Boys track and field: Batavia's Green 2nd in shot put at Arnold meet
Glenbard West's Jim Arnold Boys Track Invite is one of Batavia senior Elijah Green's favorites, but he wasn't exactly in prime condition Saturday to maximize shot put.
Green's right wrist had become painful after recent back-to-back sessions and hurt, he said, with "any pressure back - which is essentially shot."
He had even practiced throwing left-handed, but needing a mark after scratching on his attempts in the Bulldogs' two prior invites he gutted it out.
"Throughout the middle of my spin I felt my wrist speaking to me, like, 'you can't throw this, it's gonna be painful at the end of it.' So I kind of held back because of that, but I just knew I had to push through it," he said.
The wrist allowed Green to throw several in the high 40s before unleashing a 51 foot, ½-inch mark to follow only Lockport's John Meyer, the nation's No. 2 shot put thrower who set a meet record of 69-9 on his first attempt.
"The goal today was just to get an outdoor mark. I did that and fought through the pain, I guess," said Green, also second in discus at 149 feet, 30 behind the Michigan-bound Meyer.
"But it did take a toll mentally on me, kind of throughout the whole spin," said Green, not harshly impacted by discus. "But it kind of made me focus on my spin a little more, getting more hips into it, kind of finding other ways to find power other than the wrist flick at the end of the throw."
Meyer makes throws mainly a battle for second place, but in the spirit of the sport Green appreciated the competition.
"It's almost cheering for a teammate watching him throw because while you know that you're gonna have a hard time beating him you want him to do the best, you want him getting the state records, whatever, pushing himself. It's amazing to see people do the event you do, like, super-well," Green said.
Despite top-seeded hurdler Sam Conger resting a slight injury and Bulldogs coach Dennis Piron pulling other runners for minor tweaks, Batavia's 73 points placed third behind Oak Park (126) and Glenbard West (96). Batavia ran second on the sophomore level.
"It's been a tough spring and guys are kind of feeling it," Piron said. "I'm hoping that we're at full strength in two weeks when conference rolls around. If we are we should be real formidable."
Batavia double-scored in pole vault with Owen Schuster and Matt Dauksha, and again in long jump with Tommy Stuttle and Jack MacDonald, who also took third in triple jump at 42 feet, 7 inches.
Along with Adam Kennedy's fourth-place 800-meter time of 2 minutes, 0.76 seconds, Batavia's track strength came in relays, where Stuttle, Reggie Phillips, Decorea McAlister and Santiago Barbosa placed second in the 400 relay and fourth in the 800 version.
Between Stuttle and MacDonald in long jump, Bartlett's Sulaiman Ahmed finished third at 21 feet, 2 inches. Austin Cichon placed sixth in triple jump for the Hawks.
With Conger out, in came Yousuf Ahmad for both the 110 and 300 hurdles. The senior followed Conger's advice to "keep up" with the other hurdlers, to the point where Ahmad finished fourth in the 110s at 16.06 and fifth in the 300s, 42.13 seconds.
"I felt more responsibility on my shoulders," Ahmad said. "I needed to do well because obviously Conger's a lot of points for our team, so I need to step up and make sure that I'm not slacking, make sure that I'm getting those points that I need. It felt great. It really tested my ability to work on my own, and it worked out." At Palatine: Jacobs' Zach Albrecht took first individually in the 800 (1:57.50), while Loren Strickland took third individually in the long jump (20-03.5) to lead the Eagles to first place in the long jump relay.
"I just wanted to finish strong," said Albrecht, who took the lead with 300 meters remaining. "The season is going pretty well and I just want to keep it going."