Haiti native warms up to track and field

First of all, the name of Naperville North senior Chandler Polyte sounds much more exotic when rolled off the tongue of the young man himself.

"In Haiti," he said, "they say Chaundlare Poleet."

Our midwestern English does the pronunciation no justice, but at least Polyte discovered one of his new favorite things - the pole vault - since he arrived in the United States in 2007.

"When I went to a meet I was like, man, that is awesome," Polyte said Saturday at Glenbard West's Jim Arnold Invitational.

Polyte came into the 16-team meet seeded 11th in pole vault with a height of 12 feet, 3 inches. He left with a fifth-place finish, his 13 feet no worse than winner Kevin Lafond of Batavia, just not as clean through each height.

Coming to America initially as a foreign exchange student from Duchity, Haiti, Polyte first attended Aurora Christian. He now is living in Naperville with his guardian, whom he met when she came to Haiti as part of a medical mission group, he said.

A soccer player, Polyte was convinced to run track by Naperville North distance coach Dave Racey. In fact, Huskies head coach Mike Ellberg noted that on Saturday Polyte ran on the Huskies' 3,200-meter relay right after he made his 13-foot vault.

"It's been - I don't know how to describe it - amazing," Polyte said.

The upside-down practice of pole vault may be strange to some, but not Polyte.

"When I was in Haiti, during the summer every time I would go climb trees I would stay upside down and do pushups upside-down," he said. "So I'm kind of used to that. I'm not afraid of heights."

Polyte has been accepted by Iowa Wesleyan and Dominican University but said he'd really like to attend Illinois College.

Wherever he goes he plans to compete because he's been bitten by the track bug. Having the activity also helps him focus better with school work.

"I plan on doing track in college because I feel like I cannot live without it, so I have to do it," he said, smiling.

"I remember when I was not on a track team. I manage my time wisely when I'm on the team. I have, say, five hours after practice, at most. So now I have to do all my work, and I do my work quickly. Being on track is pretty good - get fit and enjoy, make a lot of friends."

Four more years: Being twins now in their senior year at Wheaton North, James and Jake Waterman were quite ready to go their separate ways in college.

"We'd kind of had enough of each other," Jake said Saturday at Glenbard West's Jim Arnold Invitational.

Not so fast, boys.

Though it's to the point they no longer compete in the same event in the same meet - more due to Falcons point maximization than preference since they're both gifted runners - each chose to attend Wheaton College to continue their athletic and academic pursuits.

"It just happened," Jake said after winning the 3,200-meter run at the Arnold Invite. (James was sixth in the 1,600.)

"We both really like the school a lot," Jake said. "I'm sure he doesn't want me going there, necessarily, but we'll get along, we'll have fun."

Sounds like an on-campus apartment is in the future.

No-fly zone: As Lake Park's Jeremy Kline entered the ring to make his third throw in the discus finals at Glenbard West, a plane buzzed overhead. Kline paused, craned his neck and looked up and around searching for the craft.

Satisfied after a second or two, he calmly continued into the ring and sent the discus 183 feet, 6 inches.

No fooling: Batavia's Jake Benner was asked about having Lake Ellyn as the backdrop for discus competitors at Glenbard West.

Like Fenway Park's Green Monster - was it intimidating, or is its open expanse inviting?

"It's actually something to shoot for," Benner said. "Everyone jokes about throwing it in the lake - and sometimes those Lake Park kids can actually do that. It's something to shoot for and aim for. I think it sometimes actually helps instead of hinders."

That showed them: Glenbard South didn't like its position in the first of two heats of the 400-meter relay at Glenbard West - in other words, "the slow heat."

The heats had been reseeded from what was initially plotted, and the Raiders, who qualified downstate in the event last year, got bumped from the first to the second heat.

So they got angry, and that steam translated to speed.

Running among the eight teams in the first heat, Lamar Johnson, Wesley Sanders, Austin Williams and Garret Payne ran the oval in 43.38 seconds to finish in fourth out of 16 teams.

"We all made a goal that we were going to try to place high out of the slow heat and prove everyone wrong," Payne said. "So I think we proved that we were supposed to be in that (fast) heat."