Grayslake Central’s Zygmunt, Brewster excel

CHARLESTON — The final weekend in the high school sports careers of Luke Zygmunt and Will Brewster of Grayslake Central were all about the Rams’ team effort to claim a state trophy. Along the way, the two most decorated runners in school history picked up a few more pieces of individual hardware.

In the finals of the boys track and field state championships at Eastern Illinois’ O’Brien Field, the Butler-bound Zygmunt did something no other runner in school history ever accomplished: win a state championship.

As the 800-meter run took off, Zygmunt bounced back and forth in the field through the first lap of the race. When the runners started the final lap, Zygmunt and the rest of the pack saw Cahokia junior Darren Payton take a seemingly insurmountable lead.

“No one in Grayslake history had ever won a state title outdoors and at that point it was all mental,” Zygmunt said.

With 150 meters left, Zygmunt caught the pack and pulled ahead. He closed with a burst and crossed the line in 1:55.24 with arms raised.

“I knew this race would be fast because Payton can really go,” Zygmunt said. “But I knew that if I came through my first 200 in 27 and around 56-57 for the 400 I would be fine. This is just awesome.”

The Illinois-bound Brewster did his part to keep the Rams in the team race, though Decatur MacArthur senior Michael Clevenger through a monkey wrench into Brewster’s plans.

In oppressive temperatures, running the distance double was brutal enough, but Brewster looked up to the task as he battled the Notre Dame-bound Clevenger over the entire 2 miles before finishing second in a hot 9:19.45.

Later in the afternoon, Brewster and Zygmunt closed out their senior seasons by finishing the 1,600 meters right next to each other. Brewster crossed first in 4:20.40 and Zygmunt followed in 4:21.87.

“Hats off to Clevenger — he is the two-time defending state champion in cross, three-time state champ in track,” Brewster said. “I gave it my all today and I can’t be too ashamed of two silver medals.”

The final pieces of the trophy puzzle for Grayslake Central came in the shot put and the 800 relay. Joel Valdivia stayed put in the shot, finishing third with a school record throw of 56-1.5 and the 800 relay team of Davonta Jennings, Jourdan Swopes, Kacey Adams and Matt Weatherhead moved up to seventh, narrowly missing sixth by .03 finishing in 1:30.93.

The efforts were good enough for fourth place for the Rams — just 1 point behind Jacksonville (44-43). Cahokia claimed the Class 2A title, and Lake Park (48 points) captured its third straight Class 3A title, holding off Edwardsville (42) and Oak Park (41).

It’s hard to look back at the beginning of the season and believe that Matt Dziedzic of Libertyville was only throwing the shot 48 feet then. That’s because on his second throw in the finals on Saturday, he launched the shot 59-1.5 to move up and ultimately finish second.

“I don’t think this has all hit me yet,” Dziedzic said. “When I saw it land where it did, I knew that was second place.”

Second place was not in the cards for Round Lake senior Antonio Farley. He originally had goals of 48 seconds and a high medal. That all changed on Friday when Farley ran 47.95, making him a top seed for the finals.

In the finals, Farley found himself trailing and had to fend off all comers. As he crossed the line there was no celebration or even a fist pump — instead it was simply relief for the Illinois State-bound Farley.

His 48.29 time was not as fast as Friday, but it was plenty good enough for the Panthers first state title in school history.

“Today was a lot tougher because I could feel the other runners coming up and I couldn’t see them,” Farley said. “This is such a relief. It’s great to be the first.”

Pat Juras of Lake Zurich earned his second medal in a row in the mile but this one came a little closer to the top. Juras wasn’t going to catch California-bound New Trier senior Leland Later, but his second-place finish in 4:13.99 was satisfying.

“Later is a monster. I can’t quite compete with that,” Juras said. “I am very happy with my place. It was a big improvement over last year which is all I really wanted.”

The afternoon for Grant in Class 3A was a record setter. The Bulldogs amassed enough points to place eighth in the Class 3A team race. Senior Sean Wells did his part while battling a stomach bug to place fifth in the 110 high hurdles (14.46) and fourth in the 300 hurdles (39.14). His younger brother Jonathan set a school record by clearing 6 feet, 9 inches in his fifth-place finish in the high jump, and junior Brandon Lombardino moved up to second place in the discus with a toss of 170-4.

Carmel Catholic and the team of Jordan Yancey, Jack Schoen, J.P. Blaida and Christian Horcher finished eighth in the 1,600 relay (3:27.49) and Lakes junior Trevor Ray placed eighth in the 400 with a time of 50.45.

Warren senior Martin Martinez raced in the 3,200, Ty Summers of Lakes competed in the finals of the Class 2A shot put and his teammate Troy Swindel competed in the Class 2A high jump and Easton Huch of Libertyville raced in the finals of the 1,600.