Wait till next year at state

Underclass DuPage County boys track athletes gained valuable state experience last weekend in Charleston. The list of returners is a strong one, particularly in distance.

Neuqua Valley's Connor Horn, who qualified in both the 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs, will return next season as a senior year. York brings back both freshman Charlie Kern and junior Max Denning from a fifth-place 3,200 relay.

The Hinsdale schools boast sophomore Blake Evertsen of Hinsdale Central and the surprising Hinsdale South combination of Charlie Nodus and Roman Drabchuck, who each earned all-state honors.

Neuqua Valley's 1,600 relay loses stars Ty Moss and Zac Espinosa but returns junior Jacob Sampson and sophomore Isaiah Robinson.

In field events, Wheaton North junior long jumper Chico Jackson will work toward a third Class 3A qualification in four years. Dan Webber was all-state in discus as a junior.

Lake Park returns a pair of all-state throwers, junior Dylan Scheirich and sophomore Chago Basso.

These are just the Class 3A boys who ran in finals on Saturday.

There's also Waubonsie Valley junior Tyler Kirkwood, who placed third in the Class 3A 110-meter high hurdles.

"When I came to state, I was not ranked top nine," Kirkwood said after the final race of his junior season in Charleston.

"Then and there I knew I had to give it my all," he said. "Prelims went well and I just thought, rankings must not mean anything if you can jump from that mark to (the finals). That was my motivation during this whole race, and I'm just so happy I got third place."

On the Class 2A level there's Timothy Christian's Andy Margason, and sprinters Aaron Harris of Lisle and Jordan Rowell of IC Catholic; the latter two finished top-six in the Class 1A 100, 200 and 400. Margason was sixth in the 110 hurdles.

Montini graduates Michael Hollingshed off its Class 2A 800 relay finalist but returns Will Smith, Nick Foster and 100-meter finalist Mitch West, all sophomores this year.

Foster said being downstate as a sophomore was "special."

"We knew what we all can do, we've been with each other since the start of the year," Foster said. "We just got better and better throughout the season."

Montini was disqualified in the relay for passing the baton outside the exchange zone. It's invaluable to gain downstate experience prior to senior year, and next season the Montini trio hopes to add Prince Walker, who had leg injuries all spring.

"Either way it was a good experience," West said, "because we're all sophomores in the relay basically. We'll be back next year."

Hopefully them, too:

Montini's Walker never figured into the scenario due to injury, but other local athletes could have banked on qualifying for the state meet, or better, only to be derailed by injury.

In 2014 Wheaton Academy sprinter Ty Seager was all-state in both the Class 2A 100- and 200-meter dashes as a sophomore and this spring was voted by coaches as male athlete of the meet at Naperville North's Gus Scott Invite. Shortly after that he pulled a hamstring. Seager gave it a shot at sectional in the 100-meter preliminaries but felt a twinge and that was that.

Hinsdale South's Dylan Boye was not a returning Class 3A qualifier, but he was headed that direction.

The junior had made the long jump finals May 1 at his school's own Mike Yavorski Invitational. On his first attempt in the finals, he slipped and tore an anterior cruciate ligament. His top mark that day was 22 feet, 6 inches, which would have placed sixth in 3A in Charleston.

Satisfied for now:

Like Kirkwood in hurdles, it was good to hear Lake Park's Dylan Scheirich take pride in his third-place medal in shot put, at 58 feet, 1 inch. He's ready for more, partly because he fouled on an attempt that hit the line marking 60 feet.

"I'm really happy about it," he said. "Everyone loves to take first, but I'm real happy I took third and I get to come out next year, compete again. Hopefully I'll take higher than third next year, so I'm really hoping for improvement. But I'm really happy with how far I came this year, coming from 53 feet to 58 feet."

Retribution:

As a freshman in 2014, Neuqua Valley's Isaiah Robinson was pulled from the 3,200-meter relay after Friday's preliminaries.

This season he surmounted that as well as injury to help the Wildcats place fourth in Class 3A - not the title they'd won in 2014, but all-state nonetheless.

Suffering a tear in the meniscus of his left knee in January, Robinson had surgery later that month and ran only once indoors, at the Upstate Eight Conference indoor meet. From then on he was a staple of the Wildcats' 1,600 and 3,200 relays.

"It gave myself something to come back from and redeem myself from," Robinson said of getting lifted last season. "And it was something to learn from."

Speaking for all:

Downers Grove North senior Ryan Clevenger is headed for Wisconsin to run track and cross country. He leaves having earned his third all-state honor in track, fourth place in the 1,600 at 4 minutes, 11.22 seconds.

Downers North's record holder in the 800 and 1,600, Clevenger has made the Trojans stronger by his presence - like incoming collegians Matt Plowman at York, Ty Moss and Zac Espinosa of Neuqua Valley, Antonio Shenault of Lake Park, Wheaton North's Steven Connor and many others.

"I feel like I'm leaving here and people know who Downers Grove North is, they know what we do, they know that we work hard and we do well at meets, big meets, and we don't fall apart at these big meets," Clevenger said. "I'm happy to be leaving the legacy of our team more than the specific times I leave with."