Panic? No, Conant’s Bowers towers

Ben Bowers felt no panic after twice failing to clear a height well below his ability.

Missing 6-foot-3 on his first two attempts Friday at the Class 3A Wheaton Warrenville South boys track sectional, the Conant senior trusted his training and minimized the pressure. He cleared that height on the third try, handled the state-qualifying minimum of 6-5 on his first attempt, then rolled on to the two other events in which he earned all-state honors as a junior.

“It’s always tense in the beginning but then once you get those jumps going, once you get over the bar, you get that feeling,” Bowers said. “That momentum carries you through the other jumps.”

And the momentum carried over to the 110-meter high hurdles and, later, the 300 hurdles. In 2011 Bowers placed sixth and ninth, respectively, in those events, to go along with a tie for ninth in high jump.

Bowers’ 110 preliminary time was 14.72 seconds, better than state qualifying time of 14.74, and he only needed to run a 14.91 in the finals to capture first place and earn his second berth into next weekend’s finals in Charleston. Elk Grove senior Fernando Lozano earned the only other 110 qualification, second at 15.27 seconds. Conant’s Scott Eilrich was in third but off the pace, at 15.47.

Bowers slid under qualifying time in the 300 hurdles, 38.91 to trail only Brett Kohler of Wheaton North, whose 117 points earned first place in the team standings, three spots ahead of Conant’s 56-point, fourth-place effort.

Elk Grove, which also sends freshman phenom Paul Ifianayi downstate after he won the 400 in 49.84 seconds, placed eighth with 22 points in the 16-team sectional.

A 6-foot-7 jumper, Bowers cut himself off after reaching 6-5 to save himself for what was — and is — to come.

“With the other two events that I’d have to focus on during the night, I didn’t really want to expend so much energy and I’ll kind of save this momentum that I’m building up for the state meet,” he said.

Conant’s Tyler Schneider and James Weaver caught that same wave. Weaver made the 800-meter cut with a second-place time of 1:56.73. Senior classmate Schneider heads down with a pair of second-place finishes in the 1,600 and 3,200, just like at the Mid Suburban Conference meet. Schneider’s respective times of 4:17.97 and 9:12.50 were well under the qualifying standards.

“It’s great,” Schneider said after the 3,200. “I qualified in cross country and that was probably the best day of my life when that happened. But I got that out of the way and this is kind of expected because it’s all part of the goal for next week.”