Lake Park wins UEC Valley
Lake Park boys track coach Jay Ivory has a beautiful smile.
You should have seen it Thursday.
At the Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division boys outdoor track meet the Lancers needed more than the Big Three of Zach Ziemek and Jeremy and Jermaine Kline to beat Neuqua Valley and Waubonsie Valley.
They got more. Victories by senior Larry Matthies in the 300-meter hurdles and Scott Filip in the 110s, plus a surprising 400-meter relay joined the usual field event onslaught of Ziemek, the Klines and high jumper Kevin Spejcher to give the Lancers the victory over defending UEC champ Neuqua Valley.
Lake Park’s 153 points outdistanced Neuqua Valley’s 141 and Waubonsie Valley’s 125. Metea Valley, in its first outdoor conference meet, finished in fourth with 59 points in Roselle.
“It means a lot to us. I’m trying to find the words,” said a beaming Ivory, who won neither conference nor sectional in last year’s Class 3A state championship season.
“It feels good. It feels like a validation in a lot of ways, that it’s a team program,” he said.
The first indication was the group of Matthies, Demetri Alimissis, Filip and freshman Marcus Jegede taking the 400 relay.
“This is the first time that we put that relay in together, and we wanted to see how it would work out. And by the way it went today I think that it was very successful,” said Filip, who also took second in long jump and triple jump, behind Ziemek in each.
Ziemek set a new UEC pole vault record of 16 feet, 1 inch; and a new triple jump record of 49 feet, improving upon a 27-year mark by 2 feet.
Jermaine Kline hit it huge. The 330-pound senior extended his own UEC shot put record to 65-10¾ inches. Then he sent a discus 201-1, becoming the fifth boy in Illinois history, including Lancers legend Dan Block, to surpass 200 feet.
“Oomph, I guess you could call it, to keep pushing yourself harder and harder,” Jermaine said.
Every point counted for the Lancers, and track athletes like Kevin Jorgensen, Aaron Lamprecht and Jeremy Lozano complied. Yet Neuqua Valley was hurt, literally, when Adegbenga Okubadejo pulled a hamstring in the opening leg of Neuqua’s 800 relay, the first event after an hour rain delay.
“That’s got to hurt,” said one of the Wildcats’ braintrust, and that was already with 800 ace Vincenzo Dal Pozzo out with a freshly twisted ankle.
Neuqua’s Mark Derrick and Taylor Soltys rallied to go 1-2 in the 1,600, and Wildcats junior Jake Bender personally racked up 30 points by winning all three open sprints.
“Winning the 100, 200 and 400 in this big conference meet is a really big deal here at Lake Park,” Bender said. “It really gives me momentum and the team momentum into the sectionals and state, which is really what we look forward to at the beginning of the season.”
Waubonsie Valley also had a 1-2 finish, in the 800 with Eric Pembrook and Joe Brant, who then joined John Burke and Jakobi Johnson to win the 1,600 relay.
The Warriors scored big with hurdler Caleb Chambliss, sprinter Demetrius Gray and Owen Saldana, bagging a new personal best in shot put at 58-6½. Warriors senior David Groeber won his second big race in two weeks, taking the 3,200 after winning the 1,600 at the DuPage County meet.
Last week, Groeber said, it was “due to working off guys in the pack and making a move at the right time and trying to hang on to it. Today it was just kind of pure grit in the heat.”
Metea Valley showed relay strength from Richard Waller, Alan Williams, Will King and TréSean Mackey, plus distance in Joe Stewart. Mustang Jarrell Ross was fourth in the 100, high jump and long jump.
“Maybe next year,” said the consistent Ross, “I’m going for a first place.”