Boys track and field: Naperville Central's Shilgalis enjoys a change of scenery
If he was going to visit the West Coast, Naperville Central's Thomas Shilgalis figured, he might as well get in a nice little run.
In California to tour UCLA, USC and Stanford over spring break, the Redhawks junior finished ninth in the boys 1,600 at the Stanford Invitational, setting a personal record at 4 minutes, 18.42 seconds.
Before flying out with his parents, Joe and Jenny, and sister, Chloe, Shilgalis had spoken with Stanford distance coach Dylan Sorensen, who mentioned the possibility of Shilgalis running at the event held last Friday and Saturday. The prospective engineering student submitted his prior outdoor PR - 4:19.56 at the 2017 Distance Night in Palatine - which qualified him for one of the 25 slots.
"He thought it was cool," Shilgalis said of the Stanford coach, "this Illinois guy flying out to race against guys he knew about."
It was 75 degrees out there, Shilgalis said.
"It was tough going out to California, training by myself, adapting to the weather, coming from crummy Illinois weather to California weather. The heat was something I had to factor in," he said.
Shilgalis heated up late in his race. Starting with a 64-second first 400 meters, the next two laps came "pretty slow," he said, which left him at 3:17 with 400 meters left. He closed with a negative split time.
"I've been trying to run close to or as much under 60 (seconds per lap) as possible," he said. "It was cool to be able to achieve that during the race. That's what got me that PR."
It was good to get away.
"It was really nice running against new faces. I didn't know how anyone ran their races," said Shilgalis, on to Saturday's Wheaton North Best 4, crummy Illinois weather permitting.
"Running in Illinois against the same guys you know how they run their races, you know how consistent they are, know what they're capable of, and you don't have that in California. It was just a whole new experience, a whole new race."
They're No. 1:
Every year the girls of Wheaton Warrenville South are the first of any track team in DuPage County, boys or girls, to compete outside. The Tigers annually visit the Gene Shipley Invitational at Moline, the prep alma mater of WW South girls coach Rob Harvey.
The Shipley is an A-, B- and C-level meet, held last Saturday. WW South won the A level but trailed Machesney Park Harlem at B and C, giving Harlem a slim overall edge with 261 points to the Tigers' 258.
WW South dominated the middle-distance and distance events, sweeping each level of the 800-, 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs. A-level winners, respectively, were freshman Samantha Politsch, junior Sarah Kulkarni and sophomore Kaitlyn Nenninger.
Another Tigers sweep was in shot put, where senior Tonjalaya Yarbar won the A level with a solid first-meet throw of 37 feet, 6 inches. She also won B-level discus at 99-10.
Back to Arcadia:
One of the highlights of Neuqua Valley's season is sending athletes to the Arcadia Invitational at Arcadia High School in California. Eight Wildcats will attend the high-profile meet on Friday and Saturday.
The boys kick off Neuqua's action Friday night with Ryan Kennedy, Tyler Bombacino, Dakota Getty and Zach Kinne running in a four-by-1,600 relay.
Saturday Neuqua's represented in seven events. Bombacino and Kennedy return for the open mile followed by Corinna Pena in the girls mile run. MiKenna Robinson is in the girls open 800 and Getty in the boys open 800.
Wildcats record holder Donovan Turner will compete in the boys seeded 110-meter hurdles, with another record-setter, Myles Gascon, in the 100 dash invitational. Kinne returns in the boys seeded 3,200-meter run. Bombacino, Gascon, Kennedy and Kinne all are making return trips to the California meet.
Another returner will be Hinsdale Central senior Sean O'Connell. He ran the 3,200 last year at Arcadia and is back for one of three "rated" 3,200 heats on Friday night. In 2017 O'Connell recorded his PR at Arcadia, going 9:20.06.
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