It was a nice time at the track on a sunny afternoon on the southside of Chicago
St. Rita High School; Chicago IL-
The summertime is supposed to be about relaxation, rejuvenating, rebuilding, repairing, and more. For those athletes who compete during the off-season, it's good to know that there are some quality options to partake. The Chicagoland United Performance Group (CYUP) threw their hats into the track & field meet hosting game during this past indoor season. The success built off of that spawned the Last Call Invitational. In its infancy, this is a meet that hopefully can develop into a variety of great things one day.
It was clear skies when the field event action took off at 11 am sharp. Due to the light turnout, some events were combined by gender. Former Loyola Academy product Mervin Dino won the men's open long jump with a leap of 21-1.25.
The track temperatures appeared to be stable as climes did not reach above 80F, occasionally touching gusty winds. The first event of the day was the combined 1600m and despite entering a no-mark, Joe Nomnicki provided some early fireworks with a blistering first 400 in 1:00.10. Nomnicki would not uphold the 4:00 mile pace but he completed a respectable run and held on overall over two sections to win in 4:28.31.
E. St. Louis Sr. star Devontae Ford came to Chicago ahead of the national championships in Oregon. "I wanted to get my confidence back [after falling] last weekend at state," said Ford. The graduated Ford competed in the 110HH and 300H. In his first race, Ford jetted a very solid 14.31 (-0.6) essentially by himself. Electing to run a final, Ford clocked 14.43. In between Tylar Mack (TF South grad) winning the 100m in 11.19, Ford ran away from the sparse field in the 300H with a time of 38.60. "I feel like I'm ready to run some good times at Hayward Field now," said a smiling Ford during the aftermath.
It wasn't an all boys display at St. Rita HS. Seventh-grader Charlize-Trinity McKenzie of Wisconsin returned less than a full day from a splendid performance at the Magis Mile, broke the 800m facility record in 2:21.04. We could be looking at a future star, Mckenzie ran the 3200m all alone in 11:43.81.
Symone Frison of Chicago Lindblom did not run the 100m final but she did turn in a 12.45 (-2-2) prelim performance. Look for her and the Hounds and Foxes Track Club to turn in more solid performances during the remainder of the summer.