DuPage track club members star at Junior Olympics

The DuPage Track Club, led by Lake Park assistant Tom Kaberna, produced the most All-Americans out of Illinois at the USATF National Junior Olympic Track & Field Championships, July 26-31 in Wichita, Kan.

Recent Lake Park graduates, University of South Carolina-bound twins Jeremy and Jermaine Kline, finished first and second, respectively, in the young men’s division of shot put. Braving temperatures of around 110 degrees, Kaberna reported, Jeremy Kline’s winning distance was 65 feet, 5½ inches. Jermaine followed at 64-8.

In discus Jeremy and Jermaine earned two more All-America finishes with respective fifth- and sixth-place finishes. Per Johnson added All-America intermediate boys shot put honors.

Zach Ziemek, the two-time IHSA Class 3A pole vault champion, previewed the form he’ll use as a University of Wisconsin decathlete.

Ziemek placed second in the young men’s decathlon with 6,918 points, just 12 behind Texan Wolf Mahler. Within the decathlon Ziemek won pole vault and long jump; in open events he won pole vault at a height of 16-1 and earned a third All-America honor with a fourth-place triple jump of 49-6¼.

Competing in young men’s high jump, Lake Park incoming senior Kevin Spejcher placed second, though he equaled winner Gyle Becker’s 6-8¾.

In the intermediate division Lake Park’s Scott Filip matched Ziemek’s second-place decathlon finish. Filip enjoyed a great July 26, winning the decathlon’s high jump, long jump and 100-meter dash. He also garnered All-America status in intermediate boys long jump and triple jump.

Recent Glenbard West graduate Kathryn Pickett claimed All-America honors in young women’s heptathlon with a fourth-place finish. Naperville Central graduate Liz Crissy took fifth in young women’s high jump, at 5-3. Willowbrook grad Cherise Porter placed fifth in the young women’s 200-meter dash.