3A Boys Recap: The Grand Daddy Of All Track Meets

The Roselle Lake Park Boys gladly took home the first official team trophy with 68.5 points.  Minooka 44.50, and New Lenox Providence Catholic 31.

 

Brandon Lombardino (Sr., Fox Lake Grant) emerged as the premier pre-season pick and rightfully so.  He comes from a great throwing program at Grant high school which has been a hot bed of quality throwers year after year.  But it has been a bit of a surprise to see the extremely high returns so early.  In the indoor’s final meet of the year, he was mired in a dog fight with two tough competitors Jared Kern (Jr., Machesney Park Harlem) and Kittridge Riley (Sr., Aurora Waubonsie Valley).  Kern had apparently had his best throw of 60-2 in the middle portion of the competition.  Unlike in the past, the field events contested six rounds instead of three prelim and three final round attempts for qualifiers.  Lombardino needed every round to push past Kern and company- especially the last round.  He nailed his final throw and state best 62-1 for the victory.  The boys competition was a direct contrast to the girls who saw drastically low performances (more on that later). Kern earned a big raise in his PR as did Riley who bumped his best up to 59-11.

 

The pole vault did not turn out exactly the way it was supposed to. The heavy favorite Luke Winder (Jr. Plainfield Central) did not compete due to a sore back.  Chad Weaver (Sr., Providence Catholic) and Tim Ehrhardt (Sr., Roselle Lake Park) took matters in their own hands against a lighter than expected field.  In fact, it was just the two of them after Nate Richartz (McHenry) bowed at 14-6.  They both cleared 15-0 and then it was off to 15-6.  They again got up and over- completing the task of moving on to 16-0.  Unfortunately, they were not able to give spoiled vault fans the 16-foot clearings they have gotten accustomed to.  Neither competitor was able to quite hit mark.  Weaver was ruled the winner on less misses despite having the same 15-6 mark as Ehrhardt.

 

The absence of state leader Matt Harris (Sr., Lagrange Lyons Twp.) didn’t seem to faze Scott Filip (Sr., Roselle Lake Park) who had his hands full with a surging Cole Henderson (Jr., Pekin) who came in low on the food chart.  Henderson didn’t seem too caught up in the Lake Park star lights.  Henderson improved on his previous best by over a foot and was in front of Marcus Jegede (Jr., Roselle Lake Park).  Filip did execute his game and launched a 23-foot plus effort off the springy running surface.  Henderson would finish his day with a big PB 23-2.25 compared to Filip’s 23-2.75.  It was a great battle to say the least.

 

Lake Park continued their dominance in the field with four triple jumpers scoring points.  Jamion Nash (Sr., Belleville West) used some choir like unison chaps from his teammates to upset the Shawn Koch (Sr.) and company.  Nash pounded the run way each time in rhythm but the biggest jump occurred midway with a 46-11.25.  Filip, Jegede, and Koch went 2,.3, 4 on 46-9.5, 46-7, and 46-0.75.  For good measure, the Lancers had another jumper Gio Basso (So.) placed seventh leaping 42-5.  Basso normally competes on the frosh-soph level but he qualified for the indoor championship despite never competing in a varsity meet.  Oh, the depth of Lake Park field events.

 

Tyler Yunk (Sr., Belvidere North) 9:11.17 [69, 2:22.0, 3:32.2, 4:41.6, 5:49.9, 6:56.8, 8:03.6]- Yunk won a spirited race over Caleb Beck (Sr., Oswego) 9:15.07.  They traded 400m leads eight times. Yunk led 400 splits 3,6,7,8- Beck rolled 1,2,4,5.  Jesse Reiser (So., McHenry) hung in there for awhile as did Jonah Hanig (Sr., Highland Park) and Garrett Lee (Sr., Belvidere North).  However, the race was Yunk’s and Beck’s to decide.  They ran together through 1600 and then 2000.  Yunk turned up the heat on Beck just before the 11th lap and moved on from there and wasn’t challenged.  The win had to be a big breakthrough for a kid who didn’t have the greatest fall cross country season.  But it now appears as though he is going to be a force this spring.  You can through Beck into that mix too.  “I’m really enjoying this track season- I’ve run my best times so far and I want to get under 9:10,” he said.

Minooka                   7:58.10- 2:00.6, 1:57.8, 2:00.6, 1:58.9

Chicago Lane Tech  8:00.48- 1:58.6, 1:59.6, 2:03.4, 1:59.1

Skokie Niles North  8:00.49- 1:59.6, 1:58.8, 2:02.3, 1:59.6

Summary: This looked like last year’s final with Minooka winning, Niles North second, and Lane Tech third.  Well, Minooka repeated with a school record in tow.  The championship started out aggressively with the 12-man herd.  It took about two and half laps for the players to emerge.  Lane Tech’s Pavlo Hutsalyuk (So.) moved to the front with force by the 600m.  

 

Hutsalyuk continued to surge and pull away from the pack that included Minooka, Niles North, and few others in the mix.  Hutsalyuk created a clean lane for the 5-4 Jon Vara (Jr.) to navigate the roadway free of traffic.  Vara worked the Mondo surface to his liking as if he was running a solo time trial.  He reached his 600 in about 1:28 low before feeling some pressure from Minooka’s Chris Wilson.  Wilson charged extremely hard and drew about even to the third exchange.  Niles North had also made their intentions known as well by a strong leg by Emmett Barr.

 

Lane still had the lead but only by a thread as David Schmieg (Jr.) was trying for dear life to hold on.  By the second lap Minooka took over with Cam Knudsen who steamrolled to the front.  Schmieg fell back even further out of the top three spots.  Niles North’s Aquil Aboobaker (Sr.) emerged in second to give his team a fighting chance.  The pre-meet list leader Crystal Lake South was nowhere to be seen.  In fact, as the race was about to enter the anchor leg stage, it was a three team race.

 

The final legs were off and running.  Minooka now had a dominant lead with Alex Pierce in control.  No other team beside Lane Tech and Niles North were in position to threaten Minooka.  The gap on the rest of the pack was about three or four seconds.  Lane’s Marcelo Burbano and Niles North’s Randy Mortell gave chase after Pierce.  Initially, they appeared to gain on 

Pierce but it was too late as Pierce turned on the jets one last time with less than a lap remaining.  Burbano had a step on Mortell and was desperately trying to hold off Mortell.  As Pierce brought home the baton to an IL#1 time and school record, Burbano sprinted hard with hard charging Mortell on his shadow. Mortell dove at the line but just came up short by a shoestring.  So once again the trio provided déjà vu all over again- but it was just one year later.

 

Jamison Dale (Sr., Chicago Jones) and his coaches had a plan unbeknownst to the rest of the field.  What would he do in the 1600?  Dale usually likes to hold back and burn rubber in the middle of the race like a Kenyan surge.  But the scouting report is out on that tactic now.  Dale immediately moved ahead and out of sight of the pack.  There wasn’t much noise in the race probably because most of the crowd that Dale was insane for going out so far ahead of everyone. The Loyola University bound Dale hit the first 400 in 60.8- more than four seconds ahead of the field.  More of the same at 800 he touched base in 2:03.6.  Still no one came to challenge him.  Dale’s coach Andrew Adelmann shouted instructions on the backstretch for him to get it going. Dale started to fatigue a bit at 1200 despite still having a strong lead and time of 3:08.5.  His legs began to wobble but he continued on.  The chase pack led by Paxson Menard (Sr., Belvidere North) and Alex Gold (Deerfield) came on strong but it was too late.  Dale won in 4:17.34. Gold took second (4:20.80) and Menard (4:21.61) was third.  Adelmann would later say “we gotta work on things to come later in the year.”  That probably means running up with the likes of Jack Keelan (Sr., Chicago St. Ignatius) and Garrett Lee once the calendar changes to May.

Cole Henderson competed in the long jump in between the 60 prelims and finals. But no one expected him to get a big factor despite beating the #1 ranked Jonathan Boey of Decatur MacArthur last weekend in Charleston.  

 

Henderson let his heat mates have it when he motored to a very fast 6.85 clocking.  There were a number of coaches mumbling “who is that!?”  Many of them were expecting Malik Harrison (Sr., Springfield) to be the man.  Harrison only mustered 7.07 but he won his heat.  In the final Cole once again got a great start and destroyed the field duplicating his 6.85 time.  Harrison must have been stunned to be so far behind in 7.00.

 

Henderson did not stop at the short dash. He also topped the 200m field out of heat two running 22.55- just a few hundreds of a second ahead of Downers Grove South’s Odell McFarland (Sr.).  Henderson said that he was a football man who came out to become more serious.  He did compete last year and put up marginal results.  But he may find out if he continues to run fast and stay injury free, he is going to be a house hold name very quickly.

 

Minooka won all four relays and that is rare in a major meet.  The Indians prevailed in the 4x200r over the likes of the heavy favored St. Charles North quartet.  Minooka ran the second best time in the classification 1:31.25 out of heat one. St. Charles North got into messy angle running and transition muffs that cost them the win. The North Stars were only able to run 1:31.46 for second. They were fighting to keep Sandburg off of their heels.  The Eagles ran hard for third in 1:31.63.

 

Malik Harrison did leave town with a sprint title. He won the 400m in 49.71.  He beat a newcomer Paul Ifianayi (So., Elk Grove) who clocked 49.88.

 

Antonio Shenault (Lake Park) edged Andrew Helmin in the 60H 8.16-8.17.  Helmin also placed fourth in the 400 in 50.75.  His main event will be the 300H.

Minooka 3:25.59 [52.1, 51.8, 51.7, 49.8]

Plainfield East 3:25.88

St. Charles North 3:27.29

The Saints of St. Charles North led for almost two legs until the second runner almost ran over an official that was standing in lane one talking to another official.  The near road kill collision appeared to bother the North Star leg and he was passed by Minooka and Plainfield East.  Minooka wasn’t really threatened too much after that despite East on their backs through the race. The Indians anchor Chris Wilson used a 49.8 burner to seal the deal.