Boys track and field: Glenbard West makes its move
As Glenbard West's Alex Pierce prepares to play wide receiver for the University of Cincinnati football team, he's made a quick transition to track and field for his senior year.
"I really love track. I just wanted to get my body ready for football and just get faster. The workouts are a lot of fun," Pierce said.
A member of the Hilltoppers' state championship boys volleyball team in 2017, Pierce could be part of some great all-state running moments next month.
On Thursday Pierce joined seniors Joe Zydlo and Brady Heller and junior Tyquan Cox to win both the 400- and 800-meter relays at the Hilltoppers' annual Hank Haake Invitational in Glen Ellyn.
Glenbard West coach Jon Schweighardt moved the meet to avoid possible cancellation due to Saturday's projected bad weather. No team scores were kept in the six-team field that also included Glenbard East, Glenbard South, Wheaton North, Batavia and Evanston.
Glenbard South, Wheaton North and Batavia had meets Wednesday and Glenbard East Tuesday. This was the Hilltoppers' first outdoor meet.
"It was an opportunity to run and we had to take advantage," Schweighardt said. "I'm really happy about it. I think we're going in the right direction and we still have a good three, four weeks before conference."
The Hilltoppers won the 400 relay in 42.7 seconds manual time and 800 relay in 1:28.52 - already near the 1:28.50 fully automatic time record whose lineup included Zydlo, Heller and Cox.
All four Glenbard West relay teams qualified for 2017 Class 3A state. None made the finals.
"We think we could get top five at state, something like that, maybe even win state," Pierce said. "We just come out and work hard every day. Keep loose, have fun, compete. We try to compete, which we can do because we have a lot of guys that are very close in times."
As a sophomore, Pierce briefly competed in indoor track before joining volleyball. Groomed then as a triple jumper before he bulked up, Pierce also competed in long jump for the first time Thursday and won with 20 feet, 9 inches.
Senior Cam Benes ran the 1,600 fresh and took control in the final lap to win in 4:29.4. The Hilltoppers also won the 3,200 relay in 8:28.8 with junior Stephen Moody, senior Luke Malek and juniors Rory Cavan and Will O'Brien.
In an exciting 800, Wheaton North senior Joey Simon edged Cavan 1:57.74 to 1:58.31.
Simon, 10th in the 800 at 2017 state, ran a meet and indoor school record 1:56.22 to win the DuPage Valley Conference indoor meet. He did not compete Wednesday because of a tight hamstring.
"I felt good today during the run," Simon said. "The wind was strong but it was nice to have such fast competition. I'm just trying to carry through what I had in the indoor season, slowly drop my times down to 1:51 for state."
Wheaton North senior Tyler Johnson, eighth at 2017 state in shot put, won at 53-1 and senior Sam Singleton took the 100 in 11.31.
Senior Ian Rothery, among three returnees from the state-qualifying 1,600 relay, was second in the 400 in 51.21, an open lifetime best. He ran a 51.0 split at 2017 state.
"I'm trying to get below 50 by the end of the season," Rothery said. "We have about six guys that can go sub-53 so it's looking pretty good."
Glenbard East's top finishers included junior Peter Steiskal. He hopes to be the Rams' first state qualifier in throws since 2008, when coach Dan Greco was a student there.
Steiskal threw a personal-best 46-9½ in shot at indoor conference. In discus, where he was fourth in sectionals last year, Steiskal threw 125 feet Tuesday, 5 feet from his best.
"I'm feeling pretty confident with it. I really think this is the year I could be going to state," Steiskal said. "Starting new techniques with a different (private) coach, I think it's really stepped me up this year. There's some strength elements, but the technique's just gone way up."
Many of Glenbard South's athletes were at a throwers invite or competed briefly and left to attend National Honor Society induction ceremonies.