Wheaton N.'s Collier the comeback kid
Call him The Closer.
Put someone in front of Wheaton North's Kenny Collier and there's a good chance the senior will run him down.
Collier did it a couple times Friday at the Red Grange Invitational at Wheaton Warrenville South.
First, he shook off a rough baton exchange in the 400-meter relay, ate up a 15-foot deficit and passed two sprinters while running a 9.8-second split to give the Falcons the relay win.
Collier couldn't allow much of a head start in the 100-meter dash, so he outright won that exceedingly close race in 11.03, just .06 seconds ahead of Batavia's Bai Kabba.
Kabba got the upper hand on Collier in the 400 -- "I'm usually a 200 or lower guy, he's a 400 person," Collier said -- but Collier rallied again in the 200, winning over Evanston's Tremaine Gordon and Kabba with a time of 22.25 seconds.
"I'm really good at chasing, not being in the front, knowing where everybody's at," said Collier, who had the honor of holding aloft the first-place trophy after the Falcons' 232 total points in the three-tier meet topped Evanston (216), Batavia (165) and WW South (154).
"Usually when I'm trying to catch up behind somebody, I usually do," he said. "If I don't, it's usually rare."
Collier's teammates in the winner's circle included relay partner Mike Trumpy in the 110 hurdles and Chase Kadlec handily in the 1,600.
The only catching up Waubonsie Valley's Brett Einbecker needs is catching up to the state discus record of 198 feet, 4 inches.
The Illinois-bound senior settled for a winning mark of 173-3 after his last two throws were both scratches. The first scratch was measured at 200 feet, 11 inches. The second scratch went unmeasured.
"It seemed farther to me," said Einbecker, who also won shot put at 54-4ΒΌ.
His father, Roger, is the Warriors throws coach and was the discus judge. He called the foul on Brett, a slight touch of the left heel on the front of the thrower's ring.
That'll make a good topic for dinner conversation.
"It definitely will be," Brett said. "And we got a tape of it, too, so we can go over that."
Naperville North's Kyle Gibson had a 19-second lead to win the top heat of the 3,200.
The junior entered the race with a headache. He ran the second 1,600 meters faster than the first.
"I was going to pull him, but he insisted on running," said Huskies distance coach Dave Racey. "I'm glad he talked me out of it."