Burlington’s Llanes qualifies in 2 events
It was an up and down day for Fox Valley area athletes at the IHSA boys state track and field meet.
After Friday’s preliminaries at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, the Fox Valley area has six athletes in seven events who have qualified for today’s finals.
Burlington Central senior Tre Llanes, who competed in four events, will compete in today’s finals in the Class 2A long jump and in the 110-meter hurdles. Llanes went 21 feet, 4 ½ inches in the long jump to finish seventh out of the 12 finals qualifiers. He then ran a stellar 14.54, the third fastest time, in the hurdles. Kaneland’s Taylor Andrews set a state record in the event at 14.34.
“Today went pretty good,” said Llanes, who did not qualify in the triple jump or the 400 relay. “I’m not satisfied with my performance in the triple jump but I was happy with the long jump. I came down here to leave it all on the track and I believe I did that today.”
Llanes said some extra work in practice paid off for him on Friday.
“In the long jump I’ve been working on my takeoff all week,” he said. “It was the first event and my legs were fresh. My team was all there supporting me so I had to give them a show.”
Llanes also wanted a chance to race today against Kaneland’s Andrews in the hurdles.
“We’re good friends,” Llanes said. “I set out to make the finals and go against him and I accomplished it.”
Llanes’ teammate, junior Clint Kliem, will race today in the 800-meter finals after running a 1:57.19 Friday, the seventh best time of prelims.
“All the pressure is on your first event and it’s a relief just to get through it,” said Kliem, who did not qualify for finals in the 1,600. “I knew being on the inside lane I couldn’t let myself get boxed in. Things thinned out after the first lap. I could have pushed it harder but I’ll save that for (today).”
Rockets coach Mike Schmidt was happy for his two top athletes, and proud of senior hurdler Michael Kellenberger, who just missed qualifying in the 300 hurdles by .14 of a second.
“We started off strong with Tre making it in the long jump,” said Schmidt. “He went from there to the hurdles and ran a great race. Then Clint ran a good race and looked real strong in the 800. Tre went to the triple jump and just looked very tired. It was his fourth event and he just didn’t have a lot left in the tank.
“Mike ran a nice race in the hurdles it just wasn’t good enough. And Clint was the only kid in 2A trying to run the 800 and the 1,600 and he didn’t have a lot left for the 16. We got three in (the finals). We were hoping to get five but we’ll take the three we got. Hopefully we’ll get some medals.”
In Class 3A, long jumpers Adrian Asani of Dundee-Crown and Tynan Johnson of Bartlett will have a chance at state medals today. Asani, a senior, jumped 22-10¼ and Johnson went 22-9¼, each good enough to make today’s finals.
Cary-Grove junior Josh Freeman will throw the discus in today’s finals after his toss of 158 feet Friday was the sixth best throw of the prelims. And, Trojans’ senior Anthony Golowach will run in the 400-meter finals after clocking a 48.48 on Friday.
“It was kind of a mixed bag today,” said Cary-Grove coach Layne Holter. “We really had high hopes for the 1,600 relay team but we had a handoff snafu early and never recovered.”
Holter says Freeman and Golowach are excited for their shot at a state medal today.
“They’re both good to go,” said the longtime Cary-Grove coach. “Anthony didn’t have a great day in the high jump but he ran a nice race in the 400 and now that’s all he has to worry about.
“With Josh we were a little worried because his back has been bothering him and he didn’t get in his normal throws this week. So we feel real good about him making the finals.”
Included among the area participants who did not qualify was Larkin’s Lamonte Norwood, who was the third seed in the triple jump. Norwood had the misfortune of suffering an injury during warm-ups, a nagging pain that minimized his leaping ability. The only jump Norwood could complete went 42-8¼. Norwood’s sectional distance was 45-6 and Lake Park’s Zach Ziemek had the best state jump Friday at 48-6.
“Lamonte was warming up and he tweaked his knee a little bit,” said Larkin coach Mike Scianna. “On his first two (attempts) he wasn’t able to even finish the jumps.
“It wasn’t the way Lamonte wanted to finish but he had a good year. He was a sectional champion and a conference champion. That’s a good year.”
Jerry Fitzpatrick contributed to this report