David Everett

Feb 24, 2013

It might still be February but that doesn’t seem to stop track athletes around the state from having amazing performances. This past weekend was the first big weekend of action across the state. With a number of big meets happening over the past couple of days, we thought we would rundown through the top performances from each of the meets. Your meet not below? Email results to DEverett@Milesplit.Com

Weekend Highlights

Glenbard West Quad (Girls)

· Madeline Perez used the home track advantage to record a IL#1 time of 5:00.2. Her teammate, Grace Rogers, also posted a national elite time in the 3200m, clocking in at 11:46.50.

Triad Knight Invitational

· The Southern part of the state came out to play. Natalie O’Keefe highlighted the meet with a IL#1 high jump of 5-7. She joins a couple other girls with the 15th best mark in the nation. Aby Sowash of Triad also had a good mark in that event clearing 5-4.

· Lena Giger tossed the Shot Put 43-8. While this is not her best performance of the indoor season, it still is one heck of a mark. Stanford-Bound Brendan Duncan also achieved the national elite standard with his throw of 55-0.

· Chris Martin of Mascoutah dipped under the 4:30 barrier (4:29.22) to win the 1600m by 3 seconds over Waterloo’s Josh Rodenberg.

Wheeling Wildcat Relays

· Brandon Lombardino is a phenomenal thrower. He threw 58-6 to further inch closer to Duncan’s state leading mark.

· The 1500m Sprint Medley Relay saw three national elite performances with Wheeling girls overpowering Jacobs 4:23.30 to 4:24.60. Jacobs won the guys side though with a time of 3:39.70.

Jesuit Invitational (Maryland)

· It might have been a bit of a travel, but that didn’t seem to stop St. Ignatius’ Jack Keelan. He had an impressive early season double of 4:25.05 and 9:11.48. The 9:11.48 is a new IL#1 and puts him 11^th in the nation. His teammate, Taylor Dugas, ran a solid 1000m (2:38.31) to grab a second place finish. These performances helped St. Ignatius make up an early deficit to grab the team victory.

(Jonathon Boey, Photo Credit: @PNTRack)

Normal West Boys Invitational

· This meet never disappoints. 15 national elites were achieved at this meet. While it is tough to determine with so many great performances, Jonathon Boey was named the MVP of the meet. The MacArthur star ran a 22.41 for 200m and 6.85 in the 60m to win both events. His 60m time puts him ninth in the country!

· On the distance side the 4x800m saw a great time from Springfield with a clocking of 8:13.78 to win by ten seconds. Cam Knudsen put his name among the top milers in the state with a 4:26.29 winning performance. Marc Maton pulled away from a strong field to finish in 9:35.22. Three other racers were under 9:45.

· The Shot Put was full of stiff competition as five were over 50 feet and three reaching the national elite mark. Normal West’s Kyrin Tucker took the win with a IL#5 of 57-3.5

Proviso West Boys Invitational

· Two events stood above the rest in the meet – the long jump and the 3200m. The long jump brought a new IL#1 and US#7 from Lake Park’s Scott Filip. Lake Park also had another top 15 national performance in the horizontal jumps from Shawn Koch. Last year’s runner up jumped 48-4.5 to move into 13^th nationally.

· The 3200m saw seven guys go under 9:40 with state leader in the 1600m, Zack Smith, turn some heads with his 9:19.66 winner. York’s Chris May gave chase as he clocked in at 9:22. Not too shabby from February from the 49^th place finisher at the State XC meet. Ben Eaton was also a tick behind May.