Lyons Township dominates in winning the team championship

By Michael Newman

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Downers Grove, Ill --- The finish of the first race of the night at the West Suburban-Silver Boys Conference Meet was an indication that some special things were going to happen at the Downers Grove North track. Oak Park-River Forest won the Frosh/Soph 3200 Meter Relay in 8:11.80 leading three other schools under 8:20. In other conference meets across the state, those kind of times would win the Varsity races. These were Frosh/Soph teams that were doing it. With rain threatening in the area, there was no wind with temperatures in the 60’s. Just perfect for some fast times. It also helped Lyons Township as they dominated the team competition winning the Varsity title with 147 points. WSC-Silver Indoor champion Oak Park-River Forest finished second with 113 points.

The straw that stirred the meet’s drink were the four varsity distance races. They were that good.

Rain fell on and off during this meet. The meet directors made the decision Friday morning to move the meet up 45 minutes to start at 5:15. The decision paid off as heavy rain hit the area 15 minutes after the meet concluded. The rain did not affect the distance runners that approached the starting line.

Three of the top teams toed the line for the start of the 3200 Meter Relay. Lyons Township had their usual line up, but Oak Park-River Forest was not running Irwin Loud who was on their quartet when they ran 7:46 three weeks ago. York also had put Jon May in their foursome holding Robert Tomaska out to run the open 3200. It did not matter. The times ended up being so fast.

After a 57 second opening lap, the three favorites in the race separated themselves from the rest of the pack. York’s Charlie Kern passed Oak Park’s Sean Lonergan and Lyons Township’s Connor Madell at the end of the first leg giving York the lead. Alex Deuter held the lead for York for most of the second leg. It was Jack Monaghan’s turn to make a move in the final 100 meters as he passed Deuter to give Oak Park the lead. Oak Park’s third runner Alex Staples passed the line for the start of his two laps in 3:52.6. This race had the looks of getting faster and faster.

Staples was the key for this race as he opened up a 15 to 20 meter lead on York’s Jon May and Lyons Township’s Andrew Best for most of the third leg. By the time he handed off to Oak Park’s anchorman Kimanthi Johnson, the lead for the Huskies was two seconds ahead of Lyons Township and York. The Lions got a good final exchange from Best to Vince Zona to have the edge over’s York’s exchange from May to Max Denning.

Johnson kept the lead on the final two laps of the race. The action was behind him as Zona and Denning continued to pass each other making up ground on Johnson. With 300 meters to go, Johnson made one final surge securing the win for Oak Park as they ran the state’s fastest time (7:43.56). Zona passed Denning with 15 meters to go to secure second place for Lyons (7:46.13). York was next (7:46.13) followed by Glenbard West (8:00.70) and Hinsdale Central (8:06.11).

Splits:

OPRF – Lonergan (1:54.9) - Monaghan (1:57.7) – Staples (1:56.8) – Johnson (1:54.1) = 7:43.56

Lyons – Madell (1:55.7) – Palmer (1:58.4) – Best (1:57.5) – Zona (1:54.2) = 7:45.80

York – Kern (1:54.4) – Deuter (1:58.9) – May (1:58.4) – Denning (1:54.4) = 7:46.13

The 3200 Meter Run matched the excitement of the relay and then some. Blake Evertsen (Hinsdale Central HS), Danny Kilrea (Lyons Township HS, LaGrange), Rob Prescott (Downers Grove North HS), and Irwin Loud separated themselves from the rest of the pack 800 meters into the race. By the time the quartet passed the mile in 4:43, the gap had grown to five seconds with Loud controlling the pace. That is when the action began.

Kilrea could see that the pace was slowing down and he took the lead pushing the next lap to 69.5 seconds. The next lap slowed to 71 seconds as the group passed in 7:04 with Kilrea still in the lead. The three behind him was willing to stay close behind knowing that they were going to have a fast final 400 meters to run in another 60+ seconds.

Evertsen made the first move with 500 meters to go as he swung to the outside to take the lead. Loud saw this and he swung to the outside to try to stay with. Prescott and Kilrea were not willing to let Evertsen go. The four went by the bell lap at 8:12. Let the kicking begin.

Kilrea retook the lead on the curve trying to make a gap from the rest of the pack. With 300 to go, Evertsen took the lead storming away from the pack. All of a sudden, Prescott went into an all-out sprint moving past Kilrea and Loud in pursuit of Evertsen. He got the Hinsdale junior with 200 meters to go. Evertsen tried to repass Prescott as the two battled down the final straight. Prescott would not relinquish the lead as he crossed the line in first (9:10.41). It was 21 second improvement on his personal best. Evertsen (9:11.33) and Kilrea (9:14.90) finished second and third. Loud, who is battling a head cold according to Oak Park coach Tim Hasso, was fourth (9:17.31).

The 800 matched the excitement of the 3200. Most of the runners in the field were coming back from the 3200 Meter Relay. It showed as the pace was a slow 58.1 seconds with Oak Park’s Kimanthi Johnson and Sean Lonergan controlling the lead with Hinsdale Central’s Nathan Hill and York’s Charlie Kern close behind. Johnson accelerated on the back stretch and gave himself more than a second lead as he navigated the final turn. Hill made a move with 150 meters to go as Kern followed that move. As they came off the curve, Johnson, Hill, and Kern were even. Hill stared to move in that last stretch but Kern had a little more left. The York sophomore glided across the line in a personal best 1:54.97. Hill was next (1:55.56) followed by Johnson (1:56.11), Sean Lonergan (1:56.23), and York’s Robert Tomaska (1:56.25).

The 1600 Meter Run was perhaps the wildest race of the night. Irwin Loud controlled the race the first two laps of the race as he paced the pack through a 64 second opening lap and 2:12 at 800 meters. Alec Danner (Downers Grove North HS) made the move of the meet as he moved from the inside to take the lead. He was in an all-out sprint as he came out of the curve with 700 meters to go. You would expect that kind of move in the last lap of the race, but Danner had the guts to do it then. It changed the complexity of the race of what was a pack strung out quickly. In the next 100 meters, he had opened up the gap to four seconds. Evertsen, Zona, Monaghan, and Loud were just trying to hold on hoping that Danner would come back. He didn’t.

Danner had run a 60 second third lap to give himself a five second lead with one lap left. Zona moved into second with his eyes on the Downers North senior. The lead was still five seconds with 200 meters to go as Zona and Monaghan did not look like they were making any ground. Danner started looking around on the curve realizing his energy tank was almost empty. Zona started to close the gap with his arms pushing his pace. Danner made another peek back at 100 meters to go. Zona noticed that setting him into a wild sprint. At 50 meters, Zona took the lead and the win (4:17.32). Danner finished second with a personal best (4:18.45). Some may think it was questionable to make that move that early, but he did what he did and that defined that race. We will see him towards the front in whatever race we see him run at state in two weeks. Monaghan was next (4:20.27) with Evertsen (4:21.83), Loud (4:23.46), and York’s Liam Hill (4:24.03) close behind.

The strength of Lyons Township at this meet came from the field events. 67 of the 147 points that they scored came from those six events. Nick Tegtmeier gave Lyons a win with a 51-4 effort to win the Shot Put by two inches ahead of Sam Brodner (Glenbard West HS, Glen Ellyn). Blake Newsome threw 143-3 to win the Discus with teammate Andrew Hubona in second.  Lyons also received a field event win from Rob Hatch and his 21-0 jump to win the Long Jump.

On the track beside the points they scored in the distance races, Lyons picked up a double sprint win by Antwan Thigpen. The junior ran 10.89 to win the 100 Meter Dash a tenth of a second ahead of Hinsdale Central’s Kareem Muhammad. Thigpen took the lead with 100 meters to go and held on to run 49.58 to win the 400 Meter Dash ahead of Oak Park’s Brandon Gage (49.80). Jakob Mogorovic also picked up a win for Lyons as he ran 40.01 to capture the 300 Hurdles title.

Kareem Muhammad also picked up two wins after his second place finish in the 100. He jumped 44-0 to win the Triple Jump. In a down pour, Muhammad crossed the line first (22.36) to win the 200 Meter Dash.

Glenbard West showed their relay power winning the other three relays contested in this meet. The Hilltoppers ran 42.43 to win the 400 Meter Relay ahead of Oak Park-River Forest and Lyons Township (42.84). West won the 800 Meter Relay (1:29.13) almost a second ahead of Oak Park-River Forest (1:29.93). Two seconds separated the top four teams in the 1600 Meter Relay. Glenbard West won the race (3:23.09) holding off Lyons Township (3:23.80). Oak Park finished third (3:25.02) just ahead of York (3:25.23).