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IL AA Boys State Meet Recap
Hillcrest held up from challenges on an injury riddled Cahokia and a up and coming Kaneland team to capture its second straight state championship. A look back at Saturday's action.
Charleston IL
Michael Newman - Dyestat IL / ESPN Rise
On a hot, steamy day in Charleston, Hillcrest emerged again with the AA state team championship. It was not just Jamison Wilson that carried the load for the Hawks on Saturday; it was a collective team effort that resulted in the victory. Do not discount the effort of Cahokia. This team came in battered and bruised. DeAnthony Henderson injured his ankle and did not allow him to finish the 110 High Hurdles, an event he was favored to win. Jimmie Hunt was also hurt and was only able to compete in the relays. With a depleted squad, Leroy Milsap's team performed like true champions.
Kaneland was the story of the meet teamwise. Considered a team to watch before the competition began on Friday morning, the Knights ran their best meet of the year to tie with Cahokia.
Great performances all over the place during the meet. The IHSA needs to do something about the meet record thing (I'll talk about that some other time). The one true record that was broken was from Streator's Logan Pflibsen in the Pole Vault. His 17' 1" clearance in the vault set the new standard that other athletes will attempt to achieve.
Let us not forget Springfield's 4x8 relay win...if they were in AAA, would they have won? Good possibility!
Here is a look at what happened event by event on Saturday:
Long Jump
Jamison Wilson of Hillcrest, who did not start competing in this event until a few weeks ago, took command of the event on Friday with an outstanding jump of 23' 6 1/4". The rest of the field was a foot behind him. This gave him the luxury to watch what the competition would do on Saturday while he conserved his energy for the other 3 events he was in. Tevin Coleman of Oak Forest came within 3" of Wilson, but that was not enough.
Triple Jump
Vernon Carter of Cahokia came to Charleston as the favorite in this event. He did not disappoint in the Triple Jump this weekend. He was 2 feet ahead of his closest competition after the prelims on Friday. Just for good measured, he came back on Saturday morning and improved by 5 inches to cement his hold on the title. Only a junior, Carter will be back next year to go afetr 50 feet...and maybe beyond.
High Jump
It was thought that would come down to Kaneland's Nick Sinon and Burlington Central's Cameron Ostrowski. The ten finalists were wittled to 3 by 6' 7". At 6' 9", both Ostrowski and Salem's Quentin Garrison went out while Sinon captured a title that illuded him indoors.
Pole Vault
Yes, it is true. Sam Mate of Champaign Central went over 14' 6". Logan Pflibsen of Streator had not even broken a sweat. Nothing against the other competitors in the field, Pflibsen was in a class by himself all season and especially on Saturday. Pflibsen's attempt at a state record was what the entire stadium was waiting for. His first attempt was not the best at 17' 1", the second was total art, how a vault was supposed to look like, as he cleared it to the delight of himself and the crowd in the east bleachers. He is a true competitor. At the IPTT Classic in March, he decided he wanted to clear 16' 7" because the competition at 1A was won at 16' 6". Great things are still out there for this young man as he will soar to higher heights on the next level.
Shot Put
After the prelims, Champaign Centennial's Matt Strack had not thrown his best of the season, but it was still enough to take the lead in the Shot. There lurking in the weeds was Springfield Lanphier's Junior Kevin Farley. During the season, he was not one of the top putters at this level. In fact after sectional competition, he was ranked 22 out of 30 in this event. After prelims, he was 5th. His best effort of the year came out as heaved the Shot 56' 7" to surpass Strack by 2 feet. Farley's mark was nearly 3 feet farther that he had thrown the entire season!
Discus
Eventual champion Tyler Loos of Sterling led after the prelims with a toss of 160' 2". That toss would hold up on Saturday for him to capture the individual title...but not without some tense moments. Sectional leader Preston Lumzy of Dixon was in 4th after the prelims, a little more than 6 feet behind Loos. His throw sent shivers down Loos spine as he threw 159' 9" on Saturday, to close within 5 inches of him, but that was not enough.
4 x 800 Meter Relay
It was not supposed to be this close. Galesburg had lead the yearly TFX boards in this event by a sizeable amount...even in the prelims, they were 3 seconds ahead of their closest competitors. But the finals can bring out some interesting things in events and this was just the case here. Four teams distanced themselves from the rest of the field...Galesburg with Luke Junk, Crystal Lake Central with Ryan Alvarez, Oak Forest with Josh Driver, and Springfield with Nick Moore. It was a fast first leg with all 4 of these runners coming in together between 1:55 and 1:56. Mattoon had actually moved up to take a shot at it as well.
The second and third legs provided more action. Crystal Lake Central would surge to the lead, Galesburg would respond. It kept going back and forth. Springfield slipped back a little and was thought to be falling out of the championship chase. The 3rd leg of Springfield's Michael Simon put the Senators back into contention into the final exchange.
Memorable to say the least. Oak Forest's Ed McDaniel opened up with a short lead, with Crystal Lake Central's Michael Bondi, Galesburg's Will Remmes, and Justin Lee of Springfield close behind. Out of the 4, Lee had the best leg speed and it showed on the last 400. The first to drop was Bondi with 200 to go...down the home stretch roared Lee coming across the finish line with an incredible 1:53 split. Their time would have been with the AAA race. Springfield could not believe they had run that fast. "I can't believe that we broke the record," said Springfield's Matt Havey. Neither could his teammates.
4 x 100 Meter Relay
The first race of the day that would define the state team championship. Cahokia usually had good exchanges and it showed Saturday...they had a sizeable lead in Lane 8 coming to the final exchange. Hillcrest had a great handoff between Justin Kilpatrick and Ryan Keen. The Hillcrest senior sped down the straight and just nipped Quinntarius Hill of Cahokia at the finish line to win by 1 one thousandths of a second.
3200 Meter Run
This was dual #2 between Paul Zeman of Belvidere North and defending state champion C. J. Elward of Peoria Notre Dame. Early on, the race was dictated by J.D. Fuller of Woodstock with Zeman and Elward close in tow. Zeman and Elward moved past the Woodstock runner at 1400 meters and went about their race as both passed 1600 in 4:42.
The race was very similar to the indoor race between the 2. In that one, Elward went with 800 meters to go. With 2 laps to go and Zeman in the lead, Elward just waited. The heat had something to do with that. On the middle of the back stretch, Elward sensed that Zeman was slowing down and moved by him. The race was his. He crossed the finish line a jubulant 7 seconds ahead of Zeman. His defense was complete.
110 Meter High Hurdles
Another race were Hillcrest needed big points and did not disappoint here. Jamison Wilson sped over the 10 hurdles with ease, holding of a challenge from TF North's Jesse Hubbard to win his second state championship of the day and more importantly getting 10 points for his team.
100 Meter Dash
Everyone was looking at Junior Devantre Whitelow of Centralia. In the prelims, he zoomed to a quick time of 10.68, which was 15 hundreaths faster than Danville's Anthony Bacoat. No dual happened between these 2 in the finals...Bacoat tried to anticipate the gun and the gun won....he was out. That left Whitelow to run his race. He had company at the line from surprising newcomer Brian Carter of Kelvyn Park and Dylan McElveen of Crete-Monee, but Whitelow inched out a win by 4 hundreths of a second. Should be a great race next year as both Whitelow and Carter return.
800 Meter Run
As I was standing on the infield floor of the stadium crisping and watching this race, someone commented to me, "They are going too slow!"...The pack went out in 58 seconds and Jersey's Ryan Todd was just sitting there waiting for the moment. Todd was fresh and waiting in 9th. Down the backstretch, Todd exploded away from the pack and to an easy 2 second win over Edgar Valle of Kaneland and Justin Lee of Springfield.
4 x 200 Meter Relay
Cahokia again showed its perserverance by taking an early lead in this race. At the final exchange, TF North with Brandon Carroll tore around the curve and finished ahead of Carbondale and Cahokia with a season best of 1:27.59.
400 Meter Dash
Garret Payne of Glenbard South wanted this race real bad. He was the list leader all season and was the man to beat here. He came down the home stretch with nothing left it seemed as he held off fellow junior D.J. Zahn of Morton by a tenth of a second. Payne's time of 48.24 was a PR. Both of these guys will be under 48 next spring.
300 Meter Intermediate Hurdles
Jamison Wilson of Hillcrest was going for his 3rd championship of the day. Coming down to the final 3 hurdles, Wilson and conference rival Wana Wauna of Oak Forest were neck and neck. At the final hurdle, Wilson nipped the final hurdle and went tumbling to the earth. Wauna crossed the line as champion as Wilson tried to maitain his form to get 2nd.
1600 Meter Run
Ed McDaniel of Oak Forest had run a 4:16 solo the previous week at Hillcrest. How much would the heat take out of the Oak Forest senior. He had mentioned after the relay that he was sick, not feeling good. Would this effect him here?
At the first 800, McDaniel, John Crain of Dunlap, and Ryan Alvarez of Crystal Lake Central passed through the first 800 in 2:10. The pace started to slow down in the next 400 and Alvarez decided it was time to go as he made his move down the homestretch heading to the bell lap. Alvarez and Crain both passed in 3:18...
With 300 to go, Crain shifted into his next gear and moved passed Alvarez. The problem was, Alvarez still had some left as well...he repassed Crain with 200 to go...Crain admitted he was surprised by this, found a little something more with 150 to go and took the lead for good. The future North Central College runner crossed the finish line with a smile in winning in 4:18.28. Tyson Kinsley of Sycamore had a great last 400 and nipped Alvarez at the line for second place.
200 Meter Dash
Same scenario as the 100 except no false starts. Again, it was a 2 man race between Devantre Whitelow of Centralia and Brian Carter of Kelvyn Park...with the same outcome. Whitelow had run a legal 21.56 in the prelims, finished in 21.77 to claim his second championship of the day.
4 x 400 Meter Relay
Like many thought it would, the team championship cam down to the final event: Hillcrest 53 - Cahokia 47 - Kaneland 43. The Knights would not be able to catch Hillcrest since all 3 teams were in the relay, but they had to finish either 4 places ahead of Cahokia or win the race and have Cahokia finish no better than 5th.
It was a great relay with Hillcrest taking command of the race early on. Both Cahokia and Kaneland were hanging close. At the final exchange, Hillcrest still had the lead with Irvin Pierce. Kaneland was lurking close behind with Logan Markuson, and Cahokia and surprising Chicago Robeson in hot pursuit. Coming down the home stretch, Pierce would not let Marksuon by...but that was not the answer that the Kaneland athlete was looking for. Markuson made one final move at 50 meters to go to cement the realy championship, and more importantly with a Cahokia 4th place finish gave them a tie for second place with the Comanches. Hillcrest's 8 points here gave them an 8 point cushion to claim the state team championship.
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