Records fall at #SmithStrong Invitational

Oak Park-River Forest wins team title; Illinois bests achieved by Homewood-Flossmoor

By Michael Newman

Minooka, Ill – It seemed that if you blinked at Saturday’s #SmithStrong Invitational, a meet record would fall at this meet held at the Minooka High School Central Campus or a state or nation’s best would be achieved.

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Oak Park-River Forest had the depth to win the team title with 112 points led by the double sprint win from Caleb Schultz. Homewood-Flossmoor finished second (90 points) finishing the meet with an electrifying state leading time in the 4x400 Meter Relay. Minooka (77 points), Neuqua Valley (70 points), and Normal West (48 points) rounded out the top five teams.

If you were expecting close finishes throughout the meet, you got that under the clear blue skies that engulfed this meet. It started in the beginning in the 4x100m Relay. Minooka’s Nate George took the baton for the anchor leg with work needed to be done. George held off Homewood-Flossmoor’s Olusoga Adeyiga to give Minooka the race win in 42.43 (IL #6). Homewood-Flossmoor finished second just three hundredths of a second behind with 42.46 (IL #8) ahead of Oak Park-River Forest and their 42.95 time.

Caleb Schultz of Oak Park-River Forest was the lone double individual winner in this meet but just barely. Schultz and Minooka’s Nate George were even throughout the final section of the 100 Meter Dash. The two runners came across the line together letting the timing system determine the winner. Both athletes were timed in 10.93 with Schultz winning by four thousandth of a second ahead of George.

Cross winds were prevalent throughout the meet but picked up by the time that the 200 Meter Dash was to be contested. Minooka Coach and Meet Director Nick Lundin made the decision to run the event in reverse starting the race at the common start/finish line. It did benefit the runners with two of the first three sections running in wind-aided conditions. Heading into the final section, Nick Udovich of Lincoln-Way Central ran a wind-aided 22.28 (+3.1 m/s) in the opening section to have the lead. The final section was a replay of the 100 Meter Dash fourth section with Schultz and George once again were side-by side approaching the finish. Schultz crossed the line in a new meet record of 21.54 (IL #3) just ahead of George (21.58, IL #4). The wind was at the allowable 2.0 m/s reading. Oswego freshman Dontrell Young ran 21.90 (IL #8 tie) to finish third.

Young was also involved in another close finish in the final section of the 400 Meter Dash. The results again required us to look under the timing glass to determine a winner resulting in three runners finishing with top five Illinois times. Nelson Speaks of Homewood-Flossmoor ended up winning in 48.83 (IL #2) holding off the freshman Young (48.91, IL #3) and Nolan Lamoreaux of Lockport Township (49.10, IL #5). Speaks missed Max Mitchell’s meet record of 48.81 by two hundredth of a second. Isaiah Willis of Normal West ran 50.01 (IL #10) to finish fourth.

For the fans at the meet that left before the 4x400 Meter Relay took place, you really missed one of the performances of the meet. Homewood-Flossmoor was in charge throughout the race starting with their leadoff runner DeAndre Lane running 50 seconds to give the Vikings the lead. Joaquin Jordan ran around 51 seconds extending the lead. Myles Ellis brought his team into the meet record vicinity running a 50.1 third leg. Nelson Speaks coming off his open 400 win ran a spectacular 48.3 anchor split to give Homewood-Flossmoor the win with a state leading and new meet record time of 3:19.44. Neuqua Valley was a distant second place in 3:24.79 (IL #5) with Oak Park-River Forest (3:30.67) finishing third.

Myles Ellis before his leg in the 4x400 made a huge statement in his win in the 300 Meter Hurdles. Ellis made up the stagger at 150-meters into the race and was on his own from there. Ellis improved in his state leading time running 38.93 for the win and new meet record. Dejay Smith of Minooka was the closest to Ellis running 40.61 to finish second. Smith earlier in the meet demolished a strong field in the 110 Meter Hurdles. It was an impressive race for the Minooka senior as he ran 14.77 (IL #5) for the win into a -2.9 head wind. Cooper McGinnis of Neuqua Valley was the closest to Smith running 15.52 to finish second.

Homewood-Flossmoor also established a new meet record and state leading time of 1:28.19 to win the 4x200 Meter Relay. Oak Park-River Forest ran 1:28.84 (IL #4) to finish second.

The action on the track was hot. It increased even more in the six field events. Kellen Maclin of Homewood-Flossmoor unleashed 23-11.5 state leading jump on the fourth and final attempt to win the Long Jump and set a new meet record. Zion Russell of Normal West jumped 23-7 (IL #3) also on his final attempt to finish second. Kwabena Osei-Yeboah of Oak Park-River Forest jumped 46-11 (IL #5) on his final attempt to win the Triple Jump. Russell jumped 45-7.75 to finish second ahead of Batavia’s Isaiah Brown (44-7.5).

Kaden Garland of Oak Park-River Forest had a good day winning the Shot Put. He heaved a personal best of 63-11.75 to win the event and establish a new state leading mark. Garland’s performance is currently ranked #7 in the United States. It also set a new meet record. Garland’s teammate Jonathan Sibley Diggs had a 50-8.25 to place second. Joshua Cygan of Plainfield South had a huge throw of 176-7.25 (IL #4) on his opening attempt to win the Discus. He had the five longest throws of all the athletes in the event. Chase Creed of Lockport threw 158-4 to finish second with Garland throwing 158-0 to finish third.

Lucas Brauc of Oak Park-River Forest cleared 14-7.5 to win the Pole Vault. Brady Teeple of Waubonsie Valley was one of three athletes to clear 13-17.75 placing second with Ryan Moreno of Kaneland and Owen Dougherty of Oswego finishing third and fourth. Jeffrey Cruikshank of Huntley and Jeremiah Cain of Oswego both cleared 6-6.75 in the High Jump. Cruikshank (IL #5 tie) won the event on fewer misses.

All four distance events in this meet raised the excitement bar in this meet. Lewis O’Connor and Daniel Johnson kept Oak Park-River Forest in the hunt on the opening two legs of the 4x800 Meter Relay. Andrew Harmon and Connor Schupp extended that lead for the Huskies as they ran 7:57.65 (IL #2) to claim the win ahead of Normal West (8:00.04, IL #5).

Evan Nosek of Kaneland took the lead after the first 400-meters in the 3200 Meter Run and with three laps left opened up a six second lead. Nicholas Strayer of Lyons Township stayed patiently in second but made his move with 800-meters left in the race. Strayer caught Nosek with 500-meters left and went on to run 9:25.23 to claim the win. Liam O’Connor of Oak Park-River Forest was with Strayer throughout the race and ran 9:29.62 to finish second. Robert Glenn of Neuqua Valley moved on the final lap to run 9:33.76 to finish just ahead of Ben Wuggazer of Lyons Township (9:34.15). Nosek ran 9:37.05 to finish fifth.

With top seed Camyn Viger of Plainfield South scratching out of the 800 Meter Run, it left open on who could take home the top prize. It was Sandburg sophomore Mateo Ramiro-Garcia that took advantage of the situation leading wire to wire running a huge personal best of 1:56.95 (IL #7) to win the final section and the event. Aiden Swanlund of Normal West came back strong after the 4x8 running 1:57.84 to finish second.

Toomy Nitz of Huntley stayed within the lead of the front pack in the 1600 Meter Run but made his move just as the bell rang for the final lap of the race. Nitz ran a 62.12 final lap to win the event with a 4:18.48 time (IL #3). The next four runners were within a second of each other. Gavin Borger of Plainfield South ran 4:21.31 (IL #7) to finish second just ahead of David Valkanov of Kaneland (4:21.47, IL #8). Francesco Benelli of Batavia (4:22.48) and Zach Self of Waubonsie Valley (4:22.53) finished fourth and fifth place respectively.