More Top Picks Best High End Refrigerators
player ready...Lockport’s John Meyer and Sandburg’s Dylan Jacobs went out in style Saturday in the state finals at O’Brien Field.
Meyer won his third straight Class 3A title in the shot put, while Jacobs anchored the Eagles to a win in the 3,200-meter relay and came back to win the 1,600.
Meyer earned the state-meet record with his throw of 68 feet, 8 inches from Friday’s preliminaries, which carried over for the win. He later added a third in the discus with a 180-02.
“I really just wanted to get my third state title and get the state record, so I accomplished what I wanted to do,” Meyer said.
“This is really the only meet that we have had this year where we’ve been sweating bullets out here. You really just had to improvise and do the best you could.”
It was an adventurous day for Jacobs.
The Eagles’ 3,200 relay qualified 11th out of 12 teams. But in Saturday’s finals, Connor Devlin, Nico Calderon and Peter Demogerontas combined to give Jacobs the baton with a lead.
Jacobs did the rest, closing out the win in 7:45:12. It was Sandburg’s third title in the event in the last four seasons.
Later, after a ice bath, Jacobs competed in a loaded 1,600 field. A bit surprised when Granite City’s Andrew O’Keefe surged with about 600 meters left, Jacobs had to go into reel-in mode.
He almost ran out of time, but won in 4:11.60, .08 ahead of O’Keefe.
“He took off,” Jacobs said of O’Keefe. “That was crazy. I knew at some point he would have to slow down and that’s when I would have to make my move. … With about 50 meters to go, I was a little nervous, but I’m really happy I was able to finish.”
In the 800, Eisenhower’s Joshua English stayed in the front of the pack for most of the race and then broke away at the 500-meter mark, extending the lead on the backstretch before fending off York’s Charlie Kern at the finish line to win in 1:51.94.
“I just ran my race as I would usually,” English said. “I was most concerned with Kern and if he was there, I was just going to go with him.”
English was Eisenhower’s first state champion since the 800 relay won in 1986.
Homewood-Flossmoor won its first state trophy, and almost its first state title, finishing second to Neuqua Valley, 52-48.
H-F’s 400 relay team of Joshua Bridges, Matthew Lewis-Banks, Jesuseun Adeyiga and Marcell Ellis set a 3A meet record of 41.34 in Friday’s preliminaries. The mark was short-lived, though, as Plainfield North won the final in 41.29. H-F finished second in 41.66.
In 2A, Marian Catholic’s sprint relays put together an epic day.
The winning 400 relay needed a big effort from anchor Josh Smith.
Brent Fitzgerald, Darly McIntosh and Jalen Frazier kept the Spartans in the hunt, but Smith trailed Mascoutah’s anchor by at least a stride at the final exchange. Smith made up the gap to give the Spartans a narrow win in 42.27.
“He was in front of me and I knew I had to catch him,” Smith said. “He took out a little bit before me and I knew I had to make it up.”
The same four runners won the 800 relay in 1:27.57.
Tinley Park’s Solomon Wilson-Smith battled through a nagging groin injury to win the 110 hurdles in 13.98.
“I’ve been going in and out of therapy the last week,” Wilson-Smith said. “Before the race it wasn’t feeling too good. But once my adrenaline started pumping, I was good.”
More Top Picks Refrigerators
Rich Central’s VanHarvey Vance won a competitive 200 in 21.98, with the top four finishers separated by just one-tenth of a second.
“I knew I had to get out hard,” Vance said. “Once I got out there, it was like, I have to see how far I can take this.”
Providence’s 1,600 relay of Jerrell Wright, Eduardo Favela , Caden Kalinowski and Gavin Jamie wrapped up the day by winning in 3:19.28.
“My strategy … is always to try to get out in front,” Jamie said. “It helps me run a little better knowing there are guys behind me and I have to go.”
Steve Soucie is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.