By Michael Newman

[email protected]

Hillside – When the gun went off for the first race at Saturday’s Proviso West Invitational, all thoughts were forgotten for the moment about the struggles just getting to that point. Instead of the negative, positive took over with some great races involving great fields as well as finishes. Oak Park-River Forest used their depth scoring in 12 of the 15 contested events to win the team title with 85 points. East St. Louis-Senior showed why they will be the 2A team favorite this May as they scored 79 points to finish second. Wheaton North (53 points), Downers Grove North (46 points), and York (40 points) rounded out the top five in this 17 team Varsity field.

There were many great finishes on both the Varsity and Sophomore events. It was the distance events that once again took center stage in this meet.

The closest race of the day came early in the 3200 Meter Run between two of the top three finishers from last fall’s 3A State Cross Country Meet. Clayton Mendez of Whitney Young and Tommy Brady of Maine South took command of the race in the first 1600-meters of the race easily laying down 35 second laps on the 200-meter oval. They started breaking away from the field as the duo went past 1600-meters in 4:42 as the pace seemed to start to slow down. Mendez changed that running 70 seconds for the next 400-meters opening a gap between him and Brady. That gap stayed at three second for the next four laps as Mendez could not drop Brady. It started to narrow in the final 400-meters. Brady slowly got closer to the Whitney Young senior as the bell lap sounded. With 90-meters left in the race, Brady took the lead opening that his move would be the last.

It wasn’t.

Mendez surged one more time coming off the final curve catching Brady at the line. At first, it was hard to determine who won. The clock stopped at 9:26.56 but who would be awarded the win? It was determined by photo that Mendez had the ever so slight edge ahead of Brady though both were given the same time.

Both runners came back in the 1 Mile Run but encountered a different type of race. Mendez once again pushed the pace going through 800-meters in 2:13. He had Jacob Ridderhoff of Downers Grove North and Matt Vietzen of Oak Park-River Forest close behind. Eddie Siuda of Downers Grove South and Charles Harders of Lyons Township hung back waiting for the right moment.

Siuda was the first runner to make a definitive move on the back straight in lap five of the race. He ran that lap in 31 seconds catching the field by surprise. That gap stayed at three seconds on the pack when Harders decided to make his move with 450-meters left in the race. On lap later with 240-meters left, Harders took over. He ran a final 31 second lap to cross the line in 4:21.66. Vietzen caught Siuda in the final 15-meters to finish second (4:25.18) just ahead of Siuda (4:25.64). Ridderhoff (4:25.79) and Mendez (4:27.01) rounded out the top five. Nine runners in that event were 4:32 or faster.

“The 2:01 that I ran two weeks ago showed me that I was ready for track season,” Harders said after his race. “I was definitely waiting to see what people would do. When Siuda made his move, I was not sure if I would be able to catch him or not. I just stayed calm thinking that I would get back up with him.”

There was not that much suspense in the other two individual distance events. Joey Simon of Wheaton North finished tenth last spring in the 800 Meter Run. He showed he could be one of the favorites in the event this May. Simon had control of the race throughout not really being pressured for the lead going out in 57-seconds for the first 800-meters and extending his margin in the next 200. Simon achieved an indoor personal best of 1:57.40 to win by two seconds ahead of Ryan Birkmeier of Downers Grove North and Sean O’Connell of Hinsdale Central who both ran under two-minutes. The same held true for York’s Charlie Kern in the 600 Meter Run. After having a cross-country season that was full of health problems, the York senior showed he was back as he took the lead at the start and never looked behind. Kern’s winning time of 1:25.67 was more than a second ahead of Downers Grove North’s Brendan Lockerby and another second ahead of Jayden Arquines of Hinsdale South.

State Cross Country Champion Downers Grove North showed in the 3200 Meter Relay that they could have the pieces to challenge for a state title later this spring. Ryan Birkmeier led off with a 1:59 split followed by Brendan Lockerby’s 2:00 split that put the Trojans in a strong position to win as they were five to six seconds ahead of the rest of the field. Matt Moravec and Sam McCool held off a charging Naperville Central down the stretch to win (8:13.68) ahead of the RedHawks (8:15.82). Ethan Kern of York had a strong double win on the sophomore level of this meet. Kern was pushed by Lyons Township’s Jack Ehlert for most of the 3200 Meter Run. Kern pulled away in the final 300-meters to capture the win (9:52.35) ahead of Ehlert (9:56.32). Kern came back to lead wire-to wire in winning the 1 Mile Run (4:38.33) by seven seconds ahead of Ehlert.

The Flyers take a stand in the sprints

East St. Louis-Senior traveled north to the Chicago area. They left Hillside with a strong showing winning two individual sprint events and both the sprint relays. Perez Ford started it off for the Flyers in the 55 Meter Dash. The senior got off to a good start then crossing the line for the win (6.60) ahead of York’s Deandre Klein (6.66) and Bolingbrook’s Brandon Walters (6.72). It was Anthony Bartley’s turn in the 200 Meter Dash. Jonathan Mitchell of Oak Park-River Forest and Bartley came off the final curve even in the last section of this event. Bartley had the edge at the line winning (23.30) just ahead of Mitchell’s 23.40.

If the first two sections of the 800 Meter Relay were any indication of how fast it might take to win, it might put some pressure on the teams in the concluding section. In section 1, Proviso East won their race by five seconds clocking an impressive 1:33.98. It was Oak Park-River Forest’s turn in Section 2 as they surpassed Proviso East’s time by four hundredths of a second (1:33.94). In the third section, East St. Louis-Senior and York battled for the first half of the race. The Flyers pulled away for the win (1:33.42) and the fastest time in the event.

The 1600 Meter Relay was the most challenging of the night for Eastside. Proviso East held the lead for almost 1560 meters of the race. It was the charge in the final stages by Deante Anderson that gave the Flyers the win (3:27.05) just ahead of Proviso East (3:27.27). Their times are the fastest in the state so far this season.

JT Lowder of Oak Park-River Forest was in control of the 55 Meter Hurdles (7.85, IL #3) finishing ahead of teammate Koren Leonard (8.03) and Zackary McClain of Lyons Township (8.04). Bolingbrook’s Brendan Turner caught Griffin Vizgirda at the line to win the 400 Meter Dash by seven hundredths of a second (52.35 – 52.42).

Field Event Highlights

Cahokia’s Andra Ward has been between 46 and 47 feet early this season in the Triple Jump. He could be close to the 50-foot mark by the end of this season. The junior performance in the Triple Jump was the highlight of the field events. Ward’s jump of 46-8 was the best of the day to win the event by over two-feet ahead of Oak Park-River Forest’s Miles Molette-Hughes (44-7.50).

Justin Taylor of Hinsdale Central jumped a personal best 21-0 to win the Long Jump ahead of Jayden Lambert of Downers Grove South (20-8.50). Tyler Johnson of Wheaton North had a 52-10 best to win the Shot Put ahead of Omarr Roberts of Naperville Central (52-5). No other athlete in the event went past 48-feet.

There was no Pole Vault Competition in this meet as the Proviso West Athletic Director Calvin Davis informed Coaches late Thursday that the Pole Vault pit was deemed unsafe. It leads to the question of why there were entries taken for the event? There have been no competitions held in that discipline in this facility in 2018.