Boys track and field: Elgin savors win at city invite
As he received the plaque for his team's victory at Tuesday's Elgin City-Royal Invite at Larkin High School, Elgin boys track coach Andrew Smith stopped to reflect.
"You know, three years ago, we took over a team of zero points at conference, so we've been on a slow build," Smith said. "We won our invite a few weeks ago, and to win this just shows that we're on the right path. The kids are working hard."
And how. The Maroons amassed 145 points by winning 6 events and placing second in 4 others, breezing to a 30-point advantage over runner-up South Elgin. With 67 points, surprising Harvest Christian edged host Larkin for third place by a single point.
Perhaps no Maroon worked harder Tuesday than junior Nolan Williamson, who won the long jump (19 feet, 6-½ inches), 110-meter hurdles (16.54) and 300 hurdles (43.02). That last event was particularly gratifying for Williamson for one simple reason.
"It was my second time doing 300s," he said. "Last meet, I couldn't get over them - I was either going too high or too low, and this one, I think I finally figured it out."
Also putting in yeoman's work was Brandon Copeland, who won the 800 in 2:06.5 and joined forces with Enrique Perez, Max Troyke and Jakob Woerner to win the 3,200 relay in 8:49.9. Alex Ade rounded out the winners for the Maroons by topping the field in the 400 relay in 55.57.
South Elgin was led by Jaurice Thomas, who easily won both the 100 and 200 dashes, in 11.05 and 22.19 respectively, while Larnell Brown seized the triple jump with a top leap of 44-3½. The Storm also got 7 runner-up finishes. Host Larkin got its only winner by its 1,600 relay team of Elijah Hernandez, Nathaniel Kohler, Adalid Hernandez and David Hibbler to close the meet.
However, the feel-good story of the day may have been Harvest Christian, Westminster Christian and St. Edward - schools without the facilities or personnel of their larger city counterparts.
The Lions were led by their distance runners. Michael Sisko led off the meet by winning the 3,200 run in a stiff breeze in 10:19.8, while Andrew "Tony" Dobrescu did likewise in the 1,600 in 4:50.5.
Westminster Christian took fifth with 35 points behind senior Zach Anderson's twin victories in the shot put (48-6¾) and discus (149-7).
"I was just focusing on the fundamentals," Anderson said. "I just had to make sure I kept everything sound and landed an OK throw."
St. Edward was also well-represented by its 400 and 800 relay teams of Dwayne Allen, Alec Uscila, Zachary Olenek and Albert Lopez, who won those events in 44.27 and 1:33.5, respectively.