Walker finishes in grand style

CHARLESTON -- Hampshire senior Quinn Walker just wanted to earn his rightful place among the many successful members of the Walker family.

His dad, Stan, was a standout quarterback on the Whip-Purs' 1976 Class 1A state champion, and his sister Amanda played on the school's Class A state runner-up girls basketball team in 2004 and landed a Division I scholarship to Western Illinois.

But all Quinn Walker had to show for his efforts were a third- and eighth-place medal from state last year.

That would change on Saturday in the finals of the Class A state track and field championships at O'Brien Stadium on the Eastern Illinois University campus.

As the top seed in the 300 intermediate hurdles, Walker made it clear that nothing short of a state title in the event would be good enough.

As he stutter-stepped to the first hurdle, thoughts of missing out again on the state title began to race through his head. Rather than panic, Walker ran faster. With each passing hurdle his lead got bigger and bigger. Walker eventually crossed the line with his arms high in the air and a smile nearly as wide -- this time as a state champion.

Walker ran an impressive 38.12 winning time and became the first-ever male track and field athlete at Hampshire to win a state championship.

"My coach told me that he really wanted to coach a state champion, and I told him I would do my best to get him one," Walker said. "This feels so good."

Earlier in the afternoon, Walker raced in the finals of the 110 high hurdles. After running solid through the first few hurdles, Walker clipped the next three in succession and wound up third in 14.72.

"I have to give a lot of credit to the other guys in the heat," Walker said. "They ran great in that race and they deserved what they got. I did my best."

As members of St. Edward's 400-meter relay, Ryan Gilbert, Eric Guerrero, Matt Ardiente and Nick Kerger enjoyed getting a chance to race in the finals in front of a packed house and a roaring crowd.

The group ran fifth, and the feeling it gave to a quartet that doesn't even have a home track made for a great day.

"Just the feeling we got from the crowd cheering and running in this environment was simply awesome," Gilbert said. "This is better than any other meet environment 10-fold."

Huntley sophomore Marcus Popenfoose competed in two state finals.

Popenfoose didn't have the type of day he wanted in the shot put as he placed 11th, but he made up for it in the discus. He came into the finals with the fifth-best throw from prelims and bested that by moving up to fourth.

Popenfoose improved his throw by over 13 feet in the finals. His best effort of 168-9 earned him his first state medal.

"The ring was better and it was better conditions in the discus today," he said. "I know I can do better, but I am happy with how things turned out."

The Red Raiders' 3,200-meter relay team wound up out of medal contention in 11th place.

After waiting until after the meet was over to find out if they would be running Saturday, the 1,600-relay team of Crystal Lake South made the most of its opportunity in the finals.

The team of Emmanuel Gamez, Steven Rogers, Dan Pulvino and Matt Zaluckyj became the first Gators to earn a medal at state in 18 years. Their fifth place in 3:19.63 tied the best finish ever in a state meet. The time also bested their previous effort on Friday by nearly two seconds.

David Carbajal of Prairie Ridge made up for a tough day in the shot put preliminaries on his first throw. He bested his prelim effort with both of his first two throws to earn an eighth-place state medal.

"My goal was to get into the finals, then when I got there to get a medal," Carbajal said. "I am glad I was able to achieve my goal."

Teammate Brett Ramirez competed in the finals of the discus and took 10th.

Brad Foote was sixth in the discus with a best throw of 165-10.

Dan Hagberg of Burlington Central was the only other area competitor that raced twice on Saturday. Hagberg battled in a tough 110 high hurdles race to an eighth-place finish and came back to finish sixth in the 300 hurdles. BC's Ryan Phebus finished fifth in the 800-meter run in 1:54.57.

Neil Klein of Streamwood, Billy TenBusch of Prairie Ridge and Phillip Farleigh of Cary Grove competed in the finals of the 3,200-meter run.