WW South wins in team effort
Entering Friday's DuPage County boys track meet as the defending champion, Wheaton Warrenville South still felt it had something to prove to coach Ken Helberg.
“It wasn't much of a push just to repeat, but lately our team hasn't been much of a team,” Charlie Pinedo said.
He spoke fresh off his victorious 200-meter dash over fellow burners Garret Payne and Wesley Sanders of Glenbard South and Tigers teammate Titus Davis.
“So today we just wanted to prove to our coach that we're finally coming together and being the team that we thought we could be,” Pinedo said.
The Tigers proved it on York's sweet track with luminaries such as Dukes legend Joe Newton and former Glenbard West miler Ken Popejoy seated at the finish line. WW South successfully defended its county title, scoring 116 points to 92 for Glenbard South.
The Tigers won three of four relays, with Collin Fedor leading off the 3,200 set then returning for second place in the open 1,600 run. Andrew Dabisch anchored the Tigers' concluding 1,600 relay and joined the speedy Pinedo, Dan Vitale and Davis to pull off the 800 relay win over York's Kris Romanczyk, David Byerly, Mo Watkins and Kevin Adamik.
Titus Davis also won long jump, surpassing 23 feet as usual. His unrelated teammate Will Davis won triple jump ahead of Lake Park's Scott Filip and Waubonsie Valley's Amare Greene.
On this day in Elmhurst, Glenbard South's Sanders was the fastest man in the county. He led all 100-meter runners in preliminaries, then duplicated that in the finals, his time of 11.08 seconds just edging Pinedo's 11.09 and Payne's 11.12.
Payne won the 400 dash, as anticipated, and the Raiders' Elven Walker also tasted victory in the 300 hurdles. Sanders, Walker and Payne were joined by Lamar Johnson in a victorious 800 relay.
“I think the best we've ever done is second in this meet, we think 2007,” said Raiders coach Andy Preuss. “We talked earlier this week, if things fell a certain way, we might be able to contend for it.
“To compete with these guys, you know how good they all are. And the kids did a nice job. I think Garret and Wesley are going to be a little tired tomorrow.”
On the strength of victories by Kevin Spejcher in high jump, Jermaine Kline in both discus and shot put and Zach Ziemek in pole vault, the Lake Park Lancers placed third with 86 points. The Dukes of York were fourth at 76 and Wheaton North fifth, the Falcons claiming the frosh-soph meet by 31 points.
Kline extended his own county discus record by 20 inches to a personal-best 197 feet, 11 inches. This was after needing a mark to reach finals after scratching his first two attempts.
“It was, like, a lot of pressure on me, so I was like, I can't mope around and give in to the pressure,” said Kline, whose twin brother, Jeremy, took second in disc at 189-5.
Entering the pole vault competition with the bar at 14-3, Ziemek made three successful jumps to reach 16-3, setting a new county record in the process. Ziemek cleared 16-3 on his second try, then Lancers vault coach Doug Juraska ordered the bar raised to 17-1½ for a shot at the state record.
“We're going for it,” Juraska said. “Hey, how many opportunities do you get?”
More, presumably, for Ziemek, who did not reach that height.
Willowbrook's Pat Niyork led the 3,200 from start to finish. Among his pursuers was St. Francis' Joe Giamberdino, whose kick left others in his wake in a crisp second-place finish.
Glenbard West's Mike Lederhouse dropped his personal record in the 1,600 a third straight week, to 4:17.89. He didn't let the absence of York's great Jack Driggs, resting a hamstring strain, affect his duel with Glenbard South's John Wold, York's Ron Hedman and the steady Collin Fedor of WW South.
“It feels great, and I know that it may have been different if Driggs was here, but I like it no matter what,” Lederhouse said.
West Chicago's Gunnar Sterne overtook Wheaton North's Caleb Philbrick to win the 800, with WW South's Christian Adams joining the sub-2 minute club. The Wildcats' Jeff Foreman looked smooth in his new Nike Zoom Rivals spikes to claim the 110 hurdles.
An all-state high jumper — he took third in that Friday behind Spejcher and Glenbard South's Joe Boesso — Foreman got his first pair of track spikes on April 29.
“I don't know if it's the spikes or me,” he said after his hurdles win, “but I'm glad it happened.”