How Lake Park fielded a state championship team
At the Upstate Eight Conference boys indoor track and field championships in March, Lake Park coach Jay Ivory said, "I think we can win it."
He didn't mean the UEC. He meant the Class 3A outdoor state title. Those who hang around Ivory just a little know he's not prone to hyperbole.
Flush in the field events, his reservation was whether the Lancers would be held short on the track. He hoped quality senior distance runners Steve Krauss, Ryan Jorgensen and Luke Nally and maybe a sprint relay headed by Jake "Kuba" Szymula might do something at state.
His concern was illustrated - to an extent - in Charleston. The Lancers qualified no relays, and while the seniors put themselves in position, none scored.
The Lancers field events proved to be enough. The 50 points accumulated by throwers Jermaine and Jeremy Kline and multitalented Zach Ziemek were 10 more than second-place York's total.
"We'll take it any way we can earn it," a smiling Ivory said on the O'Brien Stadium infield just before being handed the first-place trophy.
Great news for Lake Park and bad news for the rest of Class 3A: all three of those athletes return, plus sophomore high jumper Kevin Spejcher, already a two-time state qualifier; and Greg Block, a junior thrower who easily produces state qualifying distances but has the bad luck to be behind the Klines.
Don't go changing: How can Austin Teitsma simultaneously be such a ferocious competitor and such a friendly, fun-loving person? The Glenbard South senior threw in the Class 2A shot put and discus preliminaries, and before disappearing into the crowd of athletes, coaches and fans he said, "Got to get bigger." The voracious weightlifter takes his great attitude to the University of Illinois football team.
WeGo classic: Twice in its history West Chicago had produced athletes who recorded two all-state finishes. Not until May 29 did one person attain three - what's more, in the same year - when senior Matt Kubik finished sixth in the 100-meter dash, seventh in the 200 and ninth in pole vault.
University of Wisconsin star Tim Keller was second in the 3,200 and sixth in the 1,600 in 2000 and West Chicago pole vaulter Tom McDonald was top-nine in 1987 and 1988.
This was Kubik's first year running sprints on varsity, postponing them as a junior to specialize in pole vault. At the 3A meet he ended up setting a program record with a time of 21.88 seconds in the 200-meter preliminaries.
A two-time 3A pole vault qualifier with 15-foot capability, Kubik regretted his final height of 13 feet, 6 inches. His sprint work more than made up for it, achieving a goal and sending Kubik into the University of Illinois-Chicago anticipating more.
"Compared to last year when I came in and didn't make the finals of the pole vault, this year I qualified in three events and made the finals in all three," Kubik said. "Definitely, I think I opened myself up for sprints and maybe a decathlon."
Snapshots: DuPage County is so strong in state track and field it's almost impossible to get anyone but the team and individual champions into "game" coverage. Anyone who made it to Charleston has a story, though.
Indoors in January, Neuqua Valley senior and soccer convert Steve Carron - the unofficial 2010 rookie of the year - ran his first 400-meter dash in 55 seconds. On May 28 he ran the sixth-fastest time in Class 3A at 49.39 seconds. In the finals he improved to a third-place 49.07 - and ran in the winning 1,600-meter relay. Also in that relay, Wildcats sophomore Jake Bender subbed for another runner in Friday's preliminaries then in a late coaching decision joined Carron, Cale Brown and Aryan Avant in the race Saturday. "He stepped up as always," Brown said.
Wheaton North senior C.J. Jossell played basketball at Proviso West as a freshman then moved to Wheaton North turf. "Obviously, I didn't want to run," he said. Jossell had to be persuaded by former Falcons record-setting hurdler A.J. Harris, who's become so close Jossell calls Harris "my uncle." Harris introduced him to Wheaton North coach Don Helberg, an affiliation that ended with Jossell's seventh-place finish in the 110 hurdles. "I think I did pretty good for my third year in track," said Jossell, who will walk on at Arkansas State. "I think I stood my ground."
Similarly, Downers Grove South senior Tyler Rocco started as a sprinter and jumper at Willowbrook. After his sophomore year he switched schools and fields. Now 6-foot and 225 pounds, he finished eighth in 3A shot put as a junior and heads to Valparaiso on a 75 percent scholarship after again going eighth in shot and ninth in discus. "Everyone got faster and I got stronger," he said.
Wheaton Warrenville South senior pole vaulter Lucas Looby will follow the footsteps of older brothers Patrick, Matt and Rob by attending the University of Illinois. In the cool-down tent near the awards stand after his fourth-place finish - his second all-state berth - Lucas exclaimed, "Eight days till surgery." He performed for weeks with a torn meniscus in his right knee.
Fenton discus state qualifier Michael Wojcik threw as a sophomore but not as a junior. Fenton throws coach Lee Cassidy said Wojcik instead attended Polish dance school.
Downers Grove North was one of the few local schools to state-qualify all four relays. In the 800 preliminaries TaSean Jackson, Rob Lott, Courtney Greenwood and Nate Sloan finished .01 seconds away from reaching the finals in a school-record 1 minute, 28.59 seconds. "It all came down to the 4-by-4," coach John Sipple said, and in Saturday's finals Tom Doyle joined Jackson, Lott and Greenwood for a third-place 3A finish in a school-record 3:18.68. The Trojans lowered the school record in each of their last three races.
Waubonsie Valley's Andrew Szott and fellow senior Alex Kampf formed a great 1-2 punch for throws coach Roger Einbecker. While Kampf was unable to again reach the discus finals, Szott took sixth in shot put at 57 feet (as a sophomore he threw 43.) Szott will use lessons learned through track to help him play football at West Point: "I learned how to overcome fears, how to overcome stress, just perform under pressure I guess, and just have fun in whatever I'm doing."
Downers South's first state titlist since 1990, Princeton-bound senior Shane Molidor, was the sophomore team's MVP then rolled an ankle the first indoor meet as a junior. He added strength for the sprints, qualified in four different events this spring and left with a seventh-place 100 finish and as the 3A long jump king at a school-record 23 feet, 33/4 inches. "I always knew I still had it," said Molidor, who also won long jump at the Illinois Prep Top Times Indoor Classic.
Benet senior John Kawka looked at the sunny side of not making it out of the 400-meter preliminaries. "Now I just get to enjoy the whole experience instead of being cooped up inside, in the dorm room and in the field house trying to stay cool."
The final word: "Just get out here and have fun," Neuqua Valley coach Mike Kennedy said to his team before Saturday's finals. "What I told them last night was if you can look at yourself in the mirror at the end, what else can you ask for? And so many of these guys can say that."