Chicago Urban Prep senior Jeremiah Watson surprised all except himself in the 400m title race (Colin Boyle photo)
The morning did not start out promising for the three-time defending state champion Cahokia. As a matter of fact the absolute worst thing happened. The super sophomore Ja’mari Ward was injured during his first attempt in the long jump. “I landed wrong in the pit and I heard my ankle pop,” said a distracted Ward. Head Coach Leroy Millsap was overheard saying “well, I better go and get my 2015 team together.”
As bad as things appeared to be for the Comanches in the beginning of the meet, there was still enough time to regroup and get after another title.
Cahokia clawed and scraped against Maple Park Kaneland from the time they arrived at Eastern Illinois University’s O’Brien Stadium at 7am. The bottom line was getting themselves ready for the toughest battle they had to endure. The outcome was Cahokia 90 and Kaneland 84. Coach Millsap would go to say: “Although I think the Comanche pride and pressure got to them, Kaneland was a team that came out and ready to scrap with us.”
Burlington Central collected the third place trophy with a distant 38 points. Carbondale took fourth with 34 points ahead of Chicago Dunbar who rounded out the top five with 33.
Illiana anchor Tony Wondaal shows his joy in anchoring his team to victory in the 4x8 relay (Colin Boyle photo)
Event log description recap-
4x800: Lansing (Illiana Christian) is leaving Illinois and literally moving to Indiana as a school after the upcoming season. It appears they accepted an early going away prize in the name of a 4x8 title in 7:46.38- 2A meet record. The Vikings stole the show with a breakout leg #3 and never looked back. Senior Tony Wondaal brought it home in the 1:54 range that sealed the fate for Kaneland who were billed as heavy favorites. The Knights ran 7:49.33 to beat out Cahokia 7:54.46.
4x100: Cahokia returned to surprise the field in this one. Coach Millsap seized the opportunity to use Ja’mari Ward on the second leg and the Comanches won in 42.23. Ward’s ankle pain didn’t appear to swell up although he limped slightly afterwards near the awards tent. Chicago Dunbar finished second in 42.58 to edge Galesburg 42.59. One key team (Sycamore) was disqualified for false starting.
3200m: This was perhaps the most disappointing race on the docket. But after the section 1 winner Colin DeYoung (So., Lansing Illiana Christian) could only muster 9:41.37, it was pretty much who could sit and kick the best. Joe Singleton (Sr., Glenbard South) won that game in 9:19.48.
110HH: Gary Hickman (Sr., Cahokia) knew his team needed big points to offset Kaneland. They got with 14.42 (+0.2) tactical win. The race was run in reverse to avoid a head wind.
100m: Demoria Harris (Jr., Dunbar) picked up another win for his southside of Chicago mates by the slimmest of margins in 10.83. Dion Hooker (Jr., Sycamore) missed out in the 4x1 and now had to accept 2nd place (10.84).
800m: The race of the day was here with senior JD Lafayette of Normal U-High proving that he didn’t need any competition as he demolished the light weight field with a heavyweight knockout punch that only 3A could have provided him. Lafayette bid his time for 300m until taking over and stream rolling to a meet record 1:51.48. Matt O’Connor (Sr., Burlington Central) finished nearly four seconds back in 1:55.13.
4x200: Chicago Phillips picks up a victory for the CPS in 1:28.03-1:28.40 upset win over Cahokia. However, there are observers in the “league” who predicted this when this quartet were all sophomores two years ago.
400m: Not many people outside of Chicago knew about Urban Prep senior Jeremiah Watson before the state meet. Not even the state college coaches. Well, Mr. Watson surprised the entire field with a big win over DeVante Clark (Sr., Jacksonville) 48.36-48.43.
300H: Lucas Ege (Jr., Burlington Central) was supposed to be a year away as the big name intermediate hurdler. He decided on this past weekend that he wanted to be the man now. He cruised past the stout Gary Hickman in a meet record 37.34.
1600m: Ben Mohrdieck (Sr., Vernon Hills) got his school’s first event winner by holding off JD Lafayette who was gunning for him in 4:20.71. Lafayette came up a little short in 4:21.26.
200m: Demoria Harris continued his win streak with a great win over Josh Eiker (So., Galesburg) 21.60-21.75. Eiker set the meet record in the prelims (21.28) got a terrible start out of his blocks and could not recover against the ultra-talented Harris.
4x400: Cahokia sealed their team title and broke the meet record without the services of ailing Ja’mari Ward in 3:17.66. Kaneland was second in 3:18.46.
Long Jump: Ben Barnes (Jr., Kaneland) took full advantage of Ward’s demise and pounced on the competition with a last leap of 23-5 (+1.7). Barnes’ previous best in the competition was 22-3.75. Ward finished second with a leap of 22-10.5.
Pole Vault: Tyler Jourdan (Sr., Salem) picked the right time to beat Chase Black (Sr., Charleston) 15’6” to 15’3”. Black picked up a personal best with his runner-up effort. Joseph McDanel (Sr., Mt. Vernon) was third with a 15’0”.
High Jump: Logan Zeman (Sr., LaSalle-Peru) won his first state championship and proved that winning the Illinois Top Times indoor title was no fluke. Zeman connected the 6’9” effort ahead of Hunter Johnson (Jr., Frankfort) who was just an inch from winning. Previously champion and 7-footer Alex King (Sr., Massac County) finished in fourth placed with a 6’7” mark.
Shot Put: Kaneland again factored into this event and picked up maximum individual points when Nate Dyer (Sr.,) won the event by two feet 58’5.25”. Dyer’s mark is the fourth best effort in the state.
Triple Jump: The sensational Ja’mari Ward did not compete in Saturday’s action but he won the event from Friday’s prelims. Ward’s 47’8.75” effort held up strong. His teammate Jalon Monigan (Sr.) took some pressure away by earning second in a wind legal personal best 0f 46’3.25”.
Discus Throw: A.J. Marmion (Sr., Geneseo) picked up two feet from his prelim mark to win in 171’2”. Jacob Wagner (Jr.) stayed put in 160’5”.