Huntley's Popenfoose fulfills gold-medal goal

CHARLESTON - All the way back when Huntley senior Marcus Popenfoose was in grade school, he and his dad would head to Charleston for the boys track and field state meet.

"We used to always come down here to watch the meet," Popenfoose said. "I love coming down here and I loved coming here to see the competition."

In all the visits made by the Auburn-bound Popenfoose, he started thinking about winning a state title.

"Ever since I was a freshman coming here to compete for the first time, I wanted to win a state championship," Popenfoose said.

Now he has one.

His first throw in the prelims on Friday of 189 feet, 3 inches held up against a very talented field to give Popenfoose his - and the school's - first state title in boys track and field during the final day of competition at Eastern Illinois' O'Brien Stadium.

"I would have like to have had my distances be a little better," Popenfoose said. "But I set a goal when I came down here as a freshman to win a championship and I finally got that."

Popenfoose finished with a pair of medals to total six for his amazing career at Huntley. He started the day by finishing second in the shot put behind eventual winner Jermaine Kline of Lake Park. Popenfoose's best effort was 61-2.5.

Lake Park captured the Class 3A team title. Hillcrest defended its title in Class 2A and Herrin earned top honors in 1A.

"It was always good to throw against good competition and the Lake Park guys and the rest of the field gave great competition," he said. "I wouldn't have wanted to win without great competition."

Dundee-Crown senior Nathan Prom faced pretty good competition as well, and he simply couldn't believe it when he saw the final results of his race in the 800 meters. His second-place finish in a school-best mark of 1:53.56 took some of the sting out of the huge rip of skin on the ball of Prom's foot.

"Yeah, I did that yesterday and we taped it up today," Prom said. "I felt it go right at the start of the race and knew that I had to keep going."

In the finals of the 800, Prom found himself back in the pack as the group headed into the final 300 meters of the race. Prom moved to the outside near the 200-meter mark and came bursting out of the final turn into the home stretch.

While he likely wasn't going to catch eventual champion Dominque Manley of Collinsville, he did pass eight more runners before finishing second. His finish matches the best placement in Chargers history, matching that of Mike Buhrow in 1985 in the 800.

"I just can't believe it," Prom said. "I am still shocked. I can't believe I got second - but second will do."

Also stepping up to the competition was a pair of Burlington Central Rockets, Cameron Ostrowski and Tre Llanes.

Ostrowski, in his first trip to the state finals, jumped to a second-place finish in the high jump. His best effort of 6-7 earned Ostrowski a second-place medal, the highest-ever finish in the field events for Burlington Central.

"I came down here and just wanted to do my best," Ostrowski said. "I didn't want to limit myself by what height I was trying to clear. But 6-7 is good and a second place medal is great."

Llanes closed out a terrific junior year with a strong performance in the triple jump. His effort in the prelims of 46-1 held up for a third-place medal, the best finish ever in the jumps for the Rockets.

The last two seasons, Elgin senior Adam Kuforiji made a habit of cutting it close. Last year in the 400 meters, Kuforiji finished 10th and missed the finals by a whisker. This year the tables turned as Kuforiji made the 400 finals by .01.

"I was so close last year that when I made it this year I was so excited," Kuforiji said. "I am just so happy that I was able to get a medal in my senior year."

Kuforiji picked up a ninth-place finish, earning the Maroons their first medal at state in three years.

Danny Trevor of Jacobs closed out his career with a sixth-place finish in the 300 hurdles. His 39.05 clocking helped the Eagles earn their first hurdles medal in school history.

Pat Livengood of Dundee-Crown and Anthony Golowach of Cary-Grove both competed in the finals of the high jump.