Lake Park's Block throwing well early

Lake Park's Dan Block looks primed to defend his state shot put title.

His teammates look ready to assemble a strong season.

Block's first preliminary throw at the 19th annual Pirate Indoor Classic track meet at Proviso West nearly bounced off the rear wall of the throwers' bullpen, 66 feet away. At a meet-record 64 feet, 6 inches, that stood to win the event by 9 feet.

"I want to be the first person, in college or anything, to throw 70 feet in my shot put and 70 meters (230 feet) for my discus," said Block, a Class AA discus champ in 2007.

"So far everything's going as planned," he said.

Overall, the Lancers' plan is encouraging not just in field events but because of what's happening on the track.

Led by victories from Steve Krauss in the 1,600-meter run and Ryan Jorgensen in the 600 and second-place finishes by Demetrios Layne and Luke Nally in the 55 hurdles and 3,200, respectively, Lake Park placed second to East St. Louis, which scored 109.5 points to the Lancers' 99.

Plainfield Central took third with 82.5 points followed by Glenbard South and Glenbard North each with 75.

Fenton, getting good efforts by Nathan Smith in the 3,200 and Justin Southward in the 800, placed 12th.

"I feel like we have a lot more depth this year," said Lake Park's Krauss, who clocked a 4:31.19 in the 1,600. "We have guys that can back up a lot of the top guys."

At Glenbard North mainstay pole vaulter Tom Stacey aimed for a meet record of 15 feet, 1 inch before settling for the top mark of 14-0. With top athlete Roger Weston nursing a knee injury, the Panthers were bolstered by young sprinters like Devin Harkins and Andre Smith to go with senior Bobby Withington.

Glenbard South is also blending new and old.

There's senior sprinter Andrew Payne - second in the 200 dash, fourth in the 55 - breaking in the likes of his younger brother, Garret, who took third in the 400.

For the few solid Raiders seniors like Luke Zanoni there's a sophomore hurdler such as Peter You, third in the 200 hurdles behind Crown Point's (Ind.) Denzell Miller and Glenbard North's smooth Anthony Distefano.

Then there's Raiders junior Austin Teitsma, who in his second track meet threw the shot put 48 feet to finish fifth.

Glenbard North coach Eric Manuel might be able to speak for Raiders coach Andy Preuss: "I'm very happy with the progress of the guys," Manuel said. "We're probably better than we thought we'd be."

Batavia, which placed ninth, started its spring break Friday. That removed one of the state's top athletes, vacationing senior Bai Kabba.

It didn't seem to bother Bulldogs coach Dennis Piron.

"It was a real good day for our kids," he said. "They were real competitive, did a real nice job overall."

Bai's sophomore brother, Edmund Kabba, got into the act with a sixth-place finish in the 55 dash, while senior Drew Schmitt was the high-water mark with a first-place time of 9:47.32 in the 3,200 run.

"A fantastic effort," said Piron, who also credited Drew Dienslake and Sam Stoner in particular for their work in a second-place 3,200 relay.

Batavia junior Pat Peterson personally contributed 9 points to the cause, finishing third in the 55 hurdles and sixth in the 200 hurdles.

"He's a kid who does a lot of stuff for us in our building," Piron said. "He did a really nice job."