Lake Park never dodged challenge

Lake Park boys track and field coach Jay Ivory believed he saw the eye of the tiger in his athletes.

Favored to repeat as Class 3A champion, it was Lake Park’s meet to lose in downstate Charleston. Instead, the Lancers dominated.

“The kids have been spectacular with (pressure),” said Ivory, who one day may have a couple hall of famers among his assistant staff — Bob Nihells, Doug Juraska, Tom Kaberna, Lance Murphy.

“I think the coaches were more nervous than the kids. The kids are competitors, they just come out and perform. They’ve been loose and smiling and laughing all weekend long,” Ivory said of field-event wonders Jermaine and Jeremy Kline, Zach Ziemek, Kevin Spejcher and Scott Filip, who nearly doubled runner-up York’s points, 74-43.

“You could see it, though. When we said, ‘Hey, we’re on the verge of doing something special,’ you could see it in their eyes. You know what, they’re not avoiding (the pressure), but they just handled it incredibly well.”

Sole man: Glenbard South#146;s John Wold lost his shoe in Friday#146;s preliminaries of the Class 2A 1,600-meter run, spiked on the right foot early in the race, his cleat left behind.Despite a blister that burst on his second toe, Wold made the final heat. His foot bruised and swollen after favoring the hurt toe in the running of Saturday#146;s finals, Wold managed an 11th-place finish.Former Glenbard South star Micah VanDenend ran the 1,600 in 4 minutes, 34 seconds as a freshman, a time Wold eclipsed several times this season. Even with his beat-up foot on Saturday Wold ran the 1,600 in 4:24.Raiders coach Andy Preuss called Wold#146;s one-shoe performance #147;one of the gutsiest things I#146;ve seen.#148;#147;A, for a freshman to lose his shoe and then not just pack it in, and then to come back and not only qualify but run his season best (4:23.01) is pretty impressive. It#146;s good stuff,#148; Preuss said.Quote of the prelims: Fenton#146;s Frank DiLauro didn#146;t advance out of the Class 2A 400-meter preliminaries Friday, but his disposition remained warm on an overcast day. Maybe it#146;s because he#146;s a junior and has another crack in 2012.#147;It may not be bright and sunny,#148; DiLauro said, #147;but it#146;s definitely a beautiful day.#148;Jack of two trades: A storm cell moving into Charleston on Saturday afternoon had meet officials moving track events along briskly. They were proven correct when a half-hour after the meet ended, a 4 p.m. downpour arrived.Long before then York#146;s Jack Driggs had won both the 1,600- and the 3,200-meter races, earning nearly half the Dukes#146; points.#147;I was really hoping for some thunder,#148; said Driggs, who despite no weather delay used his sprinter#146;s kick once again to win the shorter of his two races.The North Carolina recruit has a large amount of pride but also humor and humility and an appreciation for those who helped him achieve the rare distance-double victory.Driggs himself called his journey #147;unexpected.#148;#147;A washed-up soccer player just trying to do something at York,#148; he said before listing the Dukes coaches who#146;d helped him to this point. #147;Mr. (Joe) Newton changed my life, and without him, Mr. (Jim) Hedman, Mr. (Stan) Reddel, Mr. (Charlie) Kern and Coach (Chris) Korfist, I wouldn#146;t have been here today ... I really thought I was ready for something special, and this is pretty special.#148;Speaking of York: Dukes head coach Stan Reddel, a social studies teacher, is retiring this year as a teacher after 41 years in education. He said at season#146;s outset and repeated it before the state meet, however, that he#146;d stay on as head track coach at least through 2012. Best spirit shirt: Most athletes in Charleston for the state meet are satisfied with a gray T-shirt, printed on-site by a Charleston music and clothing shop, that offers the state track logo on the front and the athlete#146;s name and events on the back.Not Lisle coach Ken Jakalski, who puts a little more thought into the process.Lions Terrance Allen, Grant Fitzgerald and Anthony Ventrella did indeed head to that shop for their shirts on Thursday night. But they also had their own crazy ones courtesy of Jakalski#146;s imagination: a colorful shirt featuring a cloaked Mr. Hyde-like cartoon character and the heading, #147;The Mad Gassers of Mattoon.#148;Jakalski#146;s inspiration was a creepy real-life mystery in Mattoon, near Charleston. In 1944 a person, never captured and also known by such colorful nicknames as the #147;anesthetic prowler,#148; knocked out more than two dozen people in their homes with some sort of gas.Leave it to the Hall of Famer Jakalski. Up and coming: Pete Connelly, who coaches both Montini#146;s boys and girls teams, has made great strides in just two short years.On the girls side high jumper Bridget Bodee placed sixth in Class 2A, while Tiana Brown and Claire Biederman reached the finals in shot put and discus, respectively. Montini#146;s 3,200 relay of Ericka Laviste, Brittney Fisher, Alex Briggs and Theresa Connelly #8212; Pete#146;s daughter #8212; was an all-state ninth. All will return.The boys were represented in Charleston by junior Pat Barrett, who finished fifth in pole vault with a school-record height of 13 feet, 9 inches.From the Broncos boys team only sprinters Jim Harrington and Tim Perlowski graduate, while others, like Barrett and sprinter Anthony Taylor, return.#147;A lot of our boys, they were third or just off the mark for sectionals,#148; Barrett said. #147;I think we#146;re going to have a good year next year.#148;Too close to call: In this day of fully automated timing, performed electronically with precision computer imagery captured by cameras that cost upward of $8,000, a tie in an event is rare, particularly for first place.Yet it happened in the Class 1A 100-meter dash when Peoria Christian#146;s Jonathan Hutchison and Leo#146;s Bruce Gray each crossed the finish line in 10.79 seconds. More accurately, it was 10.783 seconds. According to Lisle#146;s Ray Carlson, who has been a principal on the timing crew at the IHSA state finals since the mid-1990s, two cameras were in place at the finish line, one apiece on each side of the track. Three FAT technicians observed the camera images of the race, enlarged on-screen till they became fuzzy, and Hutchison and Gray still caught the finish line at the same time.What made this really interesting is Leo won the meet with 42 points. Harrisburg finished second with 41. Had Gray finished second and been awarded 8 points rather than the 9 points he received for a first-place tie, Leo and Harrisburg would have tied for the 1A championship.It#146;s over: The state finals were the last time many athletes would be competing in track and field.For Lisle long- and triple jumper Ventrella, who will play football at Western Illinois, Saturday#146;s finals were probably the finale of a pursuit he started in sixth grade. Two-time 400-meter champion Garret Payne of Glenbard South, headed to Wisconsin to run, finished with a Class 2A record in his event, as well as lowering his school record to 47.31 seconds.#147;Last race of high school,#148; he said. #147;It#146;s a great way to go out.#148;Several seniors, such as Wheaton Warrenville South#146;s Charlie Pinedo, appreciated time spent over the years with teammates and coaches.#147;I think it#146;ll hit on the bus ride home maybe, maybe tomorrow,#148; said Lake Park superstar Zach Ziemek, who will bring 3A triple jump, long jump and pole vault titles with him to the Wisconsin Badgers.#147;Because I love my coaches, my teammates, and everything. They#146;ve done everything for us. You can#146;t ask for anything more from them.#148;Wheaton North#146;s Anthony Rocco, Brett Kohler, Caleb Philbrick and Stephen Norregaard, all seniors but Kohler, came within .16 seconds of qualifying for the 1,600 relay finals. Disappointing, but for Rocco it didn#146;t diminish the effort or the partnership.#147;The whole thing about me being a senior, this is my last race, I can go out saying, #145;Hey, our 4-by-4 ran our best race of the year by about a second,#146;#148; Rocco said.#147;Just knowing that and knowing I would do it with this group of guys, we#146;ve had a great time all year and I#146;ve really grown to be close to these guys, and I love our whole team. If I go out like this, I still won#146;t be too mad. I can be happy knowing that, hey, we ran a heck of a race.#148;