Boys track: Robinson anchors Neuqua Valley to relay win
CHARLESTON - Neuqua Valley's Isaiah Robinson finally got that state title.
As did teammates Tyler Bombacino, Jake McEneaney and Josh Mollway in the Class 3A 3,200-meter relay, in the 123rd running of the boys Track & Field State Finals.
It was Robinson who in 2014 led off that event in the state preliminaries, then was switched out of the lineup for the finals, which Neuqua won. Saturday the senior ran the anchor leg of the Wildcats' winning relay, finishing in a time of 7 minutes, 45.51 seconds.
"It's just amazing that I was able to watch the 4-by-8 win a state championship as an alternate my freshman year and be able to run on it my senior year," said the USC-bound Robinson.
It wasn't as easy as it looked when Mollway handed Robinson the baton with a 20-meter lead. Even as the bell rang with 400 meters left Robinson glanced over his left shoulder and saw 25 meters of air.
With around 250 meters to go, the gap shortened until Robinson needed an all-out sprint under hot sun to beat Sandburg's Dylan Jacobs by .24 seconds.
"You never feel good when a guy comes up on someone who's supposed to seal the deal, but I have confidence in Isaiah. He's executed every time we've needed him to," said McEneaney, who also placed sixth in the open 1,600 two spots behind Downers Grove North's Alec Danner.
Like Mollway said, "I knew Isaiah would be able to hold them off."
"I'm just fortunate the first three legs got us in the lead," Robinson said. "I didn't have to worry about running against somebody the whole way, I just had to worry about the finish."
Robinson later earned his sixth all-state honor anchoring a third-place 1,600 relay with JaQuere Williams, Kai Larson and Nick Mitchell. That came together despite Williams missing a month after injuring his hamstring at California's Arcadia Invitational in April.
"I wasn't too worried," Mitchell said. "I knew he'd be back 100 percent."
Edwardsville was back 100 percent to win Class 3A ahead of East St. Louis and Bloomington; Neuqua finished in seventh. Among three state records set, Deion McShane of Class 2A champion Freeport ran the 300 hurdles in 36.53 seconds to topple the 1999 mark of 36.77 set by Jon Schweighardt, the current Glenbard West coach who ran at Wheaton Warrenville South.
The crowded DuPage County contingent in the 800 was led by York's Charlie Kern in third, ahead of Naperville Central's Peter Villanova and Waubonsie Valley's Wes York also earning all-state honors and Wheaton North's Joey Simon placing 10th.
Lake Park's Chago Basso stayed pat in third in shot put and moved into third on his last throw in discus, of 180 feet, 9 inches. He'd twice finished sixth in disc.
"I'm just really happy with my career so far," the Alabama recruit said. "I'm ready to move on to the bigger weights in college. I'm really excited about the opportunity to throw the hammer in college."
In the 300-meter hurdles Glenbard West's Vince Di Venere took off for the first hurdle a half-step too early and never regained rhythm in a fourth-place finish, ahead of Downers North's Joe Keys in seventh.
In the 110-meter hurdles Glenbard North's Jace James - who'd received a good-luck text from Northwestern's Pat Fitzgerald, his future football coach - and Paris Miller placed a respective fourth and sixth.
"It's been really good working with Jace all these four years, and I hope to do better things in college," Miller said.
In Class 2A Montini's Mitch West said finishing second in the 100 dash "stung." He also anchored a second-place 400 relay with Zach Olson, Nick Fedanzo and Matt Quaglia, and finished eighth in the 200.
"On to serving the country," said West, the Navy-bound footballer.
Jordan Rowell, representing Class 1A IC Catholic Prep, saw his first-place preliminary long jump mark of 22-9¼ surpassed by Connor Artman of Class 1A winner Illini West. Rowell, who tweaked his left hamstring in Thursday's prelims, had to pass and settle for second, his 10th all-state honor.
"This year I couldn't pull it out," said Rowell, headed to Northern Illinois. "It's sad, but I have bigger things to accomplish in college in football."