'It's my time': Limestone sprinter breaks out at IHSA sectional girls track and field meet

METAMORA — Ranaisha Howard-Dunigan arrived right on schedule Wednesday as a state contender at the IHSA Class 2A girls track and field Metamora Sectional.

Two races. Two first-place finishes. Two personal records. Two state-qualifying efforts.

"This is my time," she said, a warrior who seemed unaffected by a lower leg that bore the marks from being accidentally spiked by a teammate during the exchange for the anchor leg of the 4x100 relay. "I'm never happy with it, never satisfied. Never stop working."

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The Limestone senior left Malone Field as the second-fastest girl in central Illinois in both the 100 and 200 races.

And her personal-record efforts Wednesday — 12.00 seconds in the 100 and 24.71 seconds in the 200 — both checked in as the third-best runs in the state in Class 2A this season, and seventh-best in all classes in Illinois.

"The girl from U-High (senior Reese Mitchell) beat me last week in a meet," Howard-Dunigan said. "I knew she was going to be here for this rematch and it pushed me."

Down the chute they blazed in the 100, side-by-side in the middle two lanes of the track, with Howard-Dunigan eight one-hundreds of one second faster in a 1-2 finish. She leaped up and down on the track, pumping her arms in celebration.

"It's my time, my time," she said. "I wanted to go to state. I'm going."

Fast is in her DNA

Howard-Dunigan is the daughter of Artez Dunigan and Latoya Howard. Her mother is still the school record-holder in the 200 at Manual High School.

"She is my inspiration," Howard-Dunigan said. "She keeps me optimistic, keeps me disciplined and focused. She has history in the sport, was a great sprinter in the 200.

"She ran at Danville Community College until, well, I came along."

Her father is a big part of her success, too.

"My dad has stayed with me on the track every day helping me work on my craft and seek perfection," she said. "He keeps me working."

She has a sister, Arianna Dunigan, and a brother, Artez Howard-Dunigan, both sophomores at Limestone and the latter on the track team.

"We grew up racing and there was a time when I was beating him," Howard-Dunigan said, laughing.

'Just a whole new person'

Ranaisha Howard-Dunigan grew up running. And playing basketball. And volleyball. And dancing. She gave up the latter because it interfered with track practices.

"Dancing is still in my heart," she said. "But track is what I wanted to do most. I was the fastest girl among the grade school feeders, but I had nowhere to run above that."

So she stepped into Limestone High School as a raw, inexperienced freshman and learned the technique and the training on the fly.

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"She didn't have the opportunity before high school," Limestone girls track and field head coach Ryan Cinotte said. "She has learned all this in four years of high school. She's a phenomenal athlete, driven through relentless hard work that really defines who she is.

"I can't take credit for her success. She's such a leader, takes freshmen under her wing. She's just a whole new person that has blossomed from the quiet, uncertain one that was a freshman four years ago."

Cinotte remembers a moment when Howard-Dunigan's personality emerged in her sophomore year. She wanted to work on blocks right before a sectional meet. "I couldn't get her to stop it," Cinotte said, laughing. "I told her to stop, and she pretended to be hard of hearing.

"She's helped me as a coach. Seeing how hard she wants to work, how much she wants this, it has helped me. I don't want to disappoint her."

An Olympian and a dream

Howard-Dunigan is among the elite sprinters in the state in the 100 and 200. The latter is her favorite race.

"My 100 comes and goes," she said. "The 200, though, I love the length of that race, and running in the curve. It's just very relaxed for me. The 200 is my baby, I gotta take care of it and I just love it."

Off the track, her dream is different.

"I want to go to school, make sure I get an education," she said. "I want to be somewhere that can continue developing me into a better athlete. But my plan is to train in the medical field to become a perfusionist — that's the person who operates a machine that monitors your heart and lungs during surgery."

Back on the track, she idolizes Sha'Carri Richardson, the former Louisiana State University sprinter whose :10.65 in the 100 last July made her the fastest woman in the world.

Her dream there is much simpler

"That's so fast it's unbelievable," Howard-Dunigan said. "She's amazing. And someday, I want to race her."

The path to the state finals

There were a lot of success stories at Malone Field on Wednesday, one of which was Williamsfield junior Louisa Wilson.

Standing in the end zone, in the minutes before the 3200 race, she channeled her version of Jamie Foxx's quarterback Willie Beamen from the movie "Any Given Sunday."

Three times.

"I throw up a lot before the race, I'm kind of known for that," she said. "It's a stress thing. As for the race, the girl in front of me slowed down, and I think it kind of helped me save energy that I could use at the end. God has a plan."

And in this case, the plan was a third-place finish in 11:19.24, which beat the qualifying standard and sent her to state. She qualified in the 1600, as well.

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Normal U-High won the 16-school team title with 134 points, while Eureka finished second at 117 and Morton third with 79. Limestone was fifth, Metamora sixth, Canton 13th, Notre Dame 14th, East Peoria 15th and Manual 16th.

Metamora Sectional state qualifiers

Here are the individual state qualifiers Wednesday. The top two finishers in an event or any individual who meets the state qualifier standards earns a place at state (* indicates personal record):

• 100 (:12.75): Ranaisha Howard-Dunigan, Limestone (:12.00); Reese Mitchell, U-High (:12.08).

• 200 (:26.29): Ranaisha Howard-Dunigan, Limestone (:24.71); Ava Alt, East Peoria (:25.76); Hannah Safranek, U-High (:26.14).

• 400 (01:00.7): Millie Kaufman, Eureka (:59.95); Belle Shoufler, Williamsville (1:00.53); Rachel Ogunleye, U-High (1:00.57).

• 800 (02:25.1): Becca Heitzig, Lincoln (2:16.43); Avery Braker, Morton (2:20.31); Joelle Wilson, Williamsville (2:21.57).

• 1600 (5:26.3): Becca Heitzig, Lincoln (5:06.61); Zoe Carter, U-High (5:06.87); Taygen Beyer, Morton (5.09.38); Meika Bender, Eureka (5:11.79); Natalie Bierbaum, U-High (5:13.88); Louisa Wilson, Williamsville (5:19.98); Meghan Zopel, Notre Dame (5:23.43); Eve Armstrong, Morton (5:23.54).

• 3200 (11.47.34): Zoe Carter, U-High (10:42.20); Natalie Bierbaum, U-High (10:53.50); Louisa Wilson, Williamsville (11:19.24); Sophie Krueger, Morton (11:24.33).

• 100 high hurdles (:16.59): Hannah Safranek, U-High (:15.80); Izabelle Behrends, Prairie Central (:16.50).

• 300 low hurdles (:48.74): Izabelle Behrends, Prairie Central (:46.71); Bre Lehman, Eureka (:46.89); Becca Heitzig, Lincoln (:46.90); Aubrey Holthaus, Macomb (:47.88); Corrina Fassino, Notre Dame (:48.09); Kierra Metzger, Eureka (:48.29); Brynn Kendall, U-High (:48.72).

• 4x100 (:50.59): Normal U-High (Harper McIntyre, Reese Mitchell, Lydia McIntyre, Hannah Safranek), :48.03; Macomb (Hailey Emerick, Aubrey Holthaus, Mirabel Quinn Necak, Jordan Hines), :49.63; Eureka (Kayleigh Tharp, Millie Kaufman, Sophia Musselman, Bre Lehman), :50.12.

• 4x200 (1:48.9): U-High (Harper McIntyre, Lydia McIntyre, Hannah Safranek, Reese Mitchell), 1:42.79; Metamora (Naomi Roth, Violet Weinman, Junie Wagoner, Brylee Caho), 1:47.01; Eureka (Emma Johnson, Callie Schumacher, Kayleigh Tharp, Sophia Musselman), 1:47.98.

• 4x400 (4:13.8): Eureka (Bre Lehman, Callie Schumacher, Grace Wegner, Millie Kaufman), 4:03.00; U-High (Caty Minton, Reese Mitchell, Lydia McIntyre, Rachel Ogunleye), 4:03.11; Lincoln (Mallory Short, Kyli Lund, Grace Schneider, Becca Heitzig), 4:08.15; Olympia (Grace Whiteside, Melissa Bieber, Emma Swartzendruber, Charlotte Durham), 4:10.57.

• 4x800 (10:15.7): Morton (Eve Armstrong, Avery Braker, Sophie Krueger, Taygen Beyer), 9:38.65; Eureka (Claire Albertson, Reagan Gerber, Natali Roth, Meika Bender), 9:50.19; U-High (Reagan Bull, Joceyln Lewis, Tessa Ritter, Talia Luallen), 10:01.82; Notre Dame (Brigid Dooley, Julia Mingus, Corrina Fassino, Meghan Zopel), 10:04.95; Metamora (Isabel Olson, Mia Whitfield, Ruthie Stamm, Audrey Heil), 10:05.56; Olympia (Amanda Gonzalez, Amelia Kistner, Kaylie Dare, Emma Swartzendruber), 10:06.48.

• Shot put (10.66 meters): Makaylynne Correa, Canton (10.87); Gaba Musselman, Eureka (10.82); Dymyn Preston, Limestone (10.82); Hannah Cleveland, Olympia (10.74); Isabella (Izzi) Thurston, U-High (10.68).

• Discus (33.42 meters): Isabella (Izzi) Thurston, U-High (39.17); Abi Moser, Clinton (34.31); Kyra West, Olympia (33.71); Dakota Thorman, Macomb (33.55).

• High jump (1.54 meters): Aubrey Holthaus, Macomb (1.64); Emily Gross, U-High (1.59); Kenley Molton, Morton (1.54); Naomi Roth, Metamora (1.54); Bailey Tungate, Lincoln (1.54); Laetitia Kanda, Beardstown (1.54); Josie Wiegand, Eureka (1.54).

• Pole vault (2.97 meters): Grace Pauli, Limestone (3.42); Reagan Bishop, Eureka (3.42); Bre Lehman, Eureka (3.42); Violet Weinman, Metamora (3.12); Felicity Shane, Notre Dame (2.97).

• Long jump (5.10 meters): Izzy Hutchinson, Morton (5.21); Diana Huerta, Beardstown (5.21); Kamdyn Molton, Morton (*5.19).

• Triple jump (10.56 meters): Callie Schumacher, Eureka (10.87); Mikaela Mwangong, Macomb (10.47).

Dave Eminian is the Journal Star sports columnist, and covers Bradley men's basketball, the Rivermen and Chiefs. He writes the Cleve In The Eve sports column for pjstar.com. He can be reached at 686-3206 or deminian@pjstar.com. Follow him on X.com @icetimecleve.

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: IHSA track and field sectionals: Profile of Limestone sprinter and state qualifier