Johnson, St. Viator end state finals drought
CHARLESTON - It had been 26 years, or roughly 10 years before Justin Johnson of St. Viator was born, since the Lions had won a medal at the state track and field championships. That drought came to an end in about 14.69 seconds.
At the start of the 116th running of the state track and field championships at Eastern Illinois and O'Brien Stadium, Johnson lined up in Lane 2 of the prelims of the Class 2A 110-meter high hurdles and proceeded to nearly win his heat.
He finished second to Rashad Hulbert of Crete-Monee by .002 but was still fast enough to make today's finals. In doing so, Johnson becomes the first Lion since Tim Phillips in 1984 to earn a medal in state meet competition.
"I didn't feel crowded or packed in, and it allowed me to run relaxed," Johnson said. "Getting to the finals was a goal, and it's an honor to be the first to get a medal in a long time. Hopefully this isn't the last one."
Johnson had a busy day, running three events, but his day was no busier than that of Prospect junior Nick Batcha. It seems that afternoons or evenings filled with track and field are becoming the norm for Batcha, which probably made it easier for him when it came time to compete in the prelims on Friday.
To start his day, Batcha competed in the long jump and wasted little time securing a spot in the finals. His first jump turned out to be his best as he jumped 22-7.5.
"It helped a lot to hit that first jump," Batcha said. "Once I got that out there it made things a little easier."
Batcha is in fourth place heading into Saturdays finals in the long jump.
The 100 dash was up next, and with his time of 10.89, Batcha earned a spot in the finals as the fifth seed. Then it was on to the 800 relay, where the Knights have really excelled the last two weeks.
And for a third straight week, the Knights lowered their school record, turning in a performance of 1:28.51 to earn a spot in the finals. Batcha, Joe Mack, Nick Meersman and Vito Anzalone made up the very quick group.
"It's just awesome getting a chance to race down here," Batcha said. "It's such a great experience and I look forward to tomorrow."
Another relay that has made a habit of racing in the finals is the Knights' 3,200 relay. Each year the names seemingly change, but the results are still the same. This year, Albert Ciolek, Mike Thill, Matt Ashton and Kellan Strobel turned in a performance worthy of a finals berth. The 7:52.62 clocking is fourth best through the prelims and gets Prospect into the finals again.
While Prospect made it look somewhat easy, Hersey put a scare into its fans before securing the 12th and final spot in the finals. Matt Cwiok, Garrett Vick, Nate Knautz and Sam Zielke ran 7:56.55 to secure their place.
Making the 1,600 finals was all Palatine senior Alec Bollman had in mind on Friday. By winning his heat in a season best 4:15.71, the Iowa State-bound Bollman is just four laps away from achieving his goal.
"I knew that this race would be fast considering that the heat was loaded," Bollman said. "I just knew I had to stick to my race plan that coach (Chris) Quick and I put together and make my move at about 300 meters to go."
Along with Bollman in the finals will be state indoor champ Angelos Karkalis of Rolling Meadows after clocking an outdoor season-best of 4:19.88.
Karkalis' teammate Jared Diaz earned his finals spot in a difficult discus competition. His best toss of 170 feet, 8 inches has Diaz in fourth place overall.
Tyler Jones of Palatine also earned his place in the discus finals with a throw of 162-2. He is currently eighth.
Brian Bobek of Fremd also put a little bit of a scare into coach Jim Aikens and the Fremd faithful. After his first two throws in the finals went out of bounds, Bobek finally got one to stay and it was good enough for fifth place overall and a spot in the finals. His best toss of the day was 56-7.5, giving the Ohio State-bound Bobek his first shot at a medal.
"I was still pretty relaxed after the first two throws because I felt like I had some good throws so far," Bobek said. "Tomorrow I feel like I can get one even further out there."
The last two weeks have been tough ones for Schaumburg senior Dionte Hackler. Following a season that has been one of his best, Hackler injured his leg at the conference meet, putting his chances of running in the state meet in jeopardy.
"When I got hurt, I didn't think I would be able to run even at the sectionals," Hackler said.
Fortunately, his leg did heal and he was able to race in the finals. His personal best of 49.29 was fourth-fastest on the day and good for a finals berth.
"This is my last year so I am glad I got the chance to race down here," Hackler said. "I look forward to tomorrow."
Conant sophomore Ben Bowers also gets another day of competition. He earned his first chance at a medal with a PR in the 300 hurdles. His time of 39.29 held up for eighth place.
Other competitors from the area included Patrick O'Malley, Mike Sroka and John Balas of St. Viator; Mark Balmes of Hersey; Mike Conneely of Maine West; Richard Barnes, Jake Fritzler, Wyatt Condras, Connor Prizy, Ryan King, Pat Lesiewicz, Greg Kulasik, TJ Akinola and Mike Perry of Schaumburg; Eric Wolski, Spiros Angelakos, Christian Vail and Mike Varela of Fremd; Ryan Darcy, Mike Garrity, Mike Galla, Ryan Prater, Julian Grills and Joe Bernardo of Buffalo Grove; Eric Schneider, Taylor Calacci, JL Etienne, Nico Martinez, Chris Cogswell and Nick Pisani of Barrington; Tim Johnson, Chad Bobbitt, Ryan McGough, David DiCristofano, Tim Meinke, Zach Gates and Anthony Gregorio of Palatine; Kevin Reddington, James Weaver, Sean Chaudhari and Troy Cunningham of Conant; Marlen Hamilton, Steve Grajek, Shawn Lascalles and Mike Denight of Hoffman Estates; Ken Halloran of Prospect and Weston Ross of Wheeling.