Boys track: Anchor's away for Neuqua Valley
CHARLESTON - It was the anchor leg of Ryan Lukas' young life.
Saturday afternoon in the finals of the 800-meter relay at the Class 3A boys track and field state meet, the Neuqua Valley team trailed East St. Louis and Minooka as the third exchange approached.
"I was in third place when I got the baton," Lukas said.
The Wildcats' anchor leg ran a remarkable final 200 meters, however, overtaking his counterparts in the closing meters to win in one minute, 26.72 seconds.
East St. Louis, the ultimate team champion over defending winner Edwardsville, was second in the event. Neuqua Valley placed eighth.
Dan Gaynes, JaQuere Williams and Kevin Sager were the other members of the Wildcats' sprint-relay quartet.
"I had to just keep driving my knees into the headwind down the stretch," Lukas said.
The Wildcats came ever so close to a second relay championship in the final event of the season at Eastern Illinois University.
Locked in yet another grudge match with East St. Louis in the 1,600 relay, the Wildcats' Sager battled the Flyers' Kevin Johnson shoulder to shoulder over the last 100 meters.
Johnson had a little too much for Sager in winning in 3:15.35.
Neuqua Valley, which also received state-placing performances from Isaiah Robinson (800 run), Connor Horn (3,200 run) and Tom Cwiok (discus), had to settle for runner-up in 3:16.
"I gave it all I had," Sager said.
"It was a tough race, but I'm glad I went so hard in my final race," said Horn, who was fifth after being third last season.
In the Class 2A finals Aaron Harris' senior year came to a glorious close for Lisle.
The Illinois-bound sprinter was narrowly defeated in placing second in the 100 dash.
But Harris, despite missing almost two months of the season with hamstring injuries, won back-to-back state championships in his final two high school races: the 400 and 200 dashes.
"I am here with one goal: to win gold in all of those races," said Harris, who won the two sprints in respective times of 48.97 and 22.17 seconds. "I fell short of the Triple Crown. This is only my sixth meet of the season. I am thankful to be 100 percent. Words cannot describe how I feel right now."
Montini junior Mitch West and Wheaton Academy senior Ty Seager were third and fifth, respectively, in the Class 2A 100 dash.
Seager was fourth in the 200.
In Class 1A, IC Catholic Prep junior Jordan Rowell was a one-man wrecking crew for the Knights.
The junior was part of all 16 of the Knights' points after being runner-up in the 400, sixth in the 200 and anchoring the 400 relay to another sixth-place finish.