Boys track: DuPage County athletes let effort show
CHARLESTON - Body language indicated the pace, effort and, for the northerners, the oddity of competing in 80-degree weather.
After his heat of the 800-meter run in Friday's Class 3A preliminaries of the boys state track meet at Eastern Illinois University, there sat Naperville Central's Peter Villanova, his skin shiny with sweat. Slumped next to him was Wheaton North's Joey Simon, second in the heat just ahead of Villanova, staring at his stomach.
Pulling in from the next heat was Waubonsie Valley's Wes York, gassed but still his live-wire self. That may have been due to taking "anything that's not cheating" to combat allergies and a flu bug.
"That was fast," Villanova said, smiling. He wasn't hallucinating.
Simon and Villanova each ran the two laps on O'Brien Field's blue oval within 1 minute, 55.42 seconds. Waubonsie's York placed fourth in his even-faster heat, at 1:54.74. Add York's Charlie Kern, who won the first heat at 1:55.44, and all four runners advanced to Saturday's Class 3A 800-meter finals.
"The goal was definitely just move on, save as much energy as I can for tomorrow," said Kern, who withdrew from a later 1,600 heat.
"It's fast, that's for sure," Simon said. "It's nice to get a (personal record) as well. Not a big one but a PR's a PR, I guess."
"Just trusting the process, giving it everything I had," York explained, and knowing you've worked hard to get where you're at - and one little (cold) isn't going to end my season."
Neuqua Valley brought 25 athletes to Charleston, second only to Oak Park's 26 in Class 3A. The season continues for several. Individually only Jake McEneaney advanced in the 1,600 - Downers Grove North's Alec Danner also - but Ryan Kennedy, Josh Mollway, Tyler Bombacino and Isaiah Robinson ran the fastest 3,200 relay at 7:48.20, and Neuqua qualified its 1,600 relay as did Downers North. Two other Wildcats relays fell short.
"All we're doing is hoping to get into the next round, getting those handoffs down," said Neuqua's JaQuere Williams, who led off the final relay.
Lake Park's Chago Basso sits third in shot put entering finals and fourth in discus, while York's Cal Widener advanced in shot put and Wheaton North got a nice sixth-place position in shot put from junior Tyler Johnson.
Wheaton Warrenville Souths' Tommy Ansiel and Lake Park's Ethan Koval advanced in pole vault; WW South's Erik Stubner, Naperville North's Kris Heinz and Hinsdale Central's Cullen Fitzgerald all will compete in the high jump finals. Hinsdale South's D.J. Anderson is seeded fourth in triple jump at 47 feet, 1ΒΌ inch.
Glenbard North's Paris Miller topped his teammate, Jace James, for the first time this season in a big meet, both reaching the 110-meter finals - though it'll be Glenbard West's Vince Di Venere and Downers North's Joe Keys running in the 300s Saturday. Di Venere dropped his time to 38.16.
"I feel really good about it," Miller said, "because it's my first time downstate. I just wanted to have fun with it."
During Class 2A preliminaries the stadium announcer exclaimed as Wheaton Academy senior Jonah Jones came "out of nowhere" to occupy first place in the 1,600. Jones fell back to fourth but at 4:24.70 made the finals.
"Every once in a while coach (Chris Felinski) and I will talk about the 'thumbs-up' feeling. I was feeling it," Jones said of his surge.
Montini's Mitch West had a huge day in Class 2A, advancing with the second-fastest 100 time of 10.88, the seventh-fastest 200 time of 22.59, and anchoring the second-fastest 400 relay, 42.73 with Zach Olson, Nick Fedanzo and Matt Quaglia.
"I'm excited about tomorrow, our last day of track," West said. "It's going to be exciting, altogether."