Neuqua Valley accepts state expectations
Neuqua Valley will be easy to spot at this weekend's boys state track and field championships. The Wildcats will be the ones wearing the target.
Returning nearly every impact athlete who trailed only Class 3A champion York in 2009, the navy-and-gold Wildcats have been one of, if not the, title favorites this season.
To be successful they'll have to handle that pressure.
"It's been hard," said six-year Neuqua coach Mike Kennedy. "It's been really hard, because when you have expectations, sometimes you're going to have the problems that everybody else has at a meet, and it's hard for some people to see that not everything went your way when people sort of expect that to happen.
"But what's good is that our expectations were not thrust upon us with rankings or anything, they were put on us by ourselves. These guys decided that they want to be strong as a team, and if that's the price you pay, then that's the price you pay."
Once the Wildcats put those expectations on themselves others joined the bandwagon. Neuqua Valley has topped the Illinois Prep Track and Field Coaches Poll the past three weeks after trailing programs such as Lake Park, Oak Park and Belleville West.
Saturday at West Aurora, Neuqua Valley qualified the most athletes to a state meet in its history. Qualifying all four relays, and two individuals in three different events, 14 boys contributed to nine different state-qualifying events at West Aurora. The key this weekend in Charleston is to maximize their top events and score in several others.
Marquette recruit Aryan Avant, fourth in the 2009 Class 3A 400 dash, is seeded seventh in the event - two spots behind his teammate, fantastic track rookie Steve Carron. Aaron Beattie, eighth in the 3,200 run last year, sits sixth among state qualifiers going in.
The Wildcats also are seeded top-10 in each relay, fourth in both the 400 relay and the 1,600 relay, where Avant, Cale Brown and Jamere Morrison return from a 2009 first-place finish.
Like Kennedy said, some things at West Aurora didn't work out the way the Wildcats would have liked.
It'll still take a great effort to knock them from the pedestal.
"I think we have a great chance to do great down there as a team," Kennedy said.
Glenbard South isn't necessarily a 2A favorite - the Raiders rose to sixth in the latest Coaches Poll - but with three relays qualified and top seeds in Garret Payne in the 400 and Wesley Sanders in the 200, they've got the makings of a potential trophy team.
Coach Andy Preuss is looking for shot put and discus qualifier Austin Teitsma and high jumpers Chris Sirota and Joe Boesso to kick-start the effort and let Payne, Sanders, Austin Williams, Affan Khan and their fast friends take over on the track.
"Garret Payne will need to be a work horse at the state meet," Preuss said. "He has done it all year. We have the opportunity to score some points."
In 1A there will be no chance at a team trophy. But Timothy Christian senior Rob Stein is a contender for a title. A four-time qualifier in discus and the 1A runner-up in 2009, Stein's throw of 58 feet, 31/4 inches is second to the 59-7 of St. Thomas More's Brandon Noe.