|
The Wildcat junior sacrificed his
body for the team, throwing himself across the finish line to
win the 200-meter dash before falling and breaking his
collarbone.
“It’s pretty bittersweet,” said Wildcat coach Steve Destri after
his team won its first league indoor title with 134 points, 47
more than runner-up Bloomington, the defending champion.
The Wildcats’ only outdoor Big 12 title came in 1995. Normal
Community tied for fifth Tuesday with Mattoon at 28.
Lewis, who won in an indoor school record 23.11 seconds, will be
evaluated today, but could be out two to eight weeks.
“He’s pretty indispensable because he’s our one quality
sprinter,” said Destri, who later visited Lewis in the hospital.
“We left the team trophy with him to sleep with.”
Prior to that bad break, almost everything went the Wildcats’
way as they won eight of the 15 events.
Jonny Kaufmann set the pace, sweeping the 800 (1:59.62) and
1,600 (4:42.40) before anchoring the third-place 1,600 relay
(3:38.07) with a 52.2 split.
Kaufmann said the team title meant “a ton” given the fact BHS
has won the past two outdoor league titles.
“It’s nice to take one away to let them know we’re there,” he
said.
Reid Basting, Troy Walls and Max Wiese put their names right
there in the Normal West record book with winning efforts in the
400 (50.91), 55 high hurdles (7.75) and shot put (50 feet, 4
inches), respectively.
Basting was by Lewis’ side in the 200 in second with a personal
best of 23.14. Earlier, Basting won the 400 by grabbing the pole
position after a lap on the 200-meter track before holding off
Greg Patton of BHS (52.05).
“With my type of race strategy, I needed to get out in front and
pretty much hang on to the lead,” said Basting, who did not get
to face the reigning outdoor 400 champion Marcus McGee of BHS
because of injury.
Walls was disappointed he didn’t get to face reigning Class AA
state 110 high hurdle champion Tyler Sipes of BHS, who will miss
the next few meets for disciplinary reasons.
“I look forward to facing him outdoors,” Walls said.
Wiese’s previous school shot put record was 46-6.
“Now he’s starting to show that emotion you need to have (to
throw far),” Destri said.
Rounding out the Wildcat winners were their 3,200 relay
(8:30.21) and sophomore Austin Baer in the 3,200 (10:10.66).
The relay included Jeff Bush (2:08.7), Tyler DeGroot (2:10.3),
Wade Rupard (2:08.0) and Steve Ross (2:03.1). Ross’ career best
split helped his team erase a 5.1-second deficit.
The 6-foot-4 Baer chopped 15 seconds from his old best to hold
off teammate Drew Kerschieter (10:14.63) in second.
Baer’s off-season training included three workouts per week at
the Sports Enhancement Center.
“It was intense,” he said. “That was probably the most
off-season training I’ve ever done.”
BHS junior Jeshiah Campbell won the long jump at 22-3 despite a
sore left ankle on his take-off leg. He blamed stutter stepping
at the board for keeping him from reaching his season best of
22-8½.
“I’ve just got to get my mark down,” he said. “I’m going for 23.
That’s my goal.”
BHS went 1-2 in the pole vault as both Joe Roberts and Sam
Sleeper cleared 13-3. Roberts, who won based on misses, went out
at 13-9, but he knows what to fix.
“It’s basically just getting the standards right,” he said.
Coach: John Szabo, 26th year
2007: Won sectional, Big 12 Conference and Intercity
titles
Returning stars (2007 bests in parentheses): Tyler Sipes
(110H — 14.01, 300IH — 37.73); Marcus McGee (400 - 50.11); Greg
Patton (400 – 50.6, 110HH – 15.6, 300 IH - 39.77); Joe Roberts
(PV – 14-0); Sam Sleeper (PV – 13-7 this year); Doug Rever
(3,200 – 9:59.8); Sodiq Alliu (TJ – 44-3, LJ - 20-10 3/4).
Other key contributors: Jeshiah Campbell (LJ – 22-8 1/2
this year); Josh Roig (800 – 2:01.33 this year), Quay Hall (SP –
47-1 1/2 this year), Jake McCain (sprints).
FYI: Tyler Sipes, the Class AA state 110 high hurdle
champion, holds Intercity meet records in the highs (14.6) and
300 intermediate hurdles (38.5). … Marcus McGee, a senior, won
last year’s Big 12 400 and split 49.7 in a relay. … Greg Patton
won last year’s Pantagraph Honor Roll Meet (HRM) 400. … Doug
Rever is the reigning Big 12 indoor 3,200 champion. … Jeshiah
Campbell, who lettered as a freshman but did not compete last
year, is a threat to the school long jump record of 23-1/2. …
Darian Davis, a three-time Intercity champion in the 200 and the
reigning Intercity and sectional 100 champion, is no longer in
school.
Quoting: “He won the race last year out of the blocks if
you look at the replay,” said Coach John Szabo recalling Sipes’
state title effort. “At the second hurdle, he was way ahead.
Coach (Keith) Enyart has done a great job with his technique.”
2008
Intercity boys track teams' schedules, and rosters.
BLOOMINGTON
REMAINING SCHEDULE
March 18 – Big 12 Conference Indoor Meet at IWU, 4 p.m.
March 29 – Illinois Prep Top Times Indoor Classic at IWU, 10
a.m.
April 2 – Pontiac, Olympia and LaSalle-Peru at Normal Community,
4:30 p.m.
April 10 – At Lincoln, 4:15 p.m.
April 12 – At Springfield Lanphier Invitational, 11 a.m.
April 18 – At Downers Grove South Invitational, 5:30 p.m.
April 18 – At Normal Community Invitational, 4:30 p.m.
April 22 – Intercity Meet at Central Catholic, 5 p.m.
April 25 – At Darien Hinsdale South Invitational, 5 p.m.
May 1 – BHS Raider Relays, 5:15 p.m.
May 8 – Big 12 Conference Meet at Mattoon, 4:30 p.m.
May 16 – Sectional at NCHS, 4 p.m.
May 20 – The Pantagraph Honor Roll Meet at BHS, 5 p.m.
May 23-24 – State meet at Charleston, TBA
ROSTER
Seniors- Terry Bausley, Sergey Chubich, Cass Cleinmark^, Jon
Cook^, Jon Helgeson, Silvan Lenzlinger, Chris Love^, Jake
McCain^, Shane McGann^, Marcus McGee^, Moritz Milberg, Deonte
Person, Doug Rever^, Joe Roberts^, Tyler Sipes^, Sam Sleeper^,
Kevin Williams.
Juniors- Sodiq Alliu^, Reggie Brewer, Jeshiah Campbell, Jacob
Collins, Lance Gaines, Quay Hall, Antonio Lockwood, Rakholiya
Manthankumar, Eric O’Shea^, Greg Patton^, Neil Pickering^, Kyle
Reilly, Josh Roig^, Brandon Ross, Andy Szabo^.
Sophomores- Reid Golowski, Michael Guy, Verl Jamison, Anthony
Kruse, Brian Meyer, Jake Mullenix^, Alex Niemann, Kyle Nolan,
Derrick Simmons, Chris Swanson, Brooks Tryon.
Freshmen- Joseph Banks, Justin Brooks, Luc Dinkins, Torre
Harrell, Cody Hubbs, Jamahl Johnson, Dean Jordan, Connor Keegan,
Luke McAvoy, Ryan Nguyen, Kyle O’Daniel, Darrell Payne-Winston,
David Pelo, Joe Roig, Aaron Schneider, Luther Thompson, Brandon
Watson.
^ - returning lettermen.
BHS senior Sipes looks to rewrite hurdle
speed limits
By Randy Sharer
rsharer@pantagraph.com
It’s a fact Tyler Sipes is a good
hurdler. The fun part is no one knows exactly how good he’ll be
this high school track season. |
Boys track team by team previews
“The sky’s the limit,” said Bloomington coach John Szabo of the
reigning Class AA state champion in the 110-meter high hurdles,
who is being recruited by Iowa and Northern Iowa.
Sipes enters his final prep campaign owning The Pantagraph area
all-time bests of 14.01 seconds in the high hurdles and 37.73 in
the 300 intermediate hurdles.
Sipes placed second in the 300s to help BHS finish a
school-record sixth in the state meet. His training will again
be overseen by assistant coach Keith Enyart.
“Indoors, watching him at practice, he might be a little ahead
of where he was this time last year,” said Szabo, who hopes
Sipes can help the Purple Raiders successfully defend their
Intercity, Big 12 Conference and sectional titles.
“We’re fortunate that we have numbers (60 athletes). We also
have some quality individuals in a lot of events. We’ve got the
makings for another pretty decent team.”
Second behind BHS in last year’s sectional was Normal Community,
which returns 14 lettermen to an 87-man squad.
“The two places we’re the strongest are the throws and the short
sprints,” said Coach Tom Patten, who has six sprinters battling
to join state qualifiers Melvin Hicks and Brett Ross on sprint
relays.
Fast-improving Normal West, third in the 2007 sectional, figures
to continue its upward trend under third-year Coach Steve Destri.
“We’ve got some high goals for ourselves,” said Destri, who
rates BHS the Big 12 favorite. “The guys on our team are ready
to give it everything they have to see if we might compete with
them.”
Central Catholic, which won its first sectional in school
history last year, hopes to land another with help from a 38-man
roster, the largest in Saint history.
“We have a lot of expectations,” said Coach DeWayne Griffin, who
will look to sprinters Ryan Waldron and Aaron Bivins to help
offset the loss of hurdler Adam Harrison to a knee injury.
The return of school record holders Kevin Forde (9:32.03 in the
3,200) and Scott Blair (159-7 in the discus) has University High
coach Lester Hampton feeling optimistic.
“What we’re trying to do is put people in places where hopefully
we can challenge for a conference championship,” Hampton said. |
