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Sanders as Track Athlete of 2006

Richwoods thrower 'exceptional'

Wednesday, June 7, 2006

By Stan Morris

of the Journal Star

Richwoods girls track and field coach Rich Thole placed his hands on his chin and his elbows on the conference-room table. He stared at the ceiling and began to think.

His mind clicked on superlative after superlative as it looked for just the right word to describe Class AA discus state champion Jewel Sanders.

After almost a minute of silence, the picture came into focus and the perfect descriptor was chosen.

"Exceptional," Thole said.

Thole referred not only to Sanders' talent but to her ability to lead a young Richwoods team to maximize its potential and compete at its best at the end of the season.

Without question, Sanders' senior season was exceptional.

Her accomplishments speak for themselves.

- She became the first Richwoods girls track athlete to capture a state title. She won the discus by 21 inches, with a throw of 144 feet, 4 inches.

- She went undefeated in the discus. The feat included invitational championships at Galesburg, Rock Island, Champaign Central and Palatine. She took first at the Mid-State 6 Conference meet (for the third year in a row) and the Bloomington Sectional.

- She set the Journal Star area all-time record, with a throw of 148-7 at the Palatine Relays. She earned meet MVP honors with the toss that was 21 inches better than the JS mark set by Tremont's Sam Springer in 2004.

- Sanders upped her career total of Illinois all-time best throws to nine of the top 50. The 148-7 ranks 12th in state history.

- She also upped her state medal count to four with the state title.

Sanders was eighth in the discus as a sophomore and third in the discus and ninth in the shot put at a junior.

For those achievements, Sanders earned the 2006 Journal Star Girls Track and Field Athlete of the Year award.

Not bad for an athlete who started her spring sports career as a soccer goalie.

After seeing limited playing time in soccer, Sanders was talked into trying track and field by her parents. She wasn't receptive at first.

"The first year I did it was so my parents and the coaches would get off my back, because I kept hearing it," Sanders said. "But after a couple weeks I started liking it and at end of the season something just told me, 'This is my thing.' "

Sanders relied on strength alone to get an eighth-place state medal as a sophomore and a then-JS Honor Roll Meet record toss of 141-8 ½.

Coaches Roland Brown and Shad Hickman introduced technique to Sanders in her junior year. Sanders struggled with the change, but caught on enough that she threw 145-10 at sectionals and topped that with a third-place state medal.

Throughout the year, Sanders fought the tendency to tense up and revert back to muscling up her throws. Hickman came up with an unique idea to keep Sanders relaxed and let technique work.

"Jewel is in great shape, but she loves to eat," Thole said. "To get her to relax, Coach Hickman would just say 'Cheeseburger and fries,' and she'd start laughing in the ring before she threw. We'd say 'cheesburger and fries' or maybe 'apple pie.' We'd just throw food names out at her to get her to relax, and it worked."

Then came her senior year.

"The thing that set her apart (was) having that raw talent and combining it with a work ethic to learn the event and get down the technical aspect of it and take it to the next level," Thole said.

The Palatine Relays epitomized Sanders' competitiveness.

She threw 138-9 on her first attempt and followed with a 142-footer and a 146-5 that was two inches from a 26-year-old meet record. On her fourth and final attempt, she threw the 148-7 that put her in the record books of the 74-year-old event.

"From my first throw, I knew I was going to get the record," said the Richwoods record-holder in the shot (40-10 ½) and discus. "I felt it. To this day I think about it and I know if I had a fifth throw I would have hit 150."

At the state meet, Sanders' 144-4 in Friday's prelims ended up almost 2 feet better than runner-up Cora Caulfied of Fox Lake Grant.

"It was a business trip for her," Thole said. "She looked at the state meet as '(This is) something I need to do for me and leave my mark on this event.' She took that approach coming in and, as the end result showed, business was good."

The state championship was Sanders' second at Richwoods. She was a member of the school's undefeated 2004-05 Class AA girls basketball state-title team.

"Basketball has been my first love," said Sanders, who is an admitted gym rat. "I didn't get a lot of playing time in basketball, but it still meant a lot to win state. But winning state in discus (means) more to me, because it's my thing."

About the only thing that eluded Sanders was the JS Honor Roll Meet record. Springer took that from her in 2005 with a 144-2. Sanders came just nine inches short in her final high school meet.

The two competitors will be teammates at Illinois State University after Sanders earned a full-ride scholarship there.

"I'm just glad I'm going to go to ISU and throw with her," said Sanders, who is working full-time this summer with the YMCA. "It's going to be real fun."

Fun. There's another adjective that describes Sanders' exceptional season.

Stan Morris can be reached at 686-3214 or at smorris@pjstar.com.