Naperville North junior Danny Eloe made up for lost time.
Eloe, you see, is a football player. The 5-foot-8, 165-pounder plays both running back and slot back for the Huskies. He usually runs but with a football in his hands.
“I have been working as a sprinter since the sixth grade and I did not really start out that great,” Eloe said. “It has been a long process to get here.”
That process continued Saturday as Eloe finished fifth in the Class 3A boys track state meet at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston. He ran the 100 meters in 10.82 seconds.
Afterward, Eloe credited a lightning-quick start.
“Nobody has been able to beat me the first 40 meters of any race,” he said. “I have been working on my finish.”
He also ran a leg on Naperville North’s 400 and 800 relay teams that finished second and third in the state, respectively.
Those two relay teams featured the same four runners but with a tweaked order.
Eloe was joined by sophomore Carlson Marlar, senior Matt Pasteris and Nathan Jacobs. Also a junior, Jacobs anchored both sprint relay teams.
The 400 relay finished second to Homewood-Flossmoor with a 42.28. The 800 relay took third in 1:28.58.
“During the preliminaries on Friday, the weather wasn’t that great and our handoffs in the 400 were iffy,” Jacobs said. “The four of us built a lot of chemistry. We have built quite a bit of a bond.
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“The format this year really helped prepare for our races.”
The return of the preliminary round after a one-year hiatus due to the pandemic offered that boost. The Huskies ran faster times in both relay events Saturday.
“The second time’s the charm,” Eloe said.
He ran the second leg on the 400 relay. It provided the ideal warm-up for the 100 final.
“It was a great experience,” Eloe said. “The 400 relay gets me ready for the 100 because it gives me a sense of how I am feeling for that day.”
Brian Holmes, a senior, finished eighth in the 300 hurdles for Naperville North, which ended up 12th in the team standings with 22 points.
Behind the power of its 1,600 relay and 3,200 relay teams, Naperville Central came in 11th with 23 points.
The 1,600 relay of seniors Chris Comer and Graham McAninch and sophomores Bode Smith and Foster Shelbert took fifth in 3:21.79 for the Redhawks.
The 3,200 relay of Shelbert, juniors Samuel Barnard and Luke Noren and senior Samir Hussain was sixth in 7:55.63.
Seniors Chris Fleschut and Ryan Eck finished sixth and eighth for Naperville Central, respectively, in the pole vault.
In Class 2A, Benet senior Jason Huang took third in the 100 hurdles. Senior Jack Chvatal finished fourth in the high jump.
Two standout sophomores had the best individual local finishes.
Neuqua Valley’s Nick Pennington posted a personal-best 15-3 as the state runner-up in the pole vault.
Naperville Central’s Maverick Ohle threw 179-5.5 for second in the discus.
“I was happy with second place,” Ohle said. “But it is also bittersweet because you’re only one place from getting the top.”
His best throw Saturday was just off his personal best of 180-2.
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“My goal going into the meet was to get into the top three,” said Ohle, who was fifth last spring.
His trajectory has been moving in a positive direction.
“My best as a freshman was 159 feet,” he said. “The gold standard is to improve by 20 feet every year. My other goal was to have the best throw in the nation as a sophomore.
“I had it and then a kid from Iowa had a big throw of 181 feet, so I had the second best.”
Patrick Z. McGavin is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.