Jacobs' Trevor comes back to earn 300 hurdles finals

CHARLESTON - The 110-meter high hurdles requires a lot of athletic skill.

From proper body position, to steps between hurdles and even speed - the race incorporates many facets that must work in harmony in order for the race to turn out well.

Jacobs senior Danny Trevor has all of those tools, and he's utilized them well over the last four years.

But on Friday, at the 116th running of the track and state field championships at Eastern Illinois' O'Brien Stadium, Trevor was missing one key ingredient - his right shoe.

It happened at the start of the first prelim of the race during the Class 3A session. Trevor was in an excellent position to earn a state medal, but as the race unfolded disaster struck early. He clipped the first hurdle, causing his foot to pop slightly out of his shoe. Then after another hurdle he had lost his shoe altogether forcing Trevor from the race.

"I couldn't imagine anything worse happening than that," Trevor said. "I just looked down and my shoe was on - barely."

Trevor made up for the unfortunate issues of the 110 race by winning his 300 hurdles heat and earning a spot in Saturday's finals for the first time.

"It had gotten to the point where I felt like I had to sell my soul to get into the finals," Trevor said. "I am happy that I did finally get into the finals."

Trevor didn't run his fastest time, but his 39.01 clocking was easily good enough to earn him a spot in the finals as the seventh overall seed.

Dundee-Crown senior Nathan Prom, meanwhile, needed a boost - and he got it in the form of a bump in the prelims of the 800 run. Into the final lap, and with less than 300 meters to go, Prom got bumped to his right in a large group of runners. The change actually opened up space for Prom and helped him earn a spot in the finals. He finished second in his heat in 1:55.16 and will enter finals with the sixth-fastest time.

"I got bumped and the next thing I knew I was outside and out of traffic," Prom said. "When I got down here, all I wanted to do was make the finals and I accomplished my goal."

Prom's teammate Pat Livengood also just wanted a spot in the finals and by clearing the required 6 feet, 4 inches in the high jump, the Grand Valley State-bound senior is easily into the high jump finals.

"Today was all about just trying to do your best and clear the heights that you needed to for the finals," Livengood said. "I just have to go out tomorrow and not concentrate on anyone else and just see how I can do."

Anthony Golowach of Cary-Grove also did the work necessary to make the high jump finals. He cleared the necessary 6-4 and will jump in the finals for the first time.

If it is possible to be leading an event going into the finals and not being happy about it, that was just where Huntley senior Marcus Popenfoose was after the prelims of the discus. His best throw was a toss of 189-3 and has the Auburn-bound Popenfoose in the top spot for Saturday's finals.

"I know if I won with that throw, I would be happy I won, but disappointed as well," Popenfoose said. "I didn't want to come down here and not throw as well as I did last year."

In the shot put, Popenfoose has some work still to do. His best put was 61-2.5 leaving him roughly 5 inches shy of leader Jermaine Kline of Lake Park.

"I definitely feel like I have more in me for (Saturday)," Popenfoose said after the shot. "I look forward to getting to throw again because I know I can do better."

Elgin's Adam Kuforiji earned a finals spot in the 400 dash, where his 49.97 gave him the ninth and final qualifying spot.

Tre Llanes of Burlington Central got another chance to get better and he took full advantage of it. After a disappointing long jump, Llanes popped off the second best jump in Class 2A in the triple jump. His best effort of 46-1 has him second behind Vernon Carter of Cahokia in Saturday's finals.

Teammate Cameron Ostrowski is also in good shape when it comes to the high jump. Ostrowski did the work necessary to get into the finals with a jump of 6-3.

Justin Ott, Mitch Plum, Nick Laggett, Ben Damisch, Joe Gannon, Mike Gulik and Clint Kliem of Burlington Central, John Ryan, John London, David Lundine, Matt Biederwolf, Jason Luzzi, Kenny King and Alex Allmandinger of Crystal Lake South, Ryan Smith, Nate Kirchoff, Jon Clark and Mike Wiechmann of Dundee-Crown, William Hennessy, Joey Cieniewicz and Jason Ofodile of Jacobs, Eddy Gibbons of Cary Grove and Evan Ofenloch and Ryan Sheehan of Huntley also competed in the state prelims on Friday.