An incredible postseason ride helped the 1994 Salem girls 800 medley relay bring home the first state medal by a Salem relay team in school history, boys or girls.

The quartet of Angie Burroughs, Julie Bierman, Trisha Ward and Serra Morton, which was coached by Suzanne (Henry) Brown, broke the school record in three straight postseason races. They began their path at the Class AA sectional race where they defeated a very tough East St. Louis squad on its home turf as well as several other strong relay teams from the metro east and southern Illinois with a first place time of 1:51.1.

The group needed to be even better at a state meet held at Eastern Illinois University and they responded by lowering their time at another school record of 1:50.7 during the preliminaries to earn a spot in the finals.

Burroughs, Bierman, Ward and Morton saved their best for last in the final, as they broke their school record yet again with a time of 1:49.6 and an eighth place finish.

Crystal Anderson was also a key contributor to the squad. In addition to serving as an alternate for the state race, Anderson stepped into Ward’s spot at the North Egypt Conference Meet and teamed up with Bierman, Burroughs and Morton to win that race with a league record time of 1:55.

In addition to their state medal in the 800 medley relay, Burroughs, Bierman, Ward and Morton had a big postseason in other areas and competed in two other state events that year. Burroughs, Bierman, Ward along with Lori Huston qualified for state in the 800 meter relay and set a new school record of 1:47.1 during the state preliminaries even though they were unable to advance to the finals. Burroughs, Bierman, Morton and Aimee Francois competed in the 1600 meter relay at state. While the 800 and 1600 relays did not grab one of the two automatic state berths at the sectional, their respective third place performances still beat the qualifying standard. Morton won the 400 meter dash at the sectional with a school record time of 59.2, but was unable to advance to the state finals.