Rolling Meadows' Campbell finds his groove, brings home two state medals
CHARLESTON - Rolling Meadows senior Michael Campbell picked up hurdling on a whim in seventh grade.
Campbell said he wasn't sure about the demanding event, but he decided to take a chance.
"We didn't have a hurdler, so they threw me into one race and I won," Campbell said. "They said, 'OK, you won, so you're a hurdler now.' It's always been fun. I like the feeling of running over the hurdles."
Campbell closed out his career by soaring over many hurdles - and adding some state medals.
Campbell earned two medals Saturday at the Class 3A state track and field meet. He placed third in the 300-meter hurdles by blazing a time of 38.37 seconds. He notched fourth in the 110-meter hurdles (14.63).
"This is a good way to end the season," Campbell said, a Wisconsin-Oshkosh recruit. "I feel like I did pretty good, and went up in rankings because the 300 was a tough fight. My goal was not to get fourth again, and get a higher place than I did in the 100, especially since my coach tells everyone I'm better at the 300s. I wanted to make him happy."
Palatine senior Jacob Bostick, an Iowa football recruit, wrapped up his final track meet with a third-place showing in the long jump (7.04 meters). Teammate Jhermari Mabry added a seventh-place medal in the discus.
"I feel good to go out with a bang and close out this chapter on a good note," Bostick said. "I came six inches away from a personal record. I started track when I was 7 years old, and it's truly a part of me. I'll forever carry a track shoe with a wing on it forever."
Prospect finished in 23rd place with 14 points, led by Sean Beihoffer placing fourth in the 200-meter dash (22.33) and Dominik Balenda also taking fourth in the pole vault (49.20 meters). The Knights' 800-meter relay earned an eighth-place finish in a time of 1:30.22.
Barrington ended with a pair of individuals medals, with Joey Furlong's sixth-place finish in the 3,200 leading the way. Connor Lee placed eighth in the 100 dash.
Palatine's Will Stewart backed up his strong showing in the prelims with a third-place medal in the 100 (10.76) and a ninth-place showing in the 200 (23.15). Teammate Theodo Cunningham took ninth in the 800.
Hersey won a medal when Will Nolan finished seventh in the shot put while the 3,200 relay team placed 10th.
Wheeling senior Daylan Berger was seventh in the 300 hurdles.
Glenbrook South's Nathan Shapiro capped a busy day with three individual medals and a relay medal. He ended in fourth place in the 100, fourth in the long jump and fifth in the 300 hurdles
In Class 2A, St. Viator senior Michael Schumacher, a two-time state qualifier, put on a show in the 3,200 run. He captured second place in 9:21.04. He earned a sixth-place medal in the 1,600 in a time of 4:25. The Lions' 1,600-meter relay collected a ninth-place medal (3:30). Herscher's Drew Rogers won the 3,200 in 9:16.
"I'm really happy with my second-place," Schumacher said of the 3,200. "It was a real tactical race, but I was expecting that. I tried to control it, sit and kick and I wanted to push it at the end to respond to (Rogers).
"This is the best weather I've had all year, so was really happy with it. I'm grateful our team came down all together. It was a fun experience."