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Pain turns to tears of joy

There is crying in track and field, and it's a good thing.

Prevailing over injuries that have tried to sabotage him, Wheaton North junior Chico Jackson heard the distance marked on his last-chance long jump at Friday's Class 3A York sectional. He dropped into a crouch, hands clasped to forehead, as if contemplating all he'd overcome.

Jackson's jump of 22 feet, 9 inches won the event and sent him back to the state meet after a one-year hiatus since he sprang from nowhere as a freshman qualifier.

The emotion was plain.

"They're just tears of joy, man," said Jackson, who'll take to Charleston what is tied for Class 3A's eighth-best mark. "I've been through so much pain the past few weeks."

He was among seven state qualifiers for the Falcons in Elmhurst, tying sectional champion York, both a qualifier shy of Lake Park's eight downstate reservations.

It was a proud day for York coach Charlie Kern, who watched his own son, also named Charlie, a freshman, win the 800-meter run.

"I'm so close to this that I can't really see sometimes how amazing it is. I know it, but I'm in the midst of it," the coach said.

Glenbard West, surging as a program, qualified six including junior Jake Kravas, who finished second in the 100-meter dash to York's dominant Alex Teague, who also won the 200 and ran on a qualifying 800 relay.

Kravas - 11.26 seconds in the 100 to Teague's 10.87 - ran track as a freshman, didn't think he did well so next year he skipped it. He's back and rolling.

"I wasn't playing football anymore, so I just kind of did it to keep me busy. And it's been going pretty well," he said.

Addison Trail's Jaavion Bradley started high jump two years ago, as a sophomore. His best then was 5 feet, 7 inches. Friday he cleared 6-3, and that second-place finish did the trick.

"I never thought I would go downstate for track my senior year," he said. "I did it just for fun, and it turns out that I actually was pretty good."

First-time also qualifiers included Wheaton Warrenville South's Andrew Ives in pole vault and Glenbard East's Patrick Mikel in the 400.

Ives cleared 13-9 to follow York's David Prigg and Lake Park's Ethan Koval each at 14-3, giving Lake Park vault coach Doug Juraska a state qualifier for a 30th straight year. Ives had been stuck at 12-6 before clearing 13-3 at the DuPage Valley Conference meet.

"I skipped 13-3 and just went for 13-9," Ives said. "(Vault) Coach (Daryl Fitts) said, you already had 13-3 earlier, there's no reason to try to match it again."

Mikel, who won the 400 at 49.71 seconds, usually finds a faster athlete to "use him as a rabbit." As that race played out, he changed tactics: "My target was just to get in first," he said.

Marquee events included the 110 hurdles, Wheaton North's Steven Connor nipping defending 3A champ Antonio Shenault; qualifying 3,200 relay teams from York and Glenbard West each under 7:54; and York's Matt Plowman passing Conant's Zach Dale over the last 50 meters to win the 1,600.

"Oh, it's so exciting," said Plowman, a Michigan recruit. "To be an individual champion as well as a sectional champion as a team. I'm just so pumped up for how we all did."

Lake Park advanced all four throwers, Mike Prestigiacomo in shot put and discus, Dylan Scheirich in shot put and Chago Basso in discus. Wheaton North added Nathaniel Schulz and Dan Webber in discus.

Basso, a sophomore, joins older brother Gio on the Lake Park bus. A senior, Gio made it in long jump and triple jump, the latter at 45-9ΒΌ.

"I'm going to room with my brother. It'll be fun," said Gio Basso, an alternate on two of Lake Park's four straight title teams from 2010-13. "This is his first time going, so I'll get to show him everything that we've done, and hopefully that just gets a good atmosphere going."

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