Boys track and field: Glenbard South's McAdory changes his focus
Glenbard South track and field athlete DeJon McAdory became a Raider this season as a senior, transferring in after helping Walther Christian go downstate in all four relays over his three-year stint.
Now he's focusing on individual events. What focus.
"The 200 really is my bread and butter, but I came here and this is my first year doing the open 400 and I'm really starting to fall in love with it," said McAdory, who moved from Broadview.
McAdory blasted off in the 400-meter run Friday at Glenbard South's Raider Invite and never slowed. He won the race in 52.50 seconds, topping Willowbrook's returning state qualifier Liam Riesen by more than three seconds. In the 200 McAdory came up just short of Proviso East's Junaid Oladipo.
"The 400 is kind of my favorite race, I love it, you just get out and go and you hold it," McAdory said.
"That's it, you've got to see how long you hold it or not. Then you come to the first 300 meters, you're like, I can do this. That last 100 meters it's, Whoa. Can I? But you've just got to hold it, keep the goal in mind."
A chilly Friday was not made for achieving goals, but the Raiders' Jeremy Earnst achieved one of sorts. He won long jump at 21 feet, 8 inches, matching the mark that earned him the title at last year's DuPage County Meet.
"He's been stuck on 20 feet, 1 inch," said Raiders coach Ronn Claussen. "It was uncanny."
Earnst also ran the third leg of a winning 800-meter relay with Milivoj Plavsic, Connor Pettigrew and Artharva Raut.
It's not news seeing Willowbrook athletes like Riesen, high jump winner Deandre Holliday, hurdler Will Stout or distance runner Matt Caron do well in their events.
Warriors junior Brandon Heselton was the sixth seed in the fast heat of the 800 run, but overcame those odds to win in 2:05.10.
"This has been my first good outdoor race," said Heselton, running nearly three seconds under his seed time.
"It means a lot because in my head I can beat myself up sometimes, so finally getting that win and seeing the payoffs - the last three weeks have been pretty much a grind. It's been the hardest workout weeks that we've ever done and they've definitely paid off," he said.
The Warriors also got a second-place finish in triple jump by senior Terell Regans, at 40-3½.
Glenbard East started out strong with a second-place finish by the 3,200 relay of Aidan Ihms, Andrew Byslma, Ewan Mathie and Luke Walsh, and in discus at 127-2 by Matt Schager, just a freshman.
The Rams also got a third-place finish in the 100 dash by Nehemiah Jones, who later took sixth in the 200. The senior's "biggest motivation" is to go downstate in the sprints but he also looks forward to his college football future. As cornerback last fall Jones didn't allow a completion in 13 targets against him.
"I'm committed to Central Missouri for football, so anything I can do to help me out and get me ahead of anybody else, any competition, I'm going to do it. That's why I'm here," he said.
Rolling Meadows won the eight-team varsity portion with 147 points followed by Willowbrook (88), Glenbard South (76) and Proviso East (76) and Glenbard East (55).