Shaffer’s big drop leads Prospect

Prospect junior Quentin Shaffer needed a big time drop to hit the 3,200-meter Class 3A state qualifying time standard in Thursday’s Loyola sectional.

Shaffer’s time decrease turned out to be monumental. He nearly doubled the 12-plus second drop he needed to win the event in 9:17.78 and lead a big crew of Knights to next weekend’s state meet at Eastern Illinois University’s O’Brien Stadium in Charleston.

“To me Shaffer was the stunner of the day,” said Prospect coach Mike Kamedula after his team finished second in the team standings to Evanston..

Shaffer came in with a seed time of 9:41.24 and the state-qualifying time is 9:29.04. Shaffer likely made the fast heat of the 3,200 of the state meet after winning by 1.09 seconds over Loyola’s William Hague.

Another shocker for the Knights was the 3,200 relay time of 7:49.5 by Josh Campos, Mike Thill, Dan Troutman and Ted Ford was only good for fourth.

New Trier (7:44.3), Niles North (7:44.5) and Niles West (7:47.9) went 1-2-3. Maine West was fifth in 7:51.68 and eighth-place finisher Loyola ran a state-qualifying 7:57.65.

“I never thought we could run that fast,” Kamedula said. “If you had told me before the meet we’d run 7:49, I would have told you we’re winning it.”

Junior hurdler Dave Kendziera qualified in the 110 highs by taking first in 14.58 and in the 300 intermediates by finishing third in 39.59.

The Knights’ sprint relay of Sam Frasco, Vito Anzalone and Chris and Nick Meersman made it by taking second in the 400 (43.11) and 800 (1:29.13).

Nick Krumpolz also advanced in the discus by taking third with a throw of 155 feet, 5 inches.

“We had a lot of good stuff,” Kamedula said. “It was a great sectional and we ran a lot of PRs.”

Maine West pole vaulter Alex Polovchak also qualiifed as he took second after clearing 13-3.