Schaumburg wins 4x1 & 4x2 in sizzling state leading times; Distance races do not disappoint as Zach Dale and Lane Tech charge to state bests

By Michael Newman

[email protected]

Mt. Prospect, Ill – Whenever the fans leave Prospect High School at the end of the annual Wanner Knights Invitational, they seem to talk about the great distances races that took place during the meet.

Even though each of the distance races in this meet Friday night were fantastic, they had to take a back seat to the performance of the Schaumburg sprint squads in capturing the 4 x 100 Meter & 4 x 200 Meter Relay championships breaking both races’ meet record in the process.

The quartet first stepped to the track in the 4 x 100 Meter Relay. Their best time heading into this meet was 41.81 set at their own invitational almost three weeks ago. That performance shocked most of the fans throughout the state. It even shocked Schaumburg Coach Ryan Senica.

“Last year we had six guys that went down state in the 4x1 and 4x2. We lost the two fastest guys for this season,” Senica said. “I did not see this coming until we got to our invite. When we ran that 41.81, I said whoa!”

York got a huge advantage when second leg runner Josh Farrar gave the Dukes a big lead ahead of the Saxons. It was the strong anchor of Shandal Thomas that gave his team the win. Their time of 41.52 shattered the meet record that Zion Benton had set (42.2) back in 1986.

It was the same story in the 4x2 as York and Schaumburg faced off once again. This time it was not as close. Thomas once again had a strong anchor for the Saxons. When he crossed the line, there was a large cheer as the time popped up by the timer’s tent: 1:26.60! It was the fastest time in the state by more than a second. No team in Illinois had run in the 1:26 range this early in the season in at least five years. Schaumburg again shattered the meet record of the 1986 Zion-Benton team by more than two seconds. York also broke the record 1:27.92), but they were more than a second behind Schaumburg.

“This is the most competitive group that I have ever had,” Senica said.

“In the 4x1, we have been working harder and harder,” Thomas said. “We just try to run with our competition and try to break the record that we set before.”

Thomas was not through after the relays. He won the 100 Meter Dash (10.69) almost two tenths ahead of York’s Farrar. He ran the 200 Meter Dash for the first this season. The final was his sixth race of the night. That must have caught up with him. John Thomas (Zion-Benton HS) caught Shandal with 50 meters to go, then pulled away for the win (22.10-22.26).

If it were not for the sprint relays on this night, the spotlight would have been on Zach Dale (Conant HS, Hoffman Estates) in the 1600 Meter Run. It was clear in the first 400 of this race that this pace was not going to be a lark in the park. Dale made sure of that. He passed the first 400 meters in a blistering 61 seconds. Only Chris Korabik (St. Ignatius Prep, Chicago), Alex Bashqawai (York HS, Elmhurst), and David Schmieg (Lane Tech HS, Chicago) were brave enough to stay with Dale as they immediately separated themselves from the last pack.

The pace slowed down just a little as the four went by the 800 in 2:06 with Dale still leading. It was still the fast pace that Dale wanted. In the York Invitational at the beginning of March, Dale had been the same situation with a loaded field and let the opportunity for a fast 1600 slip away when he stayed in the back of the pack. That was not going to happen this time.

With 500 meters to go, Dale started to extend his lead as he passed by the 1200 in 3:09 with Bashqawai one second back. The pack of four was now a single file line as Korabik and Schmieg were behind. Dale opened up a 10 meter lead on the backstretch as Bashqawai started to falter as Korabik passed him. Bashqawai recovered with 150 meters to go but his surge was too late. Dale looked over his shoulder one time with 50 meters to go knowing he had it. Dale’s winning time was a fast 4:12.09. Bashqawai was closing on Dale, but ran out of real estate as he placed second (4:13.61) just ahead of Korabik (4:14.24). Schmieg showed no effects from his earlier leg in the 4x8 as he finished fourth (4:16.24).

“I wanted a fast time under 4:13,” Dale said after his race. “I knew I was going to have to push it from the start.”

Lane Tech started the string of great distance performances at this meet earlier in the evening when they captured the 4 x 800 Meter Relay. The Indians showed the same gutsiness that they had exhibited indoors in this race. Lane Tech jumped out to a huge lead with a 1:54 opening leg by Schmieg. Jon Vara took the baton and extended the lead by a second more ahead of Hersey and Lyons Township. Fortunes changed a little bit in the third leg as Hersey’s David Rodriguez brought his team up from fourth to the lead. He passed Lane Tech’s Christian Badillo running a 1:55 third leg.

The problem was for the rest of the teams in that final 800 meters was that Lane Tech had Pavlo Hutsayuk anchoring. It was pretty much game over by that point as the junior took back the lead from Hersey’s Kevin Kovach, then stormed away running a final 1:54 anchor. Lane Tech’s winning time (7:49.57) is the state’s fastest time of the year so far. Lyons Township’s Alex Lima passed Kovach in the final straightaway to give his team second (7:52.56) just ahead of Hersey (7:53.72).

Most of the top runners came back less than an hour later in the 800 Meter Run. One of the few fresh runners was Matt Plowman (York HS, Elmhurst) and David Sias (Springfield HS). It did not matter to either of them about the athletes that were doubling. The two took the pace into their hands as the gun went off in the final section. It was Sias, the little known runner from Central Illinois, that forced the issue in the first 400 going through in 54.5. He was a second and a half ahead of Plowman who was at 56 seconds.

It was all Plowman’s race as he took control going past the 600 meters in 1:24. Sias, Jacob Amiri (South HS, Downers Grove) and Kevin Ma (Whitney Young HS, Chicago) tried to stay with the York junior but those efforts were futile. Plowman finished in a personal best 1:54.27 almost a second ahead of Sias. The Springfield runner had a breakthrough race lowering his PR to 1:55.63 showing that he could be a factor in the 2A 800 scene in the last month. Amiri and Ma finished close behind.

“It was nice to hang on to him (Sias). He went out really fast,” Plowman said. “That made it a great race.”

Billy Magnesen (Central HS, Hinsdale) had control of the 3200 Meter Run from the gun. As he led the pack through a 4:38 first mile, he made a surge to shake off any runners that had thoughts of staying with him. It seemed to work as he started to pull away in the next lap. Only Kyle Mattes (York HS, Elmhurst) stayed with the Hinsdale senior getting within a half of a second of Magnesen with two laps to go. The Red Devil runner pulled away from Mattes in the last 600 meters for a convincing five second win (9:15.32-9:20.01). Both runners achieved PR’s in this race. Daniel Santino (St. Ignatius Prep, Chicago finished third (9:31.34) eleven seconds behind Mattes.

“It was time trial conditions,” Magnesen said describing him setting the pace early in the race. “It helped to have Kyle Mattes pushing me for the first seven laps.

The double point scoring in the relays benefitted both York and Schaumburg in the final standings. York won the team title with 154 ½ points, 40 ahead of second place Schaumburg. Naperville Central was a close third with 110 points. York only had two individual wins in the meet (Bashqawai and Mattes were awarded 10 points but were behind individual invite runners in Dale and Magnesen). Reid Smith gave the Dukes a pair of wins. He won the Pole Vault fairly easily (13-3) as the rains started to come down. He possibly could have gone higher but why risk it on the slippery runway. It was his efforts in the High Jump that took notice. The senior won the event at this meet for the third year in a row. What made it significant was that he set a PR clearing 6-8 ¼. What made the mark even more important that he broke a school record that was held by his Dad. It was something that he had been chasing all season.

Along with the wins in the 4x1 and 4x2 relays and Shandal Thomas’ win in the 100, Schaumburg also received a surprising win from Edwin Kelly in the Triple Jump. He broke his PR by more than 2 feet when he jumped 46-1. He was more than foot ahead of teammate Stacey Smith who finished second. Smith earlier had won the Long Jump (22-3 ½).

Naperville Central was carried by Michael Jopes on this night. The senior had control of the 110 Meter Hurdles winning in 14.74. He was fourteen hundredth of a second ahead of Tindale Danweih (Hersey HS, Arlington Heights). Jopes made it a sweep in the 300 Meter Hurdles taking command of the race coming into the home stretch. He passed York’s Jarvis Hill and held on for the win (39.22) ahead of Hill (39.87). Jopes completed the night in the 4 x 400 Meter Relay. Teammates Daniel Spaccapaniccia, Matthew Meier, and Christian Schafer gave Jopes a lead when he got the baton for the final 400 meters of the relay. He held that position giving the Redhawks more than a second win ahead of Lyons Township (3:23.58 – 3:25.15). Naperville Central also received a relay win in the Frosh / Soph Medley Relay as they won by more than a second ahead of Rockton Hononegah.