Ziemek reaching new heights in decathlon

The sky may be the limit for Itasca decathlete Zach Ziemek, and we're not just talking pole vault.

The Lake Park graduate, a redshirt senior at Wisconsin, placed 15th out of 29 competitors at the International Association of Athletics Federations World Championships for track and field last weekend at the "Bird's Nest" in Beijing, China.

"Overall it's awesome to take 15th, I can't really complain about that," said Ziemek, back on campus Wednesday for his first day of classes at Wisconsin.

"Obviously I wanted to (set a personal record), but given it's my first World Championship I think it's a great experience for making more teams and doing well in my last college season," he said.

Ziemek, who helped Lake Park win two Class 3A track and field championships and won titles in pole vault, long jump and triple jump as a senior, scored 8,006 points in Beijing, second among Americans to gold medalist and world record-setter Ashton Eaton. Qualifying for Beijing at the USA Outdoor Championship in June, Ziemek's 8,107 points surpassed the Olympic A-standard and set Wisconsin and Big Ten Conference records.

"I was always confident in myself knowing I could make the team, but to do it at 22 it was a surprise," said Ziemek, who after two Big Ten decathlon titles and three All-America honors chose to redshirt in 2014-15 to train for the World meet with Wisconsin multi-events coach Nate Davis.

In front of parents Rick and Vicki, sister Amanda, his girlfriend Victoria and Davis, Ziemek placed top-nine in long jump, high jump, discus and pole vault, the latter his best event, a tie for third at 17 feet, ¼ inch. He recorded personal bests in the 400-meter run at 49.89 seconds, in the 1,500 at 4 minutes, 56.66 seconds and a season best in his least-favorite event, javelin, at more than 185 feet.

"It's real technical and it gives me a lot of trouble," Ziemek said of the javelin throw.

Back on American soil Ziemek and Davis prepare for the college season, where there's a good chance the NCAA 2015 heptathlon and 2016 decathlon events will feature three Lake Park graduates. Tim Ehrhardt of Michigan State placed fifth in Division I decathlon last spring and Rice's Scott Filip took eighth.

Then comes Ziemek's bid for a top-three Olympic Trials finish and berth on the USA team headed to Rio de Janeiro. Buoyed by his experience in China he's ready to get on with it.

"I loved going to the meets, I thought it was great. It was a little different, but the whole atmosphere was great," he said.

"(USA Track & Field) did a great job of accommodating the athletes, that was all great. The country itself was much different than America. It was pretty hectic there and pretty crazy. It just opened my eyes to what a great country we live in."

Pan Am Gamers

At the Pan Am Games in Toronto on July 25, Waubonsie Valley graduate and University of Texas senior Morolake Akinosun ran the third leg of the women's 400-meter relay which won gold with a time of 42.58 seconds, a Pan Am Games record. In June at the NCAA Championships she scored in the 100, 200, 400 relay and 1,600 relay to join only Jackie Joyner-Kersee to have scored in four events in consecutive NCAA Outdoor women's meets, according to Texas.

Akinosun wasn't the first United States track athlete to gain a medal at the Pan Am Games. That honor went to former Lake Park Lancer and Washington Husky Lindsay Flanagan.

A four-time all-stater in track and cross country at Lake Park and the 2008 Class 3A cross country champion, Flanagan took home the bronze after running the marathon in 2 hours, 36 minutes, 30 seconds. She rallied from sixth after 10 kilometers. It was only her second marathon, having placed ninth at the Houston Marathon on Jan. 18, at 2:33.12. Her sister Kaylee, is in her junior year at Washington.

Net results

At the United States Tennis Association Midwest Closed Junior Championships in Indianapolis on June 26, Glenbard East sophomore Kolie Allen and Meg Kowalski of Lyons Twp. breezed to the girls 16-and-under doubles title, 6-1, 6-3.

Allen is a five-star recruit according to the Tennis Recruiting Network, the country's 42nd-ranked girl in the Class of 2018. Kowalski is No. 20.

Hinsdale Central graduate Martin Joyce advanced to the singles finals in the 18-and-under bracket before falling to Sameer Kumar of Carmel, Indiana, in a 6-7(6), 7-6(3), 6-3.

Joyce, an Ohio State freshman, got a measure of revenge when he teamed with Hunter Tubert of Huntington, West Virginia, to beat Kumar and Schaumburg's Vincent Lin for the 18s doubles title, 6-4, 5-7, 1-0(10-4).

Up and comer

Waubonsie Valley junior Kyonte Johnson used to throw weights. Now he lifts them.

As a freshman, Johnson started out playing football and throwing shot put in track and field. As such, the 5-foot-5, 180-pound youngster hit the weights. He did so with such affinity and technique that Warriors throws coach Roger Einbecker suggested Johnson lift competitively.

Johnson prepared for his first meet, April 2014 at the Illinois State Weightlifting Championships, by easily cutting 15 pounds to compete in the 77-kilogram division. In the snatch he lifted 154 pounds and 194 pounds in the clean and jerk.

He was hooked, and Einbecker suggested he end his track and field career to concentrate on competitive lifting.

"The first and likely only time that will ever happen," the coach noted.

Suffice to say that in Johnson's blossoming new athletic career, which also mandated he shelve football, he improved his total lift in every competition, and only once saw an individual mark slip from a prior meet. The goals of Einbecker and other coaches who have since instructed Johnson - including Einbecker's son, Brett, the former all-state discus thrower - were bigger meets, tougher competition.

Johnson responded. In a January meet in Grand Rapids, Michigan, he qualified for the National Youth Weightlifting Championships; his lifts in the May Indiana State Championships qualified him for the American Open, to be held in Reno, Nevada, this December.

At the National Youth Championships, June 28 in Minneapolis, Johnson finished second in his class, earning an invitation to an expenses-paid, 10-day lifting camp at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. That session concluded with a July 26 meet in which the 166-pound Johnson set new PRs of 231 pounds in the snatch and 319 pounds in the clean.

Johnson has moved up to first alternate for the USA Youth Pan American Championships, Sept. 15-20 in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. On Sept. 8 he'll return to the Olympic Training Center for a weeklong session. Although barring injury or withdrawal by a current team member he will not participate in Mexico, Roger Einbecker said Johnson has impressed some of the best weightlifting coaches in the country.

"It is highly unusual that someone comes out of nowhere like Kyonte," Einbecker said. "With only 18 months of serious weightlifting training and 15 months of competitions, Kyonte is indeed the rare athlete."

doberhelman@dailyherald.com

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