Boys track: Neuqua Valley again has high hopes
Since the afterglow subsided from Neuqua Valley's second-place tie in the 2015 boys Class 3A track and field state finals, its goal has been first place in 2016.
Can it happen? Of course it can - or not.
Entering Friday's 2A and 3A preliminaries in Charleston there are just too many moving pieces to predict who will claim the crown come 5 p.m. Saturday. Class 1A prelims start Thursday morning with finals in all three classes on Saturday.
Even in Class 2A, a knee injury that prevented superstar sprinter-jumper Ja'mari Ward from competing at the Carterville sectional and thus downstate in open (non-relay) events may, just may, threaten Cahokia's ability to extend its IHSA-record five consecutive state titles.
Any number of teams could vie for 3A trophies along with Neuqua Valley, which placed second to Minooka at the Wildcats' own sectional: East St. Louis, defending champion Edwardsville, Belleville West, Lakes, Minooka, Oak Park, Sandburg, Grant ... and more.
Say Lake Park's Chago Basso, Dylan Scheirich and Austin Lynch score huge points in shot put and discus and Ethan Koval and Kyle Brown follow suit in pole vault. Stranger things have happened, like in 2010 when three athletes gave Lake Park the title.
"Edwardsville and East St. Louis look really good," Neuqua coach Mike Kennedy said. "But overall we have some really strong positions where we're at. If things go very well for us we could do very well."
That's not coach-speak. It's reality based on here, now, and Neuqua's 10 qualifiers in nine events.
Neuqua would have to do very, very well. The Wildcats' sole top-five seeds out of sectionals are Tom Cwiok in discus and the 800- and 1,600-meter relays with Dan Gaynes, Kevin Sager and JaQuere Williams the common components, shy of other contenders.
However, when the stable includes a pair of two-time all-staters with the foot speed, versatility and big-meet acumen of Isaiah Robinson and Connor Horn - the latter voted Neuqua's senior male athlete of the year - there's always a shot.
"In my mind we should not have won (the DuPage Valley) conference, we lost a lot of seniors to prom. According to seeds at the sectional, Minooka should have killed us, but we were only 8 points behind them," Kennedy said.
"We are competing every single week and if we do that the chips may fall in good places by the end of the meet. I've got a lot of confidence in these guys."
High seeds:
Lisle senior Aaron Harris is DuPage County's sole No. 1 seed with a time of 49.17 seconds in the Class 2A 400-meter dash. Harris also is entered in the 100 and 200, where his second-ranked sectional time of 21.82 seconds is .02 from the Lions' program record set by Chris Jones in 1996.
There are several No. 2 seeds: Glenbard North's Devion Hodges in Class 3A long jump, Wheaton North's Dan Webber in 3A discus and IC Catholic's Jordan Rowell in the 1A 200 dash.
Ranked third in the Class 3A 3,200-meter relay, Hinsdale South's sectional time of 7 minutes, 51.19 seconds - run by Michael Noble, Brian Jordan, Roman Drabchuk and Charlie Nodus - set a program record by four seconds.
Rematch ruined:
Lisle's move to Class 2A - by nine students - foiled what would have been a great rematch between Harris and Rowell. In 2015 they met in the finals of the Class 1A 100, 200 and 400 dashes, neither runner placing lower than sixth in any race. Rowell enters the 2016 1A meet seeded no lower than fifth in those events, and 14th in long jump
Harris may still see local opposition. In the 100 Montini's Mitch West is seeded fourth at 10.70 seconds and Wheaton Academy's Ty Seager, back downstate after last year's hamstring injury knocked him out, is one notch above Harris with the 10th best sectional time.
Harris, West and Seager all are entered in the 200 while in the 400 Harris may see Benet's Konrad Bayer in a preliminary heat. The possible Villanova walk-on helped Benet win its first boys sectional, at Glenbard South, in school history.
Sad state:
It's great that Timothy Christian sophomore Xavier Ross reached Charleston in Class 1A triple jump, 300 hurdles and 200 dash, but it's sad to consider the plight of hurdler Andy Margason.
The senior, who displayed his potential by finishing sixth in the 110 hurdles in 2015, was rarely healthy. Also a baseball player before moving full time to track after his sophomore year, he suffered injuries on the diamond and later on the track.
A pulled hamstring in Timothy's first meet on March 14 held him out more than a month. Patiently making it back to full strength, he tweaked it again in early May and never returned to form.
"He has never been healthy enough to do high-quality training for three straight weeks," Trojans coach John Vander Kamp said.
Mr. Consistent:
The pole vault duo of Koval and Brown give Lake Park assistant coach Doug Juraska a state qualifier in either pole vault or high jump, his specialties, each of his 19 years with the Lancers.
Hello!
Seeded right behind Wheaton Warrenville South triple jump record-holder Blaze Barista in Class 3A, at 46 feet, 7 inches Hinsdale South junior Diamond Anderson made a 7-7¾ improvement over his sophomore season.
Dream finals:
Along with the potential showdown in Class 2A sprints, the following track finals alone would be worth the drive to O'Brien Stadium: Class 3A 110 and 300 hurdles between Waubonsie Valley's Tyler Kirkwood and Glenbard North's Jace James; a 3A 400 final of WW South's Brandon Bell, Metea Valley's Jordan Cagigal, Glenbard East's Patrick Mikel and Wheaton North's Adam Terrini.