Jelena Rowe Leads Magical Day At The Gene Armer Invitational

The hurdles race was fast but mired in a bit of controversy 

Boys-

Wyatt McIntyre (Jr., Athens) came into the meet wanting to serve two purposes. The first purpose was to get satisfaction from a less than desirable 2-mile performance at the University of Kentucky HS Invite last month. "I ran terrible in Kentucky partially because I was a little sick," said McIntyre. He wanted to get a solid time without going all out. McIntyre opened up on the field right away with a first mile in 4:43 before essentially shutting things down and running 9:40.02. "I'm coming back in the 1600 later and wanted to save a little for that race." In the second race, McIntyre battled Andrew O'Keefe (So., Granite City) and Jake Schwartz (Sr., Waterloo) to the end. It was a lean by McIntyre 4:26.88-4:26.98 over O'Keefe and later Schwartz... the distance scene saw Phillip Hall (Jr., Danville) win a close 800 race in 1:59.33. It was the second race on the U of I track that Hall has won in three weeks.

Juwan Denton (Sr., Chicago Morgan Park) could have been the athlete of the meet had he not been disqualified in the 60HH. He initially was ruled the winner until he stepped into another competitor's lane during the final meters in the race. Denton would remond and win the long jump (21'6.75") and 200 (22.90). He also ran a leg on the winning 4x2 relay.

Lenell Navarre (Sr., Chicago Marist) came into the meet as someone under the radar. After winning the 60 in 7.06 he is now in the emerging speedsters category. He set things up with a 7.04 prelim effort. To be honest the opportunity was opened when Travis Higgins (Sr., Highland) pulled up lame at the finish line while leading. He fell across the finish line in pain but finished second (7.08). 

Sam Sikon (Sr., Carbondale) knew very well who was winning the weekend before he started throwing Saturday morning. "I know that John Meyer [Lockport] threw 64-6 last night," he said without hesistation. "If I don't throw 65 feet then it's a wasted weekend." Sikon ended with a season best 62-11 which he was not happy about.

The relays were set up with the 4x8 between Bloom and Lane Tech. Bloom moved out to a sizable lead before getting reeled in on the final leg by the Indians. However, the Trojans held strong and won 8:19.92-8:20.86.