Class A and thunder opens IHSA state championship weekend-

Before the thunder and lightening rushed everyone from O'Brien Stadium on Thursday afternoon, the opening session of the boys state final actually started Thursday morning with the Class A action.  Herrin proved their trip from Williamson County in virtually the southern most part of Illinois was indeed a business trip with 7 total qualifiers.  Superstar Zach Riley led the team and all qualifiers in the LJ/TJ.. he also donated his pair of legs in the top qualifing 4x1 and 4x2 relays. 

Individually, Winnebago’s Alex Thompson put in his bid to be the first Illinois discus thrower to 200 feet by heaving the discus 189-4.

The heat and humidity welcomed the Class 2A and 3A participants after the conclusion of 1A action but it was the lightening that forced the competitors off the track and into the dorms or fieldhouse.

Class 2A-
The second year of the newly formed class continues to grow with 107 schools entered as well as 835 athletes competing. Obviously, the preliminary round is designed to only allow the 12 best runners in each event to advance to Saturday’s final.

Defending champion Hillcrest co-leads along with Cahokia with 10 total entries for Saturday’s final. Cahokia has 6 individuals and 4 relays. Hillcrest has 8I, 2R.   Maple Park (Kaneland) will send 9 entries (7I, 2R) to the finals.  Oak Forest also qualified 9 slots for Saturday’s final (7I, 2R). Look out for Galesburg (6I, 2R) and Danville (6I, 1R) to make some serious noise in the state championship.

Track-
The 4x800m relay was the first prelim to get underway with Galesburg meeting and surprising the challenge of the previous two winners (Mattoon 8:04.55 & Crystal Lake Central 8:02.33).  The Silver Streaks used the first three splits by Luke Junk, Josh Thomas, and Beau Salsman (1:57.7,2:01.3,1:59) to put away the competition with ease in 7:59.71… Calumet City (Thornton Fractional North) and Country Club Hills (Hillcrest) came in with the fast times and they did not disappoint.  TF North smoked a good Kankakee team 42.54-43.10 in the 4x100m relay.  Meanwhile, overall top seed Hillcrest barely outlasted a hard charging Danville 42.90-42.99.  Both teams advanced easily to the final… top seeded Jamison Wilson of Hillcrest may have been a few light years away from his sectional best +14.04, but he advanced to the final with ease.  He his seeded third behind Taylor Andrews (Kaneland) and Jesse Hulbert (T.F. North)… DeVantre Whitelow (Centralia) set a class record 10.68 (+1.7)  in the 100m and appears headed for the title on Saturday… Ryan Todd of Jerseyville will be looking to better former teammate Jeff Wooldridge’s second place finish last year in the 800m.  Todd leads all qualifiers with a solid 1:55.76 mark. No one else break 1:57… TF North leads all entrants to the finals in the 4x200m relay with a 1:28.08 mark.  The favored Meteors won their heat over a good Carbondale bunch that battled them the entire race… Garret Payne continued his 2A winning ways over a tightly bunched pack quarter-milers.  Payne won his heat by a second and set a class record: 48.44… the 300H featured Rashad Hulbert of Crete-Monee.  Hulbert took advantage of his heat foes in winning easily in 38.66.  Galesburg’s Josh Thomas previously set the event up winning heat 1 in 38.68… Paul Zeman (Belvidere North) traded laps with C.J. Elward (Peoria Notre Dame) before finally pulling way late on the strength of a strong second half in 4:21.39 for 1600m… Whitelow doubled his short sprint pleasure by capturing the best overall 200m time in 21.56. Unheralded Brian Carter of Chicago Kelyn Park won his heat and turned some heads with a thrilling 21.95 effort… the final race of the day is the 4x400m relay and it did not disappoint. Chatham-Glenwood took off late in the race of heat 2 and held off Galesburg 3:21.87-3:22.11 for the overall top finals seed.

Field-
Jamison Wilson (Hillcrest) used a slight tailwind to gain control of the Long Jump: 23-6.25 (+2.4). Oak Forest’s Tevin Coleman and Cahokia’s Laderrick Ward are second and third with 22-7 marks.  Coleman actually had a better second jump than Ward… 15 competitors earned berths to the finals in the pole vault with 13-0 efforts.  Among the favorites for Saturday are Logan Pflibsen (Streator) and Logan Markuson (Kaneland)… the High Jump didn’t meet its full allotment of 12 finalists.  That’s because the small entry field was only able to qualify 10 jumpers at 6-3… Matt Strack (Champaign Centennial) leads over the favored Preston Lumzy (Dixon) and the field with a moderate heave of 54-10 in the Shot Put… Vernon Carter (Cahokia) has always maintained that he is primarily a triple jumper despite competing in a variety of events.  Carter broke the class record by bounding a legal 48-2 (+0.2)… Tyler Loos (Sterling) took control of the Discus Throw on his second attempt to grab a top qualifying 160-2.

3A-

Most of the pre-meet pundits counted on Naperville (Neuqua Valley), Oak Park-River Forest, and Roselle (Lake Park) at the head of the class.  After the Friday’s action, it looks like Neuqua Valley (4I, 4R), York (4I, 3R), Lake Park (8I), and East Moline (6I, 2R).  Neuqua Valley appears to have to have the most scoring diversity with sprints, relays, and distance.  Lake Park will gather most of their points in the field on the strength of the Kline brothers: Jermaine and Jeremy.  Watch for defending champion York to go full thrust from the 3200m relay, 3200m, 1600m, and several other events in an attempt to retain their state title.  Finally, East Moline will be in contention as Western Illinois’ chief contender.

The 800m was greeted with several questionable racing tactics that almost cost a few of the top contenders a spot in the finals.  In heat 2, Tavaris Thomas (Zion-Benton) blazed out to a commanding first lap lead and then for some reason decided to coast and fell back off of the pack.  He found some finishing fortitude with less than 150m to go and still won his by over a second. London Hawk (Thornwood) took advantage of a sluggish opening quarter to win in 1:55.07.  But the most impressive performance came from Edwardsville’s Dan Mazar. He was almost done with the season a month ago with a supposed stress fracture in his leg, but on Friday he left O’Brien stadium with the top performance qualifying mark of 1:53.52… Jack Driggs (York) set the tempo for the entire field in the 1600m when he used a final 58.9 400m to put away Loyola Academy’s Jack Seeburg 4:17.02-4:19.21.  The rest of the field featured a surprise and an expectation. Sergio Miranda (Romeoville) once again came out of nowhere like he did during the cross country state championship.  The senior standout won heat 2 in 4:17.88 over the likes of Garrett Sweatt of Edwardsville.  Alec Bollman (Palatine) put his foot to the pedal on the final lap to shoo away Nico Composto of Loyola Academy 4:15.71-4:16.30.

Defending state champion Colin Hepburn (Glenbrook South) leads the 100m field in 10.69- winning his heat by a slim margin over Shane Molidor of Downers Grove South.  Darius Smith (Chicago Vocational) may have shocked the fans when he won his heat in 10.70.  Smith had terrorized his opponents in the Public League before turning his feats on Charleston foes… how much will Eric Oliver (Homewood-Flossmoor) win the 400m state championship by? The Viking senior was the only competitor under 49.00 when he easily won his heat in 47.78… Evanston’s Tremaine Gordon produced a list leading 21.46 over newcomer Brandon Stryganek (Stevenson) in the 200m… Saturday’s 110HH field will be fast and talented led by Matt Benes of Lockport.  Benes rocked his heat with a prelim leading 13.96 (+2.1). Erick Gavin (Marian Catholic) won his heat in a satisfactory 14.47 (0.0). Gavin is the defending state champion.   Brandon Winters (Plainfield South) took advantage of the wind in winning heat three in 14.07 (+2.6)… newcomer Gary Ford of Dolton Thornridge held off Jon Jackson of Chicago Lane Tech 38.15-38.50 in the 300H.  The final should be a must watch.

Lombard (Glenbard East) produced the second fastest time in the 4x800m relay with a school record 7:52.39.  The Rams have been running strong all season that included major victories at the Downers Grove South Mustang Relays and Illinois Prep Top Times.  They will have to contend with LaGrange (Lyons) who busted out with a season best 7:51.51 (the top overall mark)… only one team broke 42.00 in the 4x100 relay and it happened to be Belleville West at 41.97.  The Maroons will have plenty of competition with the likes of Niles West and Neuqua Valley lurking in at 42.04.  East Moline checked in at 42.00… Neuqua Valley’s bid for a sub 1:27 in the 4x200m relay will have to wait until the final as the Wildcats came close in 1:27.15.  Evanston, West Aurora, and Belleville West were under 1:28… Neuqua Valley continued its string of being the first team under a certain mark by getting down under 3:20 at 3:19.18.  They are big favorites to win the show stopper event 4x400m relay.

Pre-season favorite Shane Molidor leads the long jump field with a swift 23-3.75 (+3.2)… 13 competitors will contest in the pole vault with 13-9 marks… a record 20 athletes made the final in the high jump.  The automatic mark is 6-4.  Maybe next year it will have to be raised to 6-5… Jermaine Kline and his twin brother Jeremy sit 1-3 in the shot put with 61-7.75 and 57-4 puts.  Marcus Popenfoose (Huntley) is sandwiched in between them at a healthy 61-2.5… Popenfoose leads over the Kline brothers in the discus throw by 14-feet with a solid 189-3 mark… Jonathan Gardner (Chicago Whitney Young) is defending state champion in the triple jump, but almost didn’t get an opportunity to perform on Saturday when he scratched on his first two attempts.  On his last effort, he used a very conservative approach and produced a list leading 48-4 (+3.1)