Boys track and field: Prospect runs away with sectional title

At Thursday's Class 3A Niles West boys track and field sectional meet, a trio of Mid-Suburban East squads including divisional and MSL champion Prospect were in pursuit of nabbing as many tickets as possible to next weekend's IHSA state finals at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston.

Add to the mix a late morning/early afternoon shower that led to a nearly 20-minute delay to the start of the event and things were lined up for an interesting afternoon at Mike Basrak Stadium.

Then, the sun made an appearance as the competition began.

By the end of the day, it was Prospect coach Jay Renaud holding a shiny sectional title plaque after having doled out several shiny individual event medals to his team as the Knights captured their second sectional crown in the past three years. Prospect scored 103.5 points to win the title Evanston was second with 87.

Maine South (80.5), Glenbrook South (58) and New Trier (48) rounded out the top five.

It was an early display of success in the relay races that buoyed the Knights' chances for top team honors as they captured 3 of 4 on the afternoon. Prospect began the day by taking both the 4×800 (7.57:55) and the 4×100 (42.68) relays and then added a 4×200 relay triumph (1:27.91).

"It's always good to start off the meet with (winning) the 4×800 and the 4×100 - getting those events down," Renaud said. "It just kind of carried some momentum for us."

Then, a pair of juniors scored major triumphs for Prospect as John Moellenkamp continued his successful run from last week's MSL meet with wins in both the 200-meter dash (22.43) and the long jump (21 feet, 4½ inches) in addition to anchoring the victorious 4×100 and 4×200 relays.

"Pretty amazing," Renaud said of Moellenkamp. "He's tired but he got the job done for his team."

Andrew Diversey earned two finals berths with a first-place showing in the pole vault (14-1) and a second-place finish in the triple jump (43-2).

Overall on the day Prospect posted 11 top-three finishes.

Hersey was the second MSL East school to qualify individuals for next weekend as its 4×800 relay team had a fourth-place effort (7:58.19) that came under the IHSA qualifying time of 8:03.03.

Then, Huskies junior Josh Methner (9.17.70) used a late surge in the 3,200 meters to best defending sectional titlist Tommy Brady of Maine South (9:17.78) by eight-tenths of a second to capture top honors.

It was a surge that came as a result of Methner seeking a top-two qualifying spot.

"I was just trying to keep it as smooth as possible until there was a half-mile to go," Methner said.