Popenfoose king of state discus throwers
CHARLESTON - The conditions at the state track and field championships at Eastern Illinois University's O'Brien Field were near perfect on Friday, which led Huntley junior Marcus Popenfoose to claim, "If the weather is this beautiful, why not take advantage of it."
Popenfoose did a little more than take advantage of the sun-splashed day and near perfect weather - he absolutely reveled in it.
On his final throw of the much anticipated Class 3A discus competition, Popenfoose tossed the disc farther than anyone ever has at the state meet. When the disc finally came back to earth it was measured at 199 feet, 8 inches to establish a new Illinois state meet record. Coincidently, the previous record was established about 20 minutes early when Kentucky-bound Lake Park senior Dan Block tossed the disc 196-5.
"I didn't know when I let it go just how good it was," Popenfoose said of his historic throw. "When I did get a good look at it, I thought it had a chance to be a good one."
Joining Popenfoose in today's finals is Cary-Grove senior Ryan Psenka. On his first throw of the prelims, Psenka threw the disc 165-11 securing the sixth best throw of the afternoon.
Popenfoose was pretty good in the shot put, too. He is currently second after the prelims. His best effort was just a whisker under 60-feet, landing 59-11.75 away.
"I just tried to stay loose (during the shot put) and stay focused on what I need to do," Popenfoose said. "It's my goal to get a PR at state and I am close."
Dundee-Crown may have cut things just a little too close in the prelims of the 3,200-meter relay. Anthony Manfrin, Dan Magnant, Jon Magnant and Nathan Prom finished fourth in their heat with a season best 7:53.67. The time, in what turned out to be an extremely fast prelim, was good enough for ninth overall into the finals.
"We got into the finals and that's a great thing for us," Manfrin said. "We get a chance to race on Saturday."
Manfrin will be even busier as one of the state's best milers will race again the finals of the 1,600. Manfrin finished fourth in his heat in 4:18.55, earning one of the 12 spots in today's finals.
Bartlett senior Dan Karys also cut it a little too close.
"He needs to try to not give his coach a heart attack next time," Bartlett coach Jeff Bral said after watching Karys in the long jump.
On his final jump of the day, Karys jumped 22-6.5 to finish sixth in the prelims giving the top overall seed in the event his first chance to long jump in the state finals.
"I just really had to get my steps down," Karys said. "Once I did that, I felt pretty good. Now I get a chance to jump again."
Unfortunately for Karys and Dundee-Crown senior Aaron Reams, the triple jump did not provide the same type of success. Karys and Reams both missed the finals in the event by a whisker.
Crystal Lake South senior Emmanuel Gamez also was involved with a close call. One went well for the Gators senior. In the 400, Gamez ran 49.55 to finish eighth overall resulting in a place in Saturday's finals.
Gamez also ran on the Gators' 1,600-meter relay. He was joined by Victor Adenakan, Kenny King and Steven Rogers to finish third in their heat in 3:21.40. The time was just shy of the state finals.
Burlington Central senior Paco Wlekinski cleared the required 13-0 to reach the final of the Class 2A pole vault.
Mitch Plum, Tre Llanes, Nick Smith, Kyle Kita, TJ Pasia and Tom Gast raced at state for the Rockets. Ray Quesada of Hampshire, Pat Livengood of Dundee-Crown, Adam Kuforiji of Elgin, Anthony Golowach of Cary Grove, Jake Lawson, Danny Trevor, Kevin Arndt, Nick Ellingson, Danny Carey, Joey Cieniewicz, Elliott Turnbaugh, Mike Kneip and Jason Ofodile of Jacobs and Alex Beruscha Nick Davila, Josh Sivila, Brandon Luczak, Matt Hammer, Tor Larkin, and Jeremy Hansen of Huntley also competed in Friday's prelims.