advertisement

Batavia’s Voland overcomes injuries

Track fans have been cheated. It’s no one’s fault, but they were.

Batavia’s David Voland, one of several great local hurdlers at last weekend’s boys state track and field meet in Charleston, persevered through injury to finally cap his high school career on the blue track of O’Brien Stadium.

A hip injury and also fractured vertebrae, from overuse in gymnastics, ruined his junior season and his sophomore stretch.

“This has really been my number one goal ever since sophomore year,” Voland said. “So, to finally do it in the last chance I had really means a lot. It feels great.”

It was plain he belonged.

Voland — who joined area hurdlers Taylor Andrews, Eddy Grahovec, Noel Yarngo and his Batavia teammate, Rob Mohr, as an all-stater in either the 110- or 300-meter hurdles — punched his ticket downstate with the 12th-best sectional time in the Class 3A 300 hurdles, 39.05 seconds.

In Friday’s preliminary heat that included the finals’ eventual Nos. 1-2 finishers, Voland placed third with a personal-best time of 38.13 seconds, fourth-best of the nine finalists.

In Saturday’s finals Voland came around in sixth place, in 38.56 seconds. Shortly thereafter he anchored the Bulldogs’ 1,600-meter relay team, bringing home an eighth-place, all-state finish for Emund Kabba, Jake Benner and Mohr.

It took awhile, but Voland overcame his injuries.

“At the beginning of the season it was just for me to show everyone — and really just to show myself — that I am supposed to be here,” Voland said.

“I tried to show myself what I could do, so later in the season I’d be able to carry things out as if nothing had ever happened here before. I feel like that’s kind of what’s happened.”

The air up there: St. Charles North junior Oshay Hodges made great strides in Charleston. As a sophomore Hodges had qualified in triple jump, but didn’t reach the state finals.

This year he finished in second place in Class 3A high jump at 6 feet, 7 inches, a tad below his 6-8 personal-best.

As a sophomore, Hodges said he was “shocked” at the “difficult” atmosphere. A year later he used his downstate experience to his advantage against the likes of champion Carl Heinz from Oak Park.

“They’re all good guys, it’s a good atmosphere, everybody’s really nice and really positive,” Hodges said. “They give you good tips after you come back (from a jump). It’s cool.”

Though cool, Hodges took an aggressive approach against the favorite, Heinz.

“He kind of just made me really strive for something, so I kind of wanted to attack him first,” Hodges said. “I always go for the first person. I guess I got it done, somehow.”

Upstate Eight unites: Watching St. Charles North’s Brandon Baymon battle Neuqua Valley’s Jake Bender in the 400-meter dash preliminaries on Friday made one wish that like in the indoor season, the Upstate Eight Conference outdoor track meet was competed between all 14 teams, not by division.Bender, out of the UEC Valley Division, went on to be the 3A state runner up in the event. Baymon, out of the River Division, finished less than a second behind Bender but at 49.34 seconds was .17 seconds away from a lane in the finals.#147;I wasn#146;t surprised (Baymon was right there),#148; Bender said. #147;It#146;s good to have Upstate Eight competition.#148; #147;It#146;d be much better,#148; Baymon opined, if the UEC outdoor was one overall meet.#148;Baymon had a great senior season after transferring from Elgin. He didn#146;t even compete last year, needing to work instead of run.#147;Family problems,#148; he said.This year he fought through a right hamstring injury suffered at the Kane County meet. #147;I#146;ve been running through it,#148; he said. #147;I#146;ll ice it, stretch it out and stuff, put a little Icy Hot on it, go run. I#146;m not going to give up. I don#146;t think about it. I just run.#148;The air up there II: Driving home from the state meet, Daily Herald correspondent Darryl Mellema #8212; also a spokesman for Moose International, he was following Ramblers competing downstate #8212; crossed paths with a contingent of Hinckley-Big Rock parents and athletes who pulled into the same filling station.In the back seat, Mellema said, was Bill Weissinger, the HBR sophomore who finished third in 1A high jump. Mooseheart#146;s Oumaru Abdulahi won the event to become the Ramblers#146; first state champion since 1958.Weissinger#146;s mother complimented Abdulahi for supporting her son when he would periodically struggle in high jump. She appreciated his desire to help and also simply his gentlemanly ways. Mellema also noted that Abdulahi repeatedly congratulated the 1A high jump runner-up, Kyle Landon of Chester, throughout the course of competition.#147;Manners and respect are taught at Mooseheart as part of the Model of Care,#148; Mellema stated. #147;But a true test of such learning is when you are in public, in competition and reaching literally for great heights.#148;The boys will have many more opportunities to enjoy each other#146;s company. The top five finishers in 1A high jump all were sophomores.Cover guy: Kaneland 2010 graduate Logan Markuson graced the cover of the IHSA program for Saturday#146;s state finals. He was pictured yelling triumphantly as he carried the baton over the finish line in last year#146;s 1,600-meter relay, which earned the Knights a second-place Class 2A tie with Cahokia.Too close to call: In this era of fully automated timing, performed electronically with precision computer imagery captured by cameras that cost upward of $8,000, a tie in an event is rare, particularly for first place.Yet it happened in the Class 1A 100-meter dash when Peoria Christian#146;s Jonathan Hutchison and Leo#146;s Bruce Gray each crossed the finish line in 10.79 seconds. More accurately, it was 10.783 seconds. According to Lisle#146;s Ray Carlson, who has been a principal on the IHSA state finals timing crew since the mid-1990s, two cameras were in place at the finish line, one apiece on both sides of the track. Three FAT technicians observed the camera images of the race, enlarged on-screen till they became fuzzy, and Hutchison and Gray still caught the finish line at the same time.What made this really interesting is Leo won the meet with 42 points. Harrisburg finished second with 41. Had Gray finished second and been awarded 8 points rather than the 9 points he received for a first-place tie, Leo and Harrisburg would have tied for the 1A championship.Bittersweet: They don#146;t call it finals for nothing. Regardless of whether you#146;re a state champion or didn#146;t reach Saturday, there#146;s a tinge of sadness. Chances are it#146;s the last time you#146;ll be competing, at least with the same group of buddies.#147;We all love to compete and we#146;re the best of friends. We have a couple graduating guys this year and we#146;re really sorry to lose them,#148; said sprinter Joe Fese, who still has two years left at Aurora Central but will see twins Mike and Joe Reuland and 1,600 relay alternate Nolan McCue graduate, among others.Kaneland#146;s Taylor Andrews set a new Class 2A record in the 110-meter high hurdles. That#146;s only part of being downstate with a group of pals in what many feel is the best time of their life.#147;A lot of it is the experience and the brotherhood with the team, too,#148; Andrews said. #147;It#146;s all about making memories.#148;