Glenbard South’s Payne finds motivation all around
Be it a runner with a faster seed time or one ahead of him at the baton exchange, Glenbard South’s Garret Payne was not going to settle for second best.
The senior sprinter won two individual events and anchored the Raiders’ 1,600 relay win in the 21st annual Pirate Indoor Classic on Friday at Proviso West in Hillside.
Expectations following last year’s Class 2A 400-meter haven’t dimmed his star.
“Having the target on your back, it can be difficult,” said Payne, who recorded the fastest 55-meter preliminary time, then won the finals at 6.59 seconds.
East St. Louis’ Josh Gates entered the 400 with a faster seed time, by 0.1 second. Payne tore off from the start and won by a full second, at 49.74.
“It helped motivate me,” Payne said of Gates’ seed time, “because I wanted to be in the best lane and that kept me from being in the best lane.”
In the last race of the night, Payne took the baton from Grant Gibson with a 10-meter deficit, about two seconds behind East St. Louis’ Devario Moore with two laps left. Payne measured his gait for a lap, then reeled Moore in for a comeback victory that had Raiders coaches Andy Preuss and Lee Halberg laughing with joy.
“It feels great to make them happy, run as good as I can and win at a meet like this in the four-by-four,” Payne said.
With the Illinois Prep Top Times Indoor Classic, known as the “unofficial state indoor meet,” on Saturday, those invited to that meet from Neuqua Valley and Lake Park rested rather then compete Friday.
Neuqua still got good performances from Steven Krauklis, Brad Mikulecky and Matt Feliciano, as did Lake Park from Larry Matthies, Kevin Jorgensen and Sean Lang.
Glenbard South, with individual wins by Joe Boesso in high jump and Elven Walker in the 200 hurdles, went full boat at Proviso, finishing second to 3A power East St. Louis, 145-131.
Raiders freshman John Wold added a 1,600 victory, biding his time until overtaking Glenbard North’s Kyle Flores, who recently won the DuPage Valley Conference indoor 3,200. It was only Wold’s second indoor 1,600, and his time of 4:29.02 left him a bit disappointed.
“I always set high standards for myself,” Wold said. “I guess it gets me working harder.”
Another Glenbard North athlete, Tyler Warner, found the fine line between speed and endurance to win the 600-meter run. He’s run it three times, once a year on Proviso West’s 200-meter track.
“Just a little faster than the 800, a quick first and last lap,” Warner said. “That second lap was just holding on, keeping up the pace.”
In his final indoor meet, Fenton’s Frank DiLauro didn’t win his heat of the 400 but finished sixth in 54.24 seconds, enough to provide inspiration for outdoors.
“Last time I was at this meet I ran a 55.5, so I brought it down by a second and a half,” he said. “With that I have some incentive and some motivation to make it to state this year.”
Nick Ellingson of Jacobs did win his individual race, the 3,200, paring 16 seconds off his prior personal record to finish in 9:41.80.
The senior recorded his prior PR at Jacobs’ indoor conference meet while battling food poisoning. Gaining back five of the nine pounds he lost after eating days-old leftovers, Ellingson felt “pretty good.”
“I really started focusing in getting good nutrition and getting back to hard work. It seemed to show off today,” Ellingson said.