Third is a first for Glenbard South
CHARLESTON — Glenbard South has had great athletes, great boys track teams before.
The Raiders had never won a trophy, however, until the 117th running of the state finals, on Saturday at Eastern Illinois University.
Sparked by victories from Garret Payne in the 400-meter run and Joe Boesso in high jump, the Raiders took third in the Class 2A competition, their 40 points trailing only champion Cahokia (62) and Chatham Glenwood (44).
“You know what? It’s terrific, the first one,” said Glenbard South coach Andy Preuss, who directed 10th-place AA finishes in 2004, 2007 and 2010.
“They’ve worked hard for four years,” he said. “We’ve had this group as freshmen, so for them to go out with a trophy is really special. Garret leading us, it’s just awesome.”
Payne, as usual, was awesome indeed.
The Wisconsin-bound senior anchored, with freshman Tim Magitt, Lamar Johnson and Wesley Sanders, a second-place 400 relay and placed sixth in the 100 dash. In trademark fashion Payne then dropped his 2A state 400 record.
The defending Class 2A 400-meter champ, last year in Charleston he ran it in 48.25 seconds. In Friday’s preliminaries he cut it to 48.06. Saturday, battling Morton’s D.J. Zahn, Payne won in 47.31.
“I knew Zahn’s a great runner, everything he did today, his great time, I expected it out of him. And I knew I would have to run a PR or a great personal race to win this one,” Payne said.
“It’s amazing, all the hard work I’ve put into this since freshman year. I’ve always wanted to be considered one of the great 400 runners, and it’s good to be able to have my name mentioned. It’s a great feeling.”
Joe Boesso gets his name in state annals by surviving a high jump jumpoff with Marmion’s Peter Stefanski. They were tied at 6 feet, 7 inches, then missed at 6-8 and back at 6-7. Boesso followed a Stefanski miss at 6-6 with a clearance, then launched himself backward into the pit to celebrate.
“It’s nice to win as a senior,” Boesso said. “That’s kind of a little-kid dream that you always have, is to win state in your track events. Yeah, it was pretty sweet.”
The team race was on his mind the whole time, and other Raiders chipped in, like his younger brother, Nick, seventh in shot put. Johnson, Tyler Benware, Jarius Shannon and Sanders took eighth in the 800 relay.
Senior Robert Cary, a surprise even to reach Saturday’s long jump finals, scored with a personal-record 21-4½.
“I scored a PR on my last jump, on my last day to jump,” he said. “I didn’t think I’d get that far.”
While St. Francis senior Joe Giamberdino was unable to reach the podium in the 3,200, finishing 13th — sandwiched by Glenbard South’s Collin White and Joe Singleton — Montini junior Pat Barrett took fifth in pole vault at a school- and personal-record 13-9.
“This experience is definitely going to help me for the future, and now I’ve got a whole summer season coming up, too,” Barrett said. “It should be exciting.”