything they had to win a state championship.”
The best performance of the day was probably the 800-meter relay team of Khloe Daniels, London Willingham, London Jarrett and Aniya Mullins. The group set a state record of 1:26.85 to finish first.
The only other first place for the Vikings was the 400-meter relay, run by the same four sprinters.
“Every single person who was there scored. Someone got on the podium in almost every single event,” Green said. “To see us come out on top as a team and not be dependent on one person to win everything, was huge. Every single athlete did their job.”
The Vikings did well in the field events, too.
Jaloni Wiley finished second in both the shot put and discus. London Denton was eight in the shot. London Jarrett was eighth in the long jump, Daniels and Janell Robertson each earned points in the triple jump.
Diamond Childress finished third in the 100-meter hurdles while Mullins and Willingham contributed in the 100 and 200-meter dashes.
“Our team is really deep. We have a bunch of talented athletes all over the place,” Green said. “We knew we had enough depth to do it.”
It all came down to the 1,600-meter relay team of Daniels, Markeyla McCant, Mullins and Aubree Haley-Jones. They needed to finish in the top three while Edwardsville’s team needed to finish in the bottom two.
The Vikings ran a 3:50 race to take third and the Tigers were eighth. It was the meet’s final event. H-F secured a share of the championship.
“It was like the suspense in a horror movie,” Green said. “Those girls ran for their lives.”
The IHSA is having a second trophy made and sent to Flossmoor, Green said. He let the Tigers and coach Deserea Howard, an H-F grad, take the trophy south while the Vikings brought home the medals.
“It think it played a huge factor (that we won last year). The nerves didn’t factor in as much,” Green said. “They’ve been there. They’ve done it.”
Almost all of the biggest contributors to the 2026 team will return next year. The dynasty Green talked about before the 2025 season is taking shape. They’ll aim for a third straight championship in 2027.
“It was a whole team effort. The coaching staff coached their butts off,” Green said. “It was just great.”
