DGN at indoor Silver Meet Invitational

Downers Grove North freshman Joe Keys was introduced to hurdles races during seventh and eighth grade at Herrick Junior High School.

”It’s just an event that nobody else really dos because other people are scared of falling over the hurdles or something,” Keys said. “It’s just kind of a fearless sport that you have to be ready for so it’s pretty fun.”

Keys is having even more fun this track season. On Saturday, March 22, Keys won the freshman 55-meter low hurdles race at the West Suburban Conference Silver Division Invitational at York.

The invite had freshman and junior varsity events and awarded top finishers, but no official results or team scores were kept. The invite was the morning after the varsity and sophomore Silver Meets at York.

On Friday, Keys competed for the sophomores in the 55 low hurdles and finished third (8.52 seconds fully automatic time) after an 8.49 in the preliminaries. Even with the quick turnaround, he actually ran slightly faster Saturday (8.2 seconds manual time/8.44 FAT converted). He also competed in the 400 and the 1,600 relay.

On Saturday, Keys also was part of the second-place 800 relay with Dan Ferenc, Dante Fields and Jordan Wilde (1:48.34) and also ran the 200.

”I was pretty tired, but I put a ton of ice on my legs when I got home and came back here today to try and do as well as I could,” Keys said. “I got a really good start out and I hit every hurdle in stride and it felt really good. It was my PR so it just felt like a good race.”

Alec Danner also won the freshman 3,200 (10:19) and slashed his previous best of an eighth-place 10:37.99 at the Proviso West Invite Feb. 22. Danner also was returning from competition Friday, when he competed for the sophomores in the 1,600 (9th, 4:58.38) and the sixth-place 3,200 relay (9:18.87).

”I kind of surprised myself. I thought it was going to be difficult only in that I got to sleep late and I was running (Friday), but I just powered through. I just trusted my fitness and everything and it turned out well,” Danner said.

”The competition did help (my time). I was with a couple of guys for a couple of laps, but I managed to stay on pace and then I managed to keep going along, catch other people, as the race was coming to an end.”

This is the first season that Keys has competed in the 55 hurdles, unlike the 110 hurdles outdoors. There also are the 300 intermediate hurdles, an event that Keys would like to contend for a conference title this spring.

”Right when I started (hurdling), I didn’t really win at first in seventh grade, but as I developed my form (I improved),” Keys said. “This year was really the year I started winning. This year was the major year because last year it was 110s and I didn’t really do that well.”

In the fall, Danner was the top frosh-soph runner for the boys cross country team. He’s continued that momentum from a season best 11:07 split over two miles of a race that began as an 11:31 at the team time trial. Danner also is learning to further push himself in races without expending all of his energy for the finish.

”I seem to think early in the season I kind of settled too much,” Danner said. “Now I’m starting to learn the race and I should always be pushing no matter what point because you should always just be speeding up and keeping track of your race.”

In JV relay competition, the 3,200 relay of seniors Anthony Iacovetti and John Michka, junior Dillon Murphy and sophomore Michael Brooks (9:22.24) and the 800 relay of sophomores John Anderson, Chris Bielawa, Nathan Jeffries and Zach Nicholas (1:50.44) both finished third and the 1,600 relay of Murphy. Bielawa, Jeffries and Nicholas was fifth (4:05).

In other freshman relay action, the 3,200 relay of Tristan Jahn, Devin Johnson, Andrew Marek and Drew Murphy (10:36.94) and the 800 relay of Kyle Escoto, Robert Falconer, Mason Monen and Chris Williams (1:52.54) both finished third, and the 1,600 relay of Escoto, Falconer, Johnson and Monen was fourth (4:21.44).

Freshman Jack Barkei (4:56.64) and Iacovetti (5:00.24) had the Trojans’ top times in the 1,600.

-- by Bill Stone