Worth the weight
CHARLESTON -- Pulling in at third in the 200-meter dash Saturday at the boys track and field state finals, York's John Fox had bigger things on his mind.
"Hopefully, it's enough points," said the junior, who added a second-place 100 dash and ran the third leg of a fifth-place 400 relay. "Just have to kind of wait it out."
Worth the wait, the Dukes' kick -- Fox's sprint, Tom Achtien's sixth-place turn in the 1,600 and a third-place 1,600 relay -- helped tally 46 points, trailing only Class AA champion East St. Louis' 57.
Aided by a second-place 3,200 relay and Steve Sulkin's third-place open 3,200, York's fourth straight trophy matched 1985, 1998, 2001 and 2005 second-place finishes. The last of York's three state titles came in 2000.
Friday's 800 relay preliminary disqualification at Eastern Illinois University's O'Brien Stadium didn't break the Dukes.
"I said, 'If you can't rebound from this, then you're not champions,' " York coach Stan Reddel told his charges. " 'This is where we find out what people are made out of.' "
Behind third-place Springfield Lanphier, Cahokia, Springfield Southeast and Lincoln-Way East stood Lake Park, Waubonsie Valley and Wheaton North.
Lake Park junior Dan Block had to be satisfied with his shot put title at 63 feet, 3¾ inches. The defending discus champ and state record-holder couldn't surpass Waubonsie Valley's Brett Einbecker's 184-foot throw. Block took second at 178-4. In shot put Glenbard East's Bobby Kaputska finished an all-state seventh.
"It's my first loss, so I was kind of mad. But then when I thought of it, it's a good person to win it," said Block, whose teammate, Greg Haugh, matched his personal-record of 15-6 to finish third in pole vault.
The Illinois-bound Einbecker was "happy that it's over."
"It was pretty nerve-wracking all three throws," he said. "You know you have Block right in front of you and he's got the state record so he can pop one whenever. I was probably a hundred more times more nervous than he was when he was throwing.
"This means four years of hard work," said the state's No. 3 all-time discus man. "This is everything. This is awesome. It's just beyond words."
Waubonsie Valley's Sean Wiggan joined Scott Mankivsky, Marc Presley and Emmett Lorenz on a second-place 1,600 relay and ran a personal-best 1:53.28 in the open 800.
Willowbrook's Jeff Stapleton and Wheaton North's Graham Farnsworth trailed only repeat 800 winner Mat Smoody of Palatine. Wheaton Warrenville South's Randall Babb earned all-state honors in ninth place.
"Honestly, I'm just thrilled to be on the medal stand," Babb said.
Wheaton North's quartet of Ivan Tamba, Dayton Henricksen, Mike Trumpy and Ken Collier was similarly thrilled by its fourth-place finish in the 400 relay, following perennial burners Springfield Lanphier, East St. Louis and Cahokia.
"Fourth place is like first place for us," Henricksen said.
Another Falcon, Iowa-bound senior Chase Kadlec, overcame butterflies to sprint from sixth to third with about 250 meters left in the 1,600, his time of 4:14.02 capping "the race of my life."
"(Falcons distance coach Nate) Roe has just been pounding our 200s, and I knew that with 200 left if I was in good position I was just going to kick with everything I had. I don't know what to say, I'm in shock," said Kadlec, joined on the award stand by Achtien, Naperville Central's Steve Couch and Neuqua Valley's Jim Riddle.
Neuqua's Danny Pawola, Hinsdale South's Brian Denk and Naperville North's Kyle Gibson finished in the top nine of the 3,200, Gibson leading the first three laps in his day-glo orange jersey designed by teammate Mike Herbert.
In Class A, successfully defended by Herrin, Driscoll's Jeremy Wilk ran sixth in the 800, matching the 100 dash finish Pierre Washington-Steel, who plays baseball during the week. Or did.
"I don't know about baseball…," Washington-Steel said. "If I got training I definitely believe that I would have did a lot better down here."