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IL IPTT Classic AAA Boys Recap
Some of the outcomes were expected, some of them were not. The AAA meet was to be wide open and that expectation was met.
Michael Newman - Dyestat Illinois
With the results of the AAA IPTT Classic, it became more evidant that the team race will be eye popping with no more than 8 teams that have a chance to win the team title. At the same time, the races at the Shirk Center showed that there will be some new faces in the fore front when the state meet comes around in May. Here is a look of what happened in the lat e afternoon in Bloomington:
FIELD EVENTS
Long Jump
Shane Molidor did not disappoint. The Downers Grove South Senior has been quite a surprise since he took the lead in the leaderboard in the first meet of the year at York. Since that point, he has been the man to beat. On Saturday, he took apart a strong field with a winning leap of 22' 9 1/4". Demadra Humphrey of Normal Community West surprised some by finishing second behind Molidor.
Triple Jump
The 4 x 400 Meter Relay had just finished. The athlete of the meet had just been announced. Yet, the triple jumpers were going through their run throughs. Those who left missed a great triple jump event. Zach Ziemek of Roselle Lake Park, in his third field event of the day, took the lead on his first jump. Rickie Walls of Aurora Waubonsie Valley started to take matters in his own hands. On his third jump, he took the lead with a 47' 2" jump. On the fourth round, he went one better by bounding an eye popping 48' 3". The Waubonsie Valley coaching staff were in disbelief, wrapped in excitement. Coach Kevin Rafferty, caught up in the action, accidentally bumped his head on the ceiling below the upper walkway and stands.
Ziemek made a galliant effort by getting to 46' 10 1/4". A great leap, a PR, but not enough to catch Walls.
High Jump
20 High Jumpers had entered in this event, but in the end 7 jumpers cleared 6' 5" led by eventual champ James Davenport of Aurora Waubonsie Valley. It was Davenport who took control of the event clearing 6' 7" while the other competitors failed to do so.
Pole Vault
It was not at the heights that the first 2 vaults were at. Nevertheless, the AAA fiinal was a competitive one. Zach Ziemek of Roselle Lake Park improved his PR up to 15' 0" in winning the vault. Junior Corey Szamlewski of McHenry improved his PR also by 6 inches taking a strong 2nd place. Eric Gordon of Normal West placed 3rd. The top 3 finishers were all underclassman, making the future in AAA very promising.
Shot Put
In the eyes of most Shot Put fans, they knew a Kline was going to win, but which one. Jeremy had the best mark coming into the finals, but it was his brother Jermaine the one who came out on top with a PR of 60' 1.5". The surprise of the event this year has been and was on Saturday Igor Liokumovich, the Junior from Deerfield. Igor put the Shot a outstanding 56' 8". He was so excited, he jumped as high as the winning high jumper.
TRACK EVENTS
4 x 800 Meter Relay
The night prior, Elmhurst York had run a strong 7:55.20 at the Proviso East Classic...a time that the teams in the IPTT Classic were shooting for. It was anyone's race from the outset, but 3 teams were determined to take command of the race. Lombard Glenbard East and Chicago Lane Tech had finished behind Naperville Neuqua Valley at the Downers South Relays at the beginning of March and looked to be the favorites here. Moline had run a 8:15 to make the field last week at Galesburg to just make the field. At the gun, Glenbard East took it out with Moline, Lane Tech, and Rockton Hononegah. But Ram lead man Brad Magnetta stretched out the lead in the final 200 meters to give the lead at the first exchange.
Glenbard East held the lead through the 2nd man and half way through the 3rd. Dylan Allington of Lane took control for Lane Tech midway through his leg and handed off with a good lead going into the final 800 meters. Glenbard East's Luke Chvtal fought back to take the lead from Lane's Kuli Haji in the last 400. The result: Glenbard East won the race stamping themselves as one of the favorites in a wide open event in May.
Splits:
Glenbard East
B.Magnetta 1:57.8
J.Peters 2:00.9
N.Peterson 2:02.0
L.Chvtal 1:56.5
Lane Tech
J.Jackson 1:59.9
V.Terrazas 2:03.0
D.Allington 1:56.4
K.Haji 1:58.9
3200 Meter Run
Aaron Beattie of Naperville Neuqua Valley came into the race with the 2nd fastest time in AAA. At the Proviso West Invite at the end of February, Beattie controlled the race throughout, only to be outkicked by Jack Driggs of York in the last 200 meters. Would Beattie let that happen again? The field was strong, with Martin Grady of Oak Park Fenwick, Garrett Sweatt of Edwardsville, and Photis Karkalis of Rolling Meadows looking to provide a challenge to Beattie.
The pace was swift in the first 800 with Grady Sweatt leading the pack through in a quick 2:15. The pace began to lag over the next 400 meters and Beattie decided to take over the pacing duties. But he went a little bit further...he expanded the lead. It looked like he was putting in a surge, but in reality he was keeping the same pace while everyone else began to slow down. He went through the next 4 400's running 70's...expanding his lead to 7 seconds with 400 meters to go. The race for 2nd was intense with Grady and the Oak Park-River Forest duo of Malachy Schrobilgen and Jack Stapleton forcing the issue. Beattie threw in a 66 to finish off the race with a victory...Grady was passed by the sophomore from Oak Park Schrobilgen. The story of the race was Bobby Castillo of Downers Grove South. At the beginning of the year, he was running 10:05. At this event, he raced to a 9:21. Watch for him come outdoors.
"They took it out fast with 32 at the first 200 and decided to wait it out and see what happened," said Beattie afterwards. " I really wanted to concentrate on the 3rd part of the race and push on that and hammer it from there...I really have no time goal outdoors. I would just like to have the 2nd fastest time in the school (behind Chris Derrick) by the time the year ends."
Splits
Aaron Beattie >>>32, 67, 1:40, 2:15 (68), 2:51, 3:25 (70), 4:00, 4:35 (70), 5:10, 5:45 (70), 6:20, 6:55 (70), 7:30, 8:05 (70), 8:40, 9:12 (67).
55 Meter Dash
The spotlight race in the sprints was the battle between list leading Devin Banks of Oak Park-River Forest and last year's state champ Colin Hepburn of Glenview Glenbrook South. The prelims were just used to reseed the runners...all runners were going to advance to the finals. In the first prelim, Hepburn and Banks were in the same heat. Both had good starts...Hepburn just edged Banks at the line by one onethousandth of a second. In the second heat, Ahmad Evans ran the 55 meters in 6.49 to control his heat.
The finals were the same deal. Hepburn and Banks were next to each other. At the start, Banks got out smoothly while Hepburn stumbled coming out. Hepburn found another gear and nipped Banks at the line...again by one one thousandth of a second...the 2nd fastest time in the nation in 6.34. "Colin is the hardest working kid I've ever coached," said Kurt Hasenstein of Glenbrook South. "He just doesn't quit."
"I felt like I got a good start in the prelims," said Hepburn after the 200. "But in the finals I thought, oh man!"
55 Meter High Hurdles
The spotlight stayed on so to speak in the next race, the 55 meter High Hurdles. The defending outdoor champ, Erick Gacin of Chicago Heights Marian Catholic, and last year's indoor champ Brandon Winters of Plainfield South each won their prelims setting up a tough final. The two were lined up next to each other having the fastest 2 prelim times. At the start, Winters appeared to spring out of the blocks and appeared to take that edge all the way to the finish line to win over a shocked Gavin, who held his hands on his head in disbelief. Winters wanted to come out with a strong race and he delivered.
800 Meter Run
Banter was going on throughout the week on the Dyestat boards about how the indoor state meet could only have 6 runners in the race. What they failed to realize that it was quality over quantity. The field was small which would give the chance for the runners to see how fast they could run.
At the outset of the race, Andy Martinez took control of the race taking the pack through the first 400 in a quick 57. Dan Mazar of Edwardsville started to push the pace, but Martinez did not want to give up the race. Finally in the last 200, Mazar took command over the race winning in 1:55.68, the fastest time in the state. Austin Stone of Plainfield North passed the fading Martinez to place 2nd.
"My plan was to go at 500 meters. But Andy Martinez kept pushing and I kept going the last lap," said Mazar afterwards.
Splits:
Dan Mazar >>> 28.5, 57.3, 1:27.0, 1:55.68
4 x 200 Meter Relay
A strange first section. Five teams in that section, and on each of the exchanges, a different team passed out of the zone. Section 2 went more to plan. Belleville West had the fastest time coming into the race, but Oak Park-River Forest was the hot team of the moment. At the gun, Oak Park made up the stagger on Belleville West and took the lead at the first exchange. By the third leg, Belleville west caught and took the lead on the huskies. From there, the Maroons held there own and held off a stubborn Oak Park team.
400 Meter Dash
Alot of hype for this race. The top two returnees from last spring's outdoor state meet. Aryan Avant of Naperville Neuqua Valley was up for the challenge from Eric Oliver of Homewood-Flossmoor. Everyone was anticipating what Oliver could run. Last week at his home 160m track, he cruised to a 49.7 400...what could he do on a 200 meter track?
From the beginning, you could tell Oliver wanted this race. He went out the first 200 in 23.2 and the race was basically his. He cruised the 2nd 200 and held off the challenge of Avant to win by a second. "I run better when I go all out the first 200 and go from there," said Oliver after the race. "It has been something I have definitely been training for. I definitely want to go sub 47 outdoors."
1600 Meter Run
The distance lovers were looking at this race. It was loaded with Nico Composto of Wilmette Loyola Academy leading a field that included Mid Suburban League rivals Alec Bollman of Palatine and Angelos Karkalis of Rolling Meadows. The gun went off and the field of 16 started out slow with Nico Composto leading the pack in a slow 2:10 for the first 800 with Karkalis right on his shoulder.
At that point, Karkalis decided that enough was enough and started to pull away from the pack. He pushed a 62 second third 400 and the race was his. he threw in a final 400 to run the last half of the race in 2:04 to win by 3 seconds over Composto and a hard charging Bollman. "We wanted to go out in 2:05 - 2:06 and build from there," Rolling Meadows Coach Frank Schweida said. It was a fast race with 6 runners going under 4:20.
"I wanted to go out in 2:06 and build off that...I wanted to run the next 400 in 65," said Karkalis afterwards. " My goal was 4:13 to 4:17, but I will have to change that now. I thougt when I got to half, man 2:10 too slow; I just had to go after it." Karkalis was shaking his arms during the race looking loose. "In Actuality, I felt tired; I felt terrible," Karkalis added.
Splits:
Angelos Karkalis >>> 31, 64, 1:37, 2:10 (66), 2:41, 3:12 (62), 3:43, 4:14 (62).
200 Meter Dash
In this sprint race, Colin Hepburn and Devin Banks were put in seperate section because of time. In the first section, Hepburn put the pressure on Banks by running a 22.36 to win his section, a PR for him. In Section 2, Banks exploed out of the blocks and showed that he really wanted to make a statement. And boy did he ever...he crossed the finish line in 21.83; the fastest time in Illinois indoors in quite a while. Ahmad Evans of Chicago DeLaSalle and 400 Meter Champ Eric Oliver finished behind Banks.
4 x 400 Meter Relay
Naperville Neuqua Valley went out to make a statement off of the 3:23 that they ran at Lewis University at the beginning of March. The gun went off...then it went off again. The Wildcats were a little too anxious and they false started. After that, the air went out of the balloon. Plainfield South took control of the second section to win the overall race over LaGrange Lyons Township with the fastest time in the state this indoor season. |
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