With tighter state standards, boys will need to speed it up

There will be some fast times run at the boys track sectionals this Thursday and Friday.

There had better be.

Since last outdoor season — between the three classes in boys track and field — 15 of the 18 events saw the state-qualifying standards tighten.

Class 2A was the hardest hit, with half the events dropping times. Class 3A had eight changes and 1A had six.

Though in some cases the girls standards saw a greater restriction particularly in distance events — 3A girls 3,200 runners had to be nearly 10 seconds faster this year while 3,200 relays had to cut seven seconds from last year’s standards — every tenth of a second counts.

The boys’ Class 3A 3,200 will be nearly four seconds tougher to make it to state, and the 3,200 relay will be nearly three seconds tighter.

The Illinois High School Association repeatedly says its numerous state series are about the kids. It appears that in track and field it’s about too many kids.

“They (the IHSA and meet management) feel the (state) meet is 500 athletes too big,” Glenbard South’s Andy Preuss, president of the Illinois Track and Cross Country Coaches Association, wrote in an email. “They are worried about it getting even larger. That is why the drastic drops in some events.

“I knew they (qualifying standards) had to drop in 2A and I am surprised a few others did not drop. The 3A boys really have some challenges — especially on a bad night. I feel that the meet management would like some type of finite number of athletes to create a time schedule.”

Between expansion to three classes and the elevated age of officials — word has that age averaging a shocking 72 years old, though younger officials such as Naperville Central graduate Jeff Helberg are slowly being folded in — the fear was overtaxing the help.

With the state meet broadened to Thursday in famously hot and humid Charleston, that’s somewhat understandable.

As for the meet’s running time last year, Preuss recalled: “We did not feel a crunch at all in 2A boys. We were hoping it would slow down.”

The 29-year Glenbard South coach and others such as Batavia’s Dennis Piron and Wheaton North’s Don Helberg, the past ITCCCA president, have been thinking of a qualifying format that would maximize representation while satisfying meet management’s desire for a consistent time schedule.

A proposal Preuss said still requires some fine-tuning and would mandate fully-automated timing at all state sectionals would qualify 42 athletes per event in 1A, which has more sectionals, and 32 per event in the 2A and 3A classes.

It would be a combination of qualification by either standard or place, plus a pool of at-large bids “similar to gymnastics and swimming,” Preuss stated.

That would get more athletes downstate, but it would also offer a finite group the IHSA could assign to an annual timetable.

Regarding the first part of that proposal at least, Fenton coach John Kurtz, dean of DuPage Valley track coaches, would concur.

“I’m of the school where it’s great to get as many kids as possible to get down there,” Kurtz said. “It’s the thrill of a lifetime.”

Going long:Lake Park#146;s Jermaine Kline threw the discus 201 feet, 1 inch Thursday at the Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division meet. That sent Roger Einbecker, Waubonsie Valley#146;s throws coach who also maintains the ithrow.com website, scurrying for his Blackberry to check the all-time best throws.Here#146;s the list of other throwers over 200 feet: Dan Block, Lake Park, 208-11, in 2009; Brandon Noe, St. Thomas More, 203-7, 2010; Marcus Popenfoose, Huntley, 202-4, 2010; Alex Thompson, Winnebago, 201-6, 2010.Block exceeded 200 feet three times, once in the 2009 state finals at 205-8.Welcome back:One of the nicest sights this outdoor season was seeing Downers Grove North senior Ben Silver running the 3,200 Saturday at the West Suburban Silver meet.Finishing in third in 9 minutes, 41.67 seconds, it was the first time Silver competed since his 10th place finish at the 3A state cross country meet last fall.#147;I#146;m looking at next week for qualifying for state,#148; said Silver, whose brother, Aaron, now running club at the University of Illinois, was a three-time cross country all-stater and part of Downers North#146;s sixth-place 3,200 relay in 2006.#147;This was just kind of like a shakeout, but it was great to race again. It felt nice. It#146;s invigorating,#148; he said.It seemed the sky was the limit for Silver when as a freshman in 2008 he finished fourth in the 3,200 in both the West Suburban Silver and the sectional.But since then, he said he#146;s been limited to only a handful of races during the outdoor season because of injuries including a #147;weird hip thing#148; and ankle tendinitis, which continues to bother him.#147;It#146;s been pretty hard,#148; Silver said. #147;Track has been tough.#148;Not as tough as his shoes. At Saturday#146;s meet he ran in the same pair of Nike Katana Racers he wore at the 2008 sectional.#147;I don#146;t think they make them anymore,#148; he said.Relay with Cherry on top:Hinsdale Central senior Ben Cherry is a natural 400-meter runner. Yet his 800-meter opening leg in the 3,200-meter relay May 6 at the McCarthy Memorial got the Red Devils off to what is the state#146;s fastest time in the event and 13th nationally, 7:49.7.At Saturday#146;s West Suburban Silver meet Cherry ran the open 400 and won it in 49.74 seconds, ahead of Glenbard West#146;s vastly improved Mark Hiben.#147;I love the 800. It#146;s so much different than the 400, though,#148; Cherry said. #147;That comes out so quick and the 800, it#146;s a lot more tactical, a lot more strategy involved.#147;I love the 800, the four-by-eight team#146;s great. But I think I#146;ll always have a personal attachment to the 400 because that#146;s what I#146;ve been running since the eighth-grade.#148;He proved his devotion again in the Silver meet#146;s last event, the 1,600 relay. While it seemed Downers Grove North and Lyons Township would battle it out for the victory, here came Cherry in lane one, streaking past those two to make a winner out of the team of Max Von Mallinckrodt, Elliot Wilm, Azad Darbandi and Cherry.