Wanner delayed by water

Bad weather has somehow found where Griff Graves has been so far this spring, and it did so again Friday night in Mt. Prospect.

Graves, who came to Illinois from Virginia to compete in the 40th annual Wanner Knights Invitational, was scheduled to run in the 3,200-meter run along with Bobby Nicolls from Colorado. Unfortunately, the only winner Friday night was Mother Nature.

"The same thing happened in Alabama a few weeks ago," Graves said. "I guess it just makes for a busy day (Saturday)."

After a 40-minute delay for lightning, the weather protection system at Prospect went off again just before the start of the finals on the track, thus forcing a postponement.

Most of the competitors will return Saturday when the meet resumes.

The prelims in the field events will resume at 9 a.m. from the spot where they left off. The running events on the track will start at 10 a.m. with the finals.

Graves and Nicolls will run the 3,200 at Prospect around 10:15 a.m., then take the 15-minute car ride to Palatine to race against Mat Smoody of Palatine and a loaded field in the 1,600-meter run in the afternoon.

Some of the top efforts in the field event prelims included Vernon George from Zion-Benton leaping 23 feet, 9 inches in the long jump, and Matt Kennedy of Prospect putting the shot 57 feet.

Pat Ziegenfuss ran a season-best 14.5 in the 110 high hurdles prelims and is the top seed in that event.