Patience pays for local track teams
CHARLESTON -- West Aurora's Aviance King was shocked -- shocked!
He arrived at the high jump competition at the boys 2008 State Track and Field meet and discovered opening height was 6 feet, 2 inches.
"I've never started at that all year," he said.
He finished higher. King, who with junior Josh Zinzer in the 200 represents the Blackhawks' Saturday finalists, was among nine high jumpers who cleared 6-5.
Five separate delays due to thunderstorms moved the high jump into Lantz Field House from the outdoor digs at Eastern Illinois University's O'Brien Stadium.
"I've got bad shins so I get shin splints inside, but it wasn't that bad," said King, admittedly not "paying attention" to news of the 6-2 opening height.
"I kind of forgot about it," he said.
St. Charles North didn't forget last year's 3,200-meter relay, which came to Charleston with the third-fastest seed time then failed to reach the finals despite running a time that would have been fast enough any previous year.
The North Stars' quartet of Scott Speare, Steve Miller, Max Clink and Chris DeSilva ran the event's fastest preliminary time, 7 minutes, 48.22 seconds. Geneva's Storm Obuchowski, Chris Higgins, Andrew Nelson and Drew Hickey also advanced as did St. Charles East with Joe Mushrush, Pat Matthews, Tyler Dettro and Dave Arends.
"This time we ran all of our best guys in prelims to see if we could do as well as we can," said DeSilva, adding he was "impressed" with Geneva.
"We like to compete with them," he said.
Kaneland's Phil Christensen enters Saturday seeded ninth in discus with a throw of 150 feet, 9 inches. Geneva's Frank Boenzi followed up a subpar sectional performance by extending his own school record in shot put. His heave of 55ΒΌ ranks sixth.
"I just did my best," said Boenzi. "I changed up a few things, got a lot more teaching in practice this week. It's a lot of praying, too, I guess."
Vikings teammate Joe Augustine had to sweat out a "very tense" few minutes to see if he qualified for today's 400 race. He ran a close second in his heat then learned his time of 49.45 seconds was good to go.
Marmion's Josh Stein was in the same boat after the 1,600. He too was the recipient of good news after his 4:17.75.
"I felt kind of bad at the first lap, going 67 (seconds), but running 3:10 the next three laps is probably my best performance ever," said the Loyola-bound Stein. "If I do qualify tomorrow it'll be a faster start, I know that, and hopefully my legs won't be as dead at the end and I can run a more even race."
Not as fortunate was St. Charles East senior Keenen Sellers. He failed to qualify in both the 100 and 200 dashes yet was satisfied with his effort on the blue track he'll call home next year.
"I told myself, as long as I did my best, did all I could, I wouldn't have a problem. So, it's just closing one chapter and starting a new one," he said.
In Class AA team standings, East St. Louis advanced 11 finalists, followed by two-time defending champion Cahokia and York each with 7.
In Class A, where Carlinville and Herrin advanced 11 and 8 respectively, Mooseheart's Mike Tovar's long jump of 21 feet, 2 inches put him squarely among the 12 finalists. At the time, he didn't know he would make it.
"It's probably going to be my last jump of the year (and) high school," he said. "I had to just give it my all. I still feel that I could have jumped way better than that jump. I think it's pretty good for today."
Burlington Central senior Dan Hagberg left little doubt in his heat of the 110-meter high hurdles. Hagberg looked sharp in winning the heat with in 14.39. His time is third best heading into the finals.
"I was fired up all day to run -- I was thinking about this race a lot," said the Cornell-bound Hagberg. "With all the stopping and starting it was hard, but I am in the finals and I get to race (today)."
Hagberg also earned a spot in the 300 intermediate finals. His effort of 39.16 was good enough for ninth and another shot at a medal. Teammate Ryan Phebus finished third in his heat, but his time of 1:57.83 was tenth best leaving Phebus just out of medal contention and with work to do on Saturday.