Familiarity brings ... frustration at annual Wheaton North meet

It's nice to know your competition. Then again...

"It's frustrating," said Wheaton Warrenville South senior Kevin Credille, runner-up in the 400-meter run to Wheaton North nemesis Jon Frano at Saturday's 24th annual Wheaton North Best 4 track meet.

Credille had the upper hand March 20 at the DuPage Valley Conference indoor meet.

"I took the lead, and it's hard to make a pass in indoor, so I just made sure I got out hard," Credille said. "But out here it's a whole different game because he can still choose the speed to whatever he wants. I'm not in front of him, ever. It's a whole different beast."

Frano's time of 49.9 seconds was a whole two-tenths of a second faster than Credille's 50.1.

"Personally," Frano said, "I just want to drop down to the 48s - and then, obviously, beat him."

The Falcons beat the field Saturday, winning three of four levels for an overall 261-241 edge over WW South. At the top level Wheaton North's 79 points bested WW South (65), Lake Park (53), Naperville Central (48), Willowbrook (24) and DeLaSalle (15).

Led by sprinters Ivan Tamba and Frano, hurdlers Mike Trumpy and Matt Shatswell, and distance-running twins James and Jake Waterman, the sole open event not won by a Falcon was the 800, which Lake Park's Craig Watson finished in a manually timed 2 minutes, 1 second.

To put it another way, three of the Falcons' four 100-meter sprinters flew under 11 seconds, with No. 4 man D.A. Covington clocking 11.0.

"The speed that they're showing is great," said Wheaton North coach Don Helberg, who praised his team's work ethic over spring break. "We haven't even begun speed work, which is even more encouraging."

Encouraged also was Lake Park pole vaulter Mike Adcock, lukewarm with a 14-foot vault at the Illinois Prep Top Times Indoor but happy with his 15-footer Saturday. He attempted 15 feet, 6 inches and might have gotten it if his new, lighter poles had come "in the mail."

"I know I could have got to 15-6," Adcock said. "This meet really helped me out. It was a good one for me."

As fine as Wheaton North was on the track, Naperville Central's Russell Petty was off it. The all-state high jumper won that event, long jump and triple jump, the latter in a personal-best 45-3. That gives him 3 inches over his brother, Kalen, for the all-Petty title.

"I beat my brother's mark from last year, so I'm pretty happy," Russell said.