COLLINSVILLE – Katie Mans closed out her Southwestern Conference high jumping career in style Wednesday evening as the Alton senior won her fourth straight league title in the event at the SWC Girls Track and Field Championship at Collinsville’s Kahok Stadium.
“The past four years have been fun,” Mans, who will be heading to Illinois next year to be a part of the Illini women’s track program, said. “My goal is to go to (the Big Ten Conference championship) and be a four-time winner there too; I’d be the first one.”
For the moment, however, Mans’ goal is to capture first in the Madison County Meet and IHSA Sectional for four straight years, she said, with the sectional meet set for next Thursday in Danville.
“That’s my goal,” she said of a sectional title again; a win there would send her to the IHSA Class 3A state meet May 17-19 at Eastern Illinois University’s O’Brien Stadium in Charleston. “It’s always my goal to go to the big blue track” in Charleston, Mans said.
That Mans has won four straight SWC titles is something she can put on her resume when she heads to Champaign-Urbana this fall to compete for the Fighting Illini. “I’m really excited to go to the U of I,” Mans said. “I talk to my coach every day; it’s exciting.
“I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished here; I think it’s setting me up for my future. “What I’ve done here has been amazing and as a team in general, just a great group.”
With two more meets ahead of Mans in her senior year – the sectional and potentially the state meets – her time as a Redbird is rapidly coming to an end. “Two more (meets) – it’s hard to believe that senior year’s flying by,” Mans said. “The season went by really fast.”
