Every event stacked again at county meet

York boys track coach Charlie Kern has a simple bit of advice concerning the 83rd DuPage County Invitational boys track meet.

"Every event is going to have somebody who is really good," he said. "So come on out and watch it."

Field events start at 4:30 p.m. and finals at 5:30 p.m. Friday at York in Elmhurst.

York has won the county meet the last two seasons. Wheaton North won it in 2012, and Wheaton Warrenville South won it in 2011 and 2010.

Interestingly, Lake Park won the Class 3A title four straight years from 2010-13 and tied for second with Edwardsville last year without winning a county meet.

Then again, teams hoping to compete for a state trophy often seek incremental gains and continue to tinker with lineups. They also will protect athletes with slight injuries for the conference-sectional-state series.

Lake Park senior Antonio Shenault ran the 110-meter hurdles preliminaries at Saturday's Jim Arnold Invite at Glenbard West, made the finals, then his knee felt tender during the 400 relay and he was shut down.

"We really haven't fired on all cylinders," Ivory said. "We have some good aspects, some good components, but we haven't really put it all together as a team. That's what we're looking forward to doing the last few weeks of the season."

The Lancers' 15-year coach expects "the usual suspects" to compete for the county title. That would mean Lake Park, York, Wheaton North. Glenbard West looked good at the Jim Arnold, and Glenbard South's Jack Curtis is a threat to score 30 points by himself in the 100- and 200-meter dashes and high jump.

York warmed up last Friday at Prospect with Alex Teague winning the 200 in 21.66 seconds and the foursome of Charlie Kern (the coach's freshman son), Max Denning, Nathan Dale and Matt Plowman running the 3,200 relay in 7 minutes, 45.60 seconds, best in the state and sixth fastest in the country. Plowman and Kern also were among nine runners breaking state-qualifying time in the 3,200.

"We have a very good middle-distance group," said Charlie Kern, the coach.

Kern is a first-time coach, though he'd assisted former Dukes coaches Joe Newton and Stan Reddel. It's now partly his job ensuring the DuPage County Meet, and the upcoming Class 3A York sectional, run smoothly.

"That's a huge stress level that I did not have to deal with as an assistant," he said. "but I signed up for this and that comes with the territory, so I just want to make sure we put on the best meet we can."

Back on top

Benet sophomore Ali Munson was literally floating on air April 17 at Naperville North's Gus Scott Invite. She'd just gone 11 feet, 2 inches in pole vault and was told she'd set a Redwings record.

Her goal entering that meet was just 10-6, she said. The work she put toward technique with vault coach Bob Cervenka - plant leg, straight left arm, full inversion - made it "all come together today," Munson said at the time.

Imagine her disappointment later that night when Redwings coach Scott Brooks recalled that Maria Scheet had gone 11-6 a few years ago at the very same meet to set Benet's record.

That is, until Benet's annual Mid-Week Invite on April 29, when Munson finally claimed the program mark with a vault of 11-7.

The Nalley

The 48th annual Carlin Nalley Invitational, hosted by Lisle, will be held Saturday. Due to a conflict at the usual site, Benedictine University, it'll be held a second straight year at Bolingbrook, where coach Art Pahl is a trusted colleague of Lisle coach Ken Jakalski.

Jakalski always likes to offer something new at the Nalley, which this year brings athletes from 33 teams. He had hoped to present an unbreakable high jump cross bar from VS Athletics. Suggesting he knows global commerce as well as track and field, he said, "I think a dock strike in Seattle is holding it up."

One thing that should go off is a duel between local sprinters Aaron Harris of Lisle, Quintin Brown of Westmont and Jordan Rowell of IC Catholic Prep. All three Class 1A runners have run some of the area's fastest times.

After a slow start coming off basketball, at Chicago Christian on Friday Rowell won the 100, 200 and 400, setting IC records in the latter two events at 21.90 and 50.10 seconds, respectively.