Boys track: Wheeling's Shannon, Prospect are in their element
The cool and crisp conditions that usually accompany the Knights Wanner Invite at Prospect wouldn't normally faze Wheeling senior sprinter Jason Shannon.
But couple those chilly sub-50 temps with a cold that Shannon hasn't been able to shake, and it's pretty easy to see why Shannon had more than the competition to overcome in the 49th running of this midseason classic.
"I just didn't pay attention to it," Shannon said. "I just go out and run through it."
And in his signature 100- and 200-meter events, no one was faster than Shannon. He pulled away to win the 100 in 11.08, then looked as sharp as he has all outdoor season in running a personal best of 22.63.
"Anything like the long waits between races or not feeling well, I pushed to the back or out of my mind," Shannon said. "I just think about running my best - running my race."
Shannon and the Wildcats ran to a seventh-place finish (58 points) in the team standings.
Lyons Township and standout distance runners Danny Kilrea and Vince Zona led the Lions to the team title with 173 points. The host Knights ran second with 129.5 to 120 for third place Minooka.
"We put up a lot of great performances tonight," said first year Prospect coach Jay Renaud, a onetime contestant in this meet when he ran for the Knights back in 2002-2005. "We try and put a lineup together for this meet that is loaded up, and then build from here to conference, then sectionals."
One building block for the Knights is their sprint relays. The 400 relay team of Nick Konstantinou, Tim Zalinski, Dante Cecala and Ian Arms took the race in a quick 43.09, edging out Zion-Benton by .02. The same foursome came up just short to Lyons in the 800 relay but still popped off a season-best 1:30.47, finishing .10 out of first place.
"We took a nice solid week off and set or goals really high for this meet," Arms said. "We came, we wanted it, and we won. We took the mentality that this is our house and we wanted to come out and show that tonight."
Prospect also showed strong in its signature race, the 3,200-meter relay. The team of Nate Cozine, Jeff Snell, James Riordan and Sean Sanaghan won in a season-best 7:55.60. Fremd, entered as an exhibition entry, won the race with a best effort of 7:52.97.
A season-best wasn't all Libertyville junior Alex Tam had in mind when he prepared to race in the 1,600-meter run. In a field that featured 2016 Class 3A state cross country champion Soren Knudsen of Minooka, Tam focused on his race and what he needed to do to achieve his goal of breaking the school mile record.
Tam took the race out fast and made the rest of the field chase him down. With 500 meters to go, the Northern Arizona-bound Knudsen caught and passed Tam. Tam didn't break stride and ultimately crossed the line with a second-place mark of 4:15.87, getting that school record in the process.
"My plan was to go out fast and with my pace," Tam said. "If the field went with me, which I thought they would, then great. If not, I would just run my race."
Tam led for 3 laps until Knudsen caught him. But even then Tam was still surprised the main group was still far behind.
"Even when he passed me I was surprised the field hadn't come up," Tam said. "My whole goal today was to get the school record and I am happy I got that and can now just keep building off that."
York junior Charlie Kern knows a little about building to a big finish. So when Zion senior Thomas Mosley took the pace out quick in the 800, Kern was more than ready. With 300 meters to go, Kern began to pass Mosley and he eventually pulled away to win in 1:53.21 - one of the top times in the state so far this spring.
"This is such a big meet that we always try and treat it like a small state meet," Kern said. "In this race, it's not so much about how you run the first lap, but remembering how to run the second is how you win this race. And I felt like I put a lot of effort into that last lap."
York finished fifth with 63 points. The Dukes got top-three finishes from senior Cal Widener in the shot put (55-10.5) and junior Jackson Bode in the 3,200-meter run (9:29.85). In an exhibition effort, Barrington senior John Stefan had the best shot put throw of the meet (59-2.5).
Other individual winners included Dakari Ferguson (high jump) and Victor Olaitan (110 high hurdles) of Schaumburg. Ferguson cleared 6-4 to edge Lawrence Knish of Wheeling (6-3). Olaitan won with a season-best mark of 14.99.