Double within 10 minutes highlight of meet; Lane Tech blasts a state leading 4x8; York wins team championship on final event

By Michael Newman

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Hillside, Ill --- There was controversy before the first gun was even fired at the 49^th edition of the Proviso West Invitational. A decision was made a couple months ago to change in order of events from the standard order used in Illinois to the national NFHS order. It would have been okay if the schools had been notified. More than half of the head coaches did not find out about the change until Tuesday or Wednesday of last week. For some of the coaches, it was too late to change the entries since that closed mid-day Wednesday.

Johnny Jenkins, head coach at Proviso West, made changes to react to what happened a year before at the same meet. It was a new year. A new attitude. The athletes adapted to the changes that were put before them.

The one athlete that adapted the most was Antonio Shenault (Lake Park HS, Roselle). He was attempting to complete the sprint double of the 55 Meter High Hurdles and 55 Meter Dash which come back to back normally. His time of rest was only 20 minutes compared to a 40 minute interval a year ago. He responded in a big way. He commanded the 55 Hurdle Race from the gun running 7.59 taking over the fastest time in the state. He was more than two tenths of a second ahead of Imani Payton (North Lawndale Prep, Chicago), Michael Jopes (Central HS, Naperville), and Jarvis Grace-Hill (York HS, Elmhurst). A gap like that in this short of a race seems like light years.

Shenault jogged back to the starting line to get ready for the 55 Meter Dash. The prelims foreshadowed what was about to happen in the finals. All four heat winners were within two one hundredths of each other. Talk about close!

Marcus Jegede (Lake Park HS, Roselle) came out of the blocks first. It looked like the race would be his. However, he was chased down by teammate Shenault, Terry McGee (North Lawndale College Prep, Chicago), and Ben Andreas (Central HS, Naperville) as all four runners came across the line simultaneously. It took the timer five minutes before a winner could be determined. Shenault was awarded the win (6.56) with McGee, Andreas, and Jegede behind. The first four places were separated by only four hundredths of a second.

“I knew in my prelims of the hurdles my start was really bad. I wanted to come out more aggressive in the finals,” Shenault said. “I really wanted to get away from hurdles for a little bit and get into some sprints and raced against Marcus.”

The Lane Tech quartet in the 4 x 800 Meter Relay started things off with an ultra-quick time in the event this early in the season. At the gun, Ed McCarter (Lyons Township HS) took the lead out as they went out by the quarter in 60 seconds. David Schmieg took over the lead with 300 meters to go in his leg and opened up a two second lead when he passed the baton to teammate Jon Vara. The Indians did not look back. Vara extended the lead to almost five seconds to Oswaldo Lorenzana. Lorenzana maintained the lead as he handed off to anchor Pavlo Hutsalyuk. The junior scorched a 1:57.5 anchor to bring his team home to an 8:01.96 state leading time. The margin of victory was 8 seconds over Lake Park. Neuqua Valley finished third.

Splits:

Lane Tech – 1:58.3 / 2:01.5 / 2:04.6 / 1:57.5

Lake Park – 2:00.6 / 2:05.4 / 2:03.2 / 2:00.2

Neuqua -    2:04.5 / 2:01.2 / 2:02.4 / 2:03.7

Lyons -     2:01.0 / 2:03.8 / 2:06.4 / 2:01.8

One of the other changes in the meet is that the scoring point totals in the relay events were doubled. York benefitted from this winning the other two relays in the meet program to capture the team championship 102-96 over Neuqua Valley. They did it the hard way in both of those relays. It helped the Dukes that they were not in the final section of the 4 x 200 Meter Relay. There were only four teams in section two of the relay. It was close for the first two legs of the race until the second exchange when Hinsdale Central had trouble passing the baton. York stormed to an easy win. They had to wait until a loaded six team final in which a crowded exchange zone made passing the baton between teammates a work of art. With that many teams that close together at the zone, it slowed things down as well. Proviso West won the final section in 1:35.20, but were more than a half second behind York’s 1:34.63 time.

It was the same scenario in the final event, the 4 x 400 Meter Relay. In section 2 of the event, York took control of the race midway through. A strong 50.9 anchor by Jarvis Grace-Hill brought York home in 3:31.60. It was just a matter of waiting for the Dukes to see what their fate would be when the final section went off. The seed times could have foreshadowed a fast final. It reality, only North Lawndale had run their actual seed time heading into the final early in this season. The final section was a battle throughout with Neuqua Valley, North Lawndale, and Lane Tech. It was a strong final leg by 600 Meter champion Ty Moss that gave the Wildcats the win in 3:32.18 more than two seconds ahead of North Lawndale. The Neuqua Valley time was still not fast enough to overtake York. The result gave York the points it needed to win the team championship.

York received a big boost from Reid Smith. The all-state high jumper finished second in the Pole Vault behind Lake Park’s Ryan Krause. Smith has started to put the Long Jump into his repertoire. He responded with a second place finish in that event achieving a 21-1 ½ personal best. Then it came down to his specialty the High Jump. Only Jamante Steward (Proviso West HS, Hillside) was left in the competition as Smith entered at 6-2. A week ago at a quad meet in the same facility, Steward bested Smith in this event. It was not the same story on this day. Steward went out at this height with Smith clearing it on his first attempt. He also cleared 6-4 and 6-7 on his first try. He went out at 6-9 ¼ going for his school’s record. That record is held by his dad.

“My dad has the indoor school record at 6-8. I am always competing with him,” Smith said with a grin. “He won this meet when he was in high school in 1973. I was close on my third attempt at 6-9 ¼ trying to break the school record.” Being that it is at the end of February, Smith has plenty of time to get here he wants to go.

The distance events are usually a staple in this meet. This year was not an exception. The mile was run at the beginning of the meet. In the past, it has been a featured event at the end of the meet. Saturday it was pushed towards the front. The race boiled down to a two man battle between WSC-Silver rivals Ryan Clevenger (North HS, Downers Grove North) and Billy Magnesen (Central HS, Hinsdale). Clevenger took the race early but the pace went out slow as the Downers North passed the 440 of the mile race in 66.3. He started to push the pace. The only runner that went with him was Magnesen as the duo went past the half in 2:11.9. Magnesen was content to stay on Clevenger’s shoulder during a slow third quarter. The two passed in 3:19.5 meaning the last 440 was going to be fast. Magnesen took command on the bell lap storming to a 31 second last lap crossing the line in 4:24.02 ahead of Clevenger’s 4:25.87 second place time. Nick Bushelle (Neuqua Valley HS, Naperville) stormed away from the chase pack in the last 2 laps to finish third (4:30.47).

“I came in knowing that it was going to be a great field with lots of all-state guys there. I was not expecting to go out so slow,” Magnesen said. “I’ve been having great training lately. I’ve been feeling really confident. I knew if I came down to the last lap I would win.”

The fast distance race of the day was the 800 Meter Run. From the start, the fans knew they were going to see something special. Jacob Amiri (South HS, Downers Grove) took the lead as they went through the first 200 in what it seemed like a pedestrian 28.5 first 200. Amiri pushed the pace the next lap breaking the tight pack into a single filed line. The only runner to go with Amiri was Tony Zea (North HS, Downers Grove). Zea plays soccer in the fall so some have forgotten how talented he is. Last year, he ran 1:56 outdoors in this event. The two stormed past the 400 in a quick 55 seconds. It was a pace that you would expect to be run at an outdoor meet, not indoors at the end of February. The two were feeling the effects of that fast early pace as they passed the 600 in 1:25.5. That time would have been close in winning the open race! Zea took off the last 150 meters for the difference making move. He won in an indoor school record of 1:56.28. Amiri was next in 1:58.15. York’s Matt Plowman was in third another two seconds back.

“It was great having him (Amiri) in there. I just waited and kicked him down. He had a great race, don’t get me wrong,” Zea said. “I was thinking oh I’m going to die” in response to that fast 400.

The 600 Meter Run was just as exciting as the 800. Ty Moss (Neuqua Valley HS, Naperville) held off Alex Lima (Lyons Township HS, LaGrange) and Alex Bashqawi (York HS, Elmhurst) to win the race (1:25.77). Lima’s run was impressive. Less than 30 minutes before, he anchored his school’s 4x8 relay with a 2:01 anchor split. He was one of the victims of the schedule switch.

Nick Rafacz (Neuqua Valley HS, Naperville) won his section of the 400 Meter Dash running 52.04 holding off Imani Payton and teammate Zac Espinosa. Fredrick Burks (Proviso East HS, Maywood) should have been in the fast heat. He has a PR of 49 seconds outdoors. He was put in the section before. Burks responded with a strong solo 51.26 winning his section by two seconds and winning the event outright. Rafacz only had 10 minutes to rest before he stepped to the line in the 200. The 400 took too much out of him as he was back in the final section. Terry McGee took the lead midway down the back stretch for an easy 23.10 over Lyons Township’s Matt Grider (23.65).

Zack Smith (North HS, Downers Grove) chose to make the 3200 Meter Run in this meet his first race of the year. He took command of the race early going past the 1600 in 4:45. Kyle Mattes (York HS, Elmhurst) was four seconds back at that point but was the only runner willing to go after Smith. By the half mile to go, Mattes had cut down the lead to a second. Smith’s coach John Sipple yelled at his runner to pick up the pace which Smith did. He pulled away from Mattes for a five second win (9:35.60 – 9:40.86). The Neuqua Valley duo of Daniel Weiss and Michael Widmann stormed from the middle of the pack in the last four laps to finish five seconds behind Mattes. Both juniors established PR’s in that race.

Smith’s effort was not as good as last year’s race where he ran 10 seconds faster. He has been recovering from a slight leg injury and his training is picking up. “I didn’t run last week at Hinsdale. I have been dealing with a little injury. I just wanted to give it another week to train and heal up,” Smith said after his run. “The second mile I was definitely feeling it. It was a great way to open the season with Kyle on me the whole time.”

In the field events, Lake Park did have their fair share of winners. Marcus Jegede jumped a seasonal best of 22-10 ½. He was not happy with his efforts as you could tell as he was leaving the pit after each of his jumps. “It wasn’t a great day. I was working on my technique on the board. It wasn’t a great day but it was my seasonal best.”

Curtwan Evans is just carrying on the tradition of great weight event athletes at Lake Park. He could be the premiere athlete in the Shot Put state wide. Evans set a personal best in the event Saturday with a 56-10 winning put. His margin of victory was eight feet. Evans has a bright future. Next fall, he will be attending St. Cloud State in Minnesota on a track and football scholarship. Austin Parks (Neuqua Valley HS, Naperville) was the other field event winner winning the Triple Jump (43-6).