Kamahri Montgomery in Friday's 3A 400 Prelims. The Plainfield Central senior swept the three 3A sprint events including a new IHSA Meet Record in the 400 Meter Dash Saturday in Charleston (Photo: Doug McDannald)

 

Hutsalyuk surprises himself in winning 1600; Torpys power Sandburg to 3200 Relay title; Edwardsville gets over hump to capture 3A championship

 

By Michael Newman

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Charleston, Ill --- Kahmari Montgomery (Plainfield Central HS) boldly proclaimed after the Illinois Top Times Championship in March he would be running the three sprint events at the IHSA State Meet. The two time champion in last year’s state meet was more confident in his ability knowing that he could do it. During April and early May, he kept putting up great performances taking care of business without a word. At the Plainfield Sectional North meet the week before the state meet, Montgomery swept all three sprint races punching his ticket to Charleston including dipping under 47 seconds in the 400. Before reporters could get to him, he disappeared into the night like a myth. His times did his talking. When he stepped onto the center stage onto the big blue oval of O’Brien Stadium, his accomplishments at the 3A Boys State Meet propelled him into legendary status among the great athletes that Illinois has ever seen.

 

What makes Montgomery’s three wins on Saturday afternoon more amazing was the circumstances that he ran them in. The meet was stopped just before the start of the 100 Meter Dash. The two hour delay was something that coaches and some athletes were not happy about but something that they had to deal with it. When the meet continued at close to 2:35, Montgomery would step to the track three times within 75 minutes. He would wow the crowd each time he stepped to the track.

 

The most difficult event for Montgomery would be the event that he did not compete in last season the 100 Meter Dash. He tied for the fastest prelim time with York’s Alex Teague with Bloomington’s Cary Lockhart close behind. Montgomery’s start of the blocks has improved over the last year and it showed in this final. Montgomery was out of the blocks even with Lockhart and Shandall Thomas (Schaumburg HS) over the first 50 meters. It was a surge over the final part of the race that was the difference. He ran 10.50 to finish a tenth ahead of Lockhart (10.59) and Thomas (10.60). Teague ran 10.67 to finish fourth just ahead of Demoria Harris (Dunbar HS, Chicago).

 

Officials were pushing the athletes on to the starting line as fast as they could as the clouds to the west were darkening quickly. The radar showed a doozy of a storm that would hit by 4:15. They had to get this meet in before the skies opened up. Twenty-five minutes after Montgomery won the 100, he was in his blocks for the start of the 400. He came out of the blocks gliding through the first 200 of the race. Lakes’ Corey Hertz, Grant’s Octavian Wells, and East St. Louis Senior’s Roosevelt Davis were still ahead of him. Just like every other 400 that he has run over the past two years, the action was just about to start for the Plainfield Central senior. His acceleration around the curve passing the three athletes that was ahead of him. He zipped down the final 100 meters in front of a crowd that was cheering loudly. The EIU folks may have to resurface Lane 5 because of how fast he was traveling down it. He crossed the line and waved two fingers in the air signifying the number of races he had run so far. Everyone knew that he had run under 47 seconds. They were waiting for the scoreboard to tell them how far under he went.

 

His name flashed with the time of 46.24 seconds. He had broken a thirty year old record (46.51) that was thought to be tough to get. Yet he shattered it. He put it down to a place where it could last another thirty years. He quietly collected his sweats and headed out of the track to get ready for his next race.

 

35 minutes later he was back on the track with all eyes focused on him. The skies were getting darker and the pace of each race was quickening. Montgomery was stone faced looking straight ahead envisioning what his next few seconds would be like. He had the race won as he came out of the north curve. Demoria Harris and Cary Lockhart were close behind pushing to get closer, but Montgomery simply would not allow it on this day. He crossed the line just before the clock clicked 21 seconds raising three fingers. He had achieved his goal. Here again, how far under did he go? The time read 20.96. An oooh bounced off the stands all over the stadium. Athletes on the infield waiting to receive their awards looked in amazement at the scoreboard their mouth dropping to the turf.

 

The top of the podium for the 200 awards was empty. Just as quickly as he had run his races, Montgomery was gone from the track not to be seen again. Man, myth or legend? He definitely was not a myth. What he had just accomplished was legendary. No words were said to the reporters that were waiting for a comment. His words were left on that track.

 

“He is one special kid,” Plainfield Central Coach Jon Pereiro said after the meet was over. “He is just one of a kind.”

 

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For the past few years, Edwardsville has been on the verge of getting to the top of the 3A Mountain as the state team champion. Each year, they would fall a little short. It was not going to happen this year. The Tigers scored in 10 of 18 events to win the 3A state championship with 55 points. Evanston and Neuqua Valley shared second place each scoring 37 points. Plainfield Central finished fourth missing a trophy by one point.

 

Edwardsville had only one winner at this meet. Fontez Davis had jumped 23-6 in the prelims Friday afternoon to take the lead. He passed on all three jumps Saturday morning. None of the other finalists passed him giving him the championship. Matt Fleming (Simeon HS, Chicago) jumped 23-0 to place second. Justin White only cleared 6-2 in the High Jump, but it was good enough for ninth place and one point.

 

AJ Epenesa also scored one point placing ninth in the Shot Put.  He did better in the Discus. He had the lead heading into the final round. Belleville West’s threw a 192-3 bomb, a personal best by sixteen feet, to take the lead. Epenesa had the final throw of the competition. His final throw was eight inches short of that of Nelson (191-7). It still was good for second place.

 

Edwardsville scored in three of the four relays. They placed fourth in the 400 Meter Relay (42.30), seventh in the 800 Meter Relay (1:28.73), and seventh in the 1600 Relay (3:19.43). The tigers also scored in three individual running events. Wes Scheonthal ended a spectacular senior track season finishing second in the 800 Meter Run running a personal best (1:51.91). Travis Anderson ended a great sophomore campaign by placing second in the 110 Meter High Hurdles. In perhaps one of the gutsiest performances of the meet, Isaiah Michl finished third in the 300 Hurdles. The senior earlier in the year had run the fastest time in the state (37.13) in the event. A week later, he injured his hamstring and missed most of the season. He qualified for state in his first race back. He had the sixth fastest time in the Friday prelims. On Saturday, he moved up on the curve to run 38.00 to get his team seven points.

 

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In the two hurdle events, William Session got off to a great start and fulfilled his expectations on winning the 110 High Hurdles (14.25) two tenths ahead of Edwardsville’s Travis Anderson. The biggest surprise in this event was the third place finish of Tyler Kirkwood (Waubonsie Valley HS, Aurora). He was ranked 22^nd out of the sectionals not even thought of as a contender to make the finals. He did just that. Out of Lane 2, he earned all-state status.

 

Chris Douglas (Deerfield HS) rebounded from the shorter hurdle race when he clipped the eighth hurdle slowing him down to finish fourth. In the 300 Meter Intermediate Hurdle final, he came out of the north curve with the lead pulling away to the state championship (37.45) ahead of Paul Ifianayi (Elk Grove HS).

 

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The three relays churned out some fast times. Evanston and Belleville West were even coming out of the north curve heading into the final 100 meters of the 400 Relay. Carl Klamm pulled away from Huntley’s Connor Boos and Belleville West’s Anthony Lewis to give the Wildkits the state championship (41.68). Belleville West (42.09) edged Huntley (42.10) for second place. Edwardsville (42.30), Plainfield North (42.32), and Schaumburg (42.33) were a close fourth through sixth.

 

The Wildkits repeated their success winning the 800 Relay. Malachi Adams moved on his anchor leg away from the pack on the curve and held off Dunbar’s Demoria Harris to win the race (1:26.81) ahead of the Mightymen (1:27.04). Plainfield East and Plainfield North tied for third both having the same time down to a thousandth of a second (1:27.326).

 

East St. Louis-Senior had Deonte Anderson and Roosevelt Davis up front giving the Flyers a big lead early in the 1600 Relay. That was necessary as they won the event running the fastest time in the state this year (3:15.24). Neuqua Valley, pushed by a 47.6 anchor by Ty Moss, gave the Wildcats second place just ahead of Evanston and points to tie the Wildkits for second place in the team standings.

 

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Chris Walker (West Aurora HS) had injury problems during parts of this season. He overcame that to win the Triple Jump with his 48-9 ¼ jump from the prelims held on for the win. Teammate DaVion Cross jumped 48-5 ¾ to finish second.

 

Both the High jump and the Pole Vault were moved indoors for the second time in three state meets due to the weather. Kenny Brown (Oak Park-River Forest HS) ended his prep career winning the High Jump with a 6-9 clearance. Peter Andreano (Minooka HS) cleared 6-8 to finish second. Jake Larocca (Palatine HS) ended a remarkable senior season winning the 3A state championship in the Pole Vault. Andy Jatis (Providence Catholic HS, New Lenox) finished second. Both cleared 16-0 with Larocca winning on fewer misses.

 

Ricky Hurley (Cary-Grove HS) won the Shot Put 3A championship with his 59-4 ¾ put from the preliminaries holding up for the win. Adam Schaufelberger (Lyons Township HS, LaGrange) ended a great senior season finishing second with a 59-0 put. A year ago, Schaufelberger’s best mark during the regular season his junior year was only 49-11. He improved twelve feet over the last year.

 

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The 3A distance races were perhaps some the most anticipated events in the meet. The four races on Saturday failed to disappoint even though the schedule was sped up.

 

Sandburg took a calculated risk in Friday afternoon’s prelims of the 3200 Meter Relay when Martin Skucas and Dylan Jacobs ran in place of Chris and Sean Torpy who were concentrating on qualifying for individual events. Even with the two brothers out of the line-up, the Eagles still ran 7:52.22 to finish fourth in their heat to qualify for the finals. Putting the Torpys into the Saturday quartet would guarantee them a chance at the state championship in the event.

 

The opening leg of the finals was close as expected as none of the teams could break away from each other. Lake Zurich’s Brian Griffin gave his team a slight lead ahead of Lyons Township. New Trier, Barrington were a close 3-4-5. Another second back was Sandburg and Neuqua Valley. The dynamics of the race changed in the second leg. Heading towards the second exchange, York’s Max Denning pushed forward to give his team the lead ahead of Barrington and Lyons Township. Prospect had moved up into the pack into fourth.  New Trier held on to fifth. There was a gap and then Sandburg and Jones College Prep. Neuqua Valley, who had the fastest time in the prelims, was tenth.

 

Sean Torpy started to move the Eagles towards the front as York’s Nathan Dale had the lead ahead of Lyons Township’s Vince Zona and Barrington’s Tyler Anderson. Torpy moved to the front catching the lead pack by the first 400.  Sean Torpy gave his team the lead and the baton to his brother Chris running a 1:53.0 third leg. Barrington had Konrad Eiring anchoring for them in second. Lyons Township was in third with Alex Lima in charge. York had dropped back to fourth with Matt Plowman as their anchor. Neuqua Valley had moved up to seventh when Ty Moss grabbed the baton, but the Wildcats were 5 ½ seconds behind Sandburg.

 

Torpy held off the charges of Lima and Eiring on the final 800 meters of the race. As he came down to the final 100 meters, Sandburg was in charge. They crossed the line in 7:42.03 with Chris also running a 1:53.0 anchor leg. Lima passed Eiring in the final 10 meters to snag second place ahead of Barrington. A 1:50.7 anchor leg by Ty Moss moved Neuqua Valley up to fourth but no closer. York’s Matt Plowman gave the Dukes a fifth place finish running a 1:55.5 anchor. For Sandburg, it was the first time that a Sandburg distance runner had crossed the line as a state champion at O’Brien Stadium since the “Gravy-Train” Tom Graves won the 1 Mile Run in 1978.

 

Ty Moss had a little more time to recover from his anchor leg especially after the weather delay gave him an extra two hours of rest especially with the meet schedule in hyper drive. Heath Warren (Springfield HS) took command of the race early as he passed the 400 in 55.5 making a charge to break the pack. Catastrophe almost happened for Moss as he clipped the side rail as he started going around the curve. He kept his balance and continued on. Warren started to fade with 200 meters to go giving Moss the chance to take the lead. The crowd was going wild as the Neuqua senior headed towards the finish line. All of a sudden out of the pack, Edwardsville’s Wes Schoenthal made a closing charge. He ran out of room as Moss crossed the line in 1:51.80. He had won a state championship last year as a member of Neuqua’s state champion 4x8 team. Now he was an individual champion to end his storied career. Schoenthal was only eleven hundredths back in second place (1:51.91). Junior John Partee (Plainfield South HS) was another second back in third ahead of Chris Torpy, Torrian Haughton (Maine East HS, Park Ridge), and Luis Davilla (Jefferson HS, Rockford) who were only separated by half a second.

 

The only way that anyone was going to break Jesse Reiser in the 3200 Meter Run was the opening pace would be ridiculously fast hoping that people would drop quickly in the 75 degree temperatures with humidity close to 100%. Jake and Luke Hoffert (Yorkville HS) dropped out of the 1600 to concentrate on the 3200. Yorkville coach Ben Draper felt that it was the best chance for his athletes to win. Luke Hoffert took the lead right at the break off the curve set to start the push. By the time Hoffert passed the 400 in 64.2, only Reiser, Irwin Loud (Oak Park-River Forest HS), and Jake Hoffert were in the front. There was a two second gap with Graham Brown (Palatine HS) and Blake Evertsen (Hinsdale Central HS) led a slew of runners in the pack behind the front foursome. The pace continued to pick up with the front four going past in 2:10.8. The two second gap still applied.

 

The pace slowed down the third lap to 3:21.2 and Reiser took over leadership responsibilities. The pace was starting slow down at the halfway point as the four still together at 4:29.1. The back pack was starting to stretch out as the gap grew to three seconds with Brown and Kerry Gschwendtner (Naperville North HS) still holding on for dear life on that pace. People were starting to drop back with the pace starting to kill off possible contenders. Irwin Loud moved up to right behind to Reiser refusing to get lost.

 

The worst thing that could happen was happening. It was good news for Reiser as the next 800 was run with consecutive 71 second laps. Reiser looked comfortable. Loud looked like he was struggling but that is how he always looked. It is very deceptive to race against him. The Hofferts were starting to feel the pace as they started to fall off the pace. Just like in last year’s race, Reiser started to make his push trying to make separation. That was happening. He was starting to grow a gap on Loud. The Hofferts started to fall back even further. By the time Reiser hit the bell lap at 7:57.6, his lead on Loud was three seconds. The Hofferts started falling back as Peter Johnsrud (Oswego HS) and Connor Horn (Neuqua Valley HS, Naperville) started to push forward from their early conservative pace.

 

It was a repeat of last year as Reiser ran the last 400 in 62 seconds. He did not have to run any faster because Loud was not getting closer. Reiser earned his third state championship crossing the line in 8:59.58. He wanted to go under nine minutes and he accomplished that. Then came Loud running a tough race and another personal best in 9:06.74. Then out of no-where came Jack Aho (Grayslake Central HS). He had sat back for most of the race gaining energy and confidence. He started passing people the final 400. He passed Horn with 50 meters to go to place an improbable third. He did not even think he would do that. But the sophomore who just started distance running a year ago now was one of the top runners in the state. Horn (9:13.52) finished just ahead of Jake (9:14.67) and Luke (9:14.99) finishing fifth and sixth. They had to run that courageous race and did so ending their prep careers together as all-staters.

 

When the weather delay was announced over the stadium’s public address system, Jesse Reiser was waiting to receive his 3200 medal. He smiled when he heard that there would be a delay. That would give him more time to recover along with York’s Matt Plowman and Sandburg’s Sean Torpy who had run in the 3200 Relay. It would not matter to Ryan Clevenger (Downers Grove North), Pavlo Hutsalyuk (Lane Tech HS, Chicago), Zach Dale (Conant HS, Hoffman Estates), and Keagan Smith (Huntley HS) all coming into the 1600 without running previously in the day.

 

Here again, the only way to beat Reiser was to push the pace early and stretch the pack out so that the McHenry senior could not kick down the pack. Remember, the week before at his sectional meet, Reiser ran a closing 55 seconds to run 4:09. The only way for Zach Dale would win is if he pushed the pace from the gun. That is exactly what he did.

 

Dale took the lead immediately going past the 200 and the 400 in 60.3. There was a 3 second gap then came Sam Oh (Stevenson HS, Lincolnshire), Ryan Clevenger, Pavlo Hutsalyuk, and Roman Drabchuk (Hinsdale South HS, Darien) among the pack. Reiser was in eighth and he looked like he was laboring.

 

The Conant senior started to push and push stringing the pack out even more as he passed in 2:02. Drabchuk and Hutsalyuk went by in 2:06 leading the strung out group. Reiser was now in sixth but the gap between him and Dale was great. Dale was still on his toes bouncing a fast pace. As he came around the curve with 500 meters left, Dale was starting to show the fast pace as his arm’s started pumping higher. Hutsalyuk started making a move first passing Drabchuk with his sights on Dale passing in 3:08. Clevenger was fourth another three seconds back of Drabchuk. Reiser passed by in 3:13 starting to make his move.

 

Hutsalyuk stride is graceful and looks effortless even though he was going sub-60 pace at that point. He caught Dale with 250 meters to go passing him. Dale would not let Hutsalyuk go as he stayed right on the Lane Tech’s shoulder. Reiser was starting to pick the pace up even faster first passing Clevenger and Drabchuk with his sights set on the front two. Coming off the turn, Hutsalyuk had broken Dale with a five meter gap and growing. Unless you were a Lane Tech coach or fan, you did not think this was possible. Hutsalyuk kept pumping harder as he approached the finish. He crossed the line in a six second personal best 4:08.19. The state championship was his. Reiser caught Dale running a 56 second final circuit to finish second (4:09.78) only a second and a half back. Dale did what he needed to do which resulted in a third place finish (4:10.25). Clevenger ran a seasonal best as he crossed the line smiling in fourth (4:11.22). There was a four second gap, then came Dan Santino (St. Ignatius College Prep, Chicago) as he charged from behind to pass Drabchuk and nip him by five hundredths of a second (4:15.21). For Drabchuk, it was his second personal best in less than 24 hours running 4:15.26 to finish fifth. Sam Oh was close behind in sixth (4:15.48).

 

“I was just hoping to be in contention in this race,” a shocked but happy Hutsalyuk said after the race. “ I still don’t believe what just happened.”

 

As the finish of the 1600 Meter Relay was occurring, the heaven’s opened up releasing its fury. The downpour had fans running towards the exits. The rain was rinsing off the track, but it would not rinse off the amazing performances from the minds of the people who witnessed it or participated in it. It was truly one of the most memorable if not the best IHSA State Track & Field Championships that we have ever seen.