Shaking off the cobwebs that have resulted from the weather induced lack of competition, the Knights boarded their bus for their annual trek to the Rock Island Invitational on a cool, rainy morning. The Rocks' Invite normally provided the Knights with their first taste of the year of quality "upstate" opposition and this meet proved to be no exception.

Richwoods showed the ability to be a competitive squad with its 6th place finish in the 14 team meet. Senior Alex Starks became the first Knight in the history of the program to win an individual High Jump crown at a major invitational by clearing 5' 4" without a miss. Starks also showed some speed and strength in placing 3rd in the B-Class 400 meter race with a :64.2 clocking in addition to her :62.4 leg in the 4x400.

Shavantay Thomas, the RHS junior sprinter, also produced strong results claiming the silver 2nd place medallions in both of the Class A short sprints with respective :12.7 and :26.5 times in the 100m and 200m in addition to her usual yeoman relay duties. Thomas very strong finishes in the open sprints proved to be just short of having seen her finish the day as thechampion in the events, particularly in the 100 where the margin of her loss was 1/20th of a second in the FAT timed meet - :12.81 to :12.86.

Donielle Ross used the meet to tie Richwoods Athletic Hall of Famer Shannon Huffman with a :59.3 clocking in the Class A 400m for Number 3 in RHS annals in the event.

Richwoods long sprint / middle distance runner Sravanthi Vegunta continued to reduce her time in the 800m with a 2:34.3 time to become RHS all-time number 28 in the effort, in addition to her 2:33 leg in the 4th place finishing 4x800 relay.

The RHS 4x400 again lowered its season best to 4:15.8 with another look - Danielle Des Jardins, Jenisha Brittine, Starks and Ross.

In what was perhaps was the crowd's favorite event of the meet - the weightman's 4x100 - the RHS followers saw Megan Kerns don her pink spikes for the first time in her Knight career as she entered her blocks for the start (top). Remembering her middle school years, Kerns was out of the blocks "quickly" to keep the Knights in the mix as she made the initial hand-off to Raven Robinson (middle). The Knight quartet of Kerns, Robinson, Chenille Johnson and Sarah Lane (bottom) ran a credible :62.0 for 5th place in the chase for the cakes that were awarded to the winners.