DGN at West Aurora Invite

After being unable to compete last boys track season, Downers Grove North senior Jazz Charrier is busier than ever.

At West Aurora’s John Bell Invitational Saturday, April 19, Charrier not only was in the maximum four events but he had top-five finishes in all of them to help the Trojans win the team title with 101 points, 18 points ahead of second-place Naperville Central.

The Trojans had victories from senior Eric Wisz (personal-best 13 feet-3 inches in pole vault), junior Nick Janicki (season-best 153-0 in discus) and sophomore Zack Hogan (42-7 1/2 in triple jump) and the 3,200 relay of seniors Zack Smith and Tony Zea and juniors Ryan Clevenger and Jack Diamond (7:59.43 fully automatic time).

”This is the first (varsity) meet we’ve actually won since I’ve been on the team,” said Diamond, who contributed to a frosh-soph title at Stagg in 2012. “It’s really exciting that come sectionals, we can have a lot of guys go downstate and score a lot of points. It’s nice to see everyone coming along.”
 
Charrier was second in long jump (19-10 1/2), a new event for him this season, and fifth in the 100 (11.52) and part of the second-place 800 relay (1:33.08) and fifth-place 400 relay with (44.62) with senior Charles Creamer, junior Brendan Dingle and sophomore Anthony Giordano.

Senior Jared Spilky (3,200 in 9:43.04) and junior Max Sale (145-5 in discus) also finished second. Senior Nick Steichmann was third in shot put (48-7).

”I’d say it was my best overall day ever because the jumping is new to me and I like it,” Charrier said. “I used to just be (entered in) the 100 and 200 and 4-by-100 and 4-by-200 but I feel like I’m a better athlete overall now at this state of my career so it’s getting better.”

Charrier is doing his best to continue competing. While Charrier said he feels his conditioning improving since the beginning of the season, he also is maintaining his athletic eligibility.

”It starts in the classroom, to be honest, just taking care of my responsibilities academically, coming to school every day, just doing what I’m supposed to do,” Charrier said. “I feel like I’m more focused in that regard. Sophomore year, it was kind of like, ‘Whatever with grades. I’m waiting for track to get here.’ I got hit with reality so that kind of woke me up.

”It was tough (being out for 2013), knowing that everybody else is on the track competing. It felt like you should be out there, too. It was hard, but I pushed through it and I’m here now so I’m just worried about that.”

Wisz cleared 13-3 on his first attempt to win pole vault by six inches after just clearing a then-best 13-0 to win the Glenbard South Invite April 19. Wisz just switched to a pole with a higher weight allowance, and the adjustment nearly resulted in his missing at 12-9. Wisz opened by clearing 12-3.

”It took me three (attempts) to get 12-9, looking shaky, and then at 13-3, it started clicking. I got on top of the pole. I got my turn in. It was a good jump,” Wisz said. “I got on that (new) pole right off the bat so it was good I got some jumps on it, got used to it by the time I hit 13-3. I took a couple of jumps (at practice) but not as much as I wanted.”

Janicki led yet another 1-2 finish for the Trojans in discus with junior Max Sale (145-5). Janicki was a 2013 state qualifier with a third-place career-best 155-4 at the Downers North Sectional. He threw 153-0 on his second attempt in prelims Saturday and also would have won with other throws over 148 and 146 feet.

”It feels a little bit better, back to where I was last year,” Janicki said. “Right now, I’m just working on getting everything fast (in my spin release) so I can really get them out there because right now I’m just going slow, making sure my form’s all good.”

The results were a reversal of the Trojans’ dominance at the Glenbard South Invite. Sale was first (147-0) and Janicki second (142-5) with Steichmann fourth (120-0) in the open-entry format.

Even at “40-to-50 percent speed,” for his release, Janicki is approaching this year’s state-qualifying standard of 156-6, 18 inches further than the 2013 standard Janicki exceeded at sectionals to qualify.
 
”I want to make sure everything still feels good. I don’t want to rush anything, but as of now I’m going to start to speed up. Hopefully I’ll be hitting a 160 (at Downers Grove South’s Cohoon Invite April 25),” Janicki said.

”(Sale is) coming along, and as long as he keeps listening to coach (Ryan Coleman), he’ll progress more. The competition’s good. It definitely makes me have something to work at in practice because it’s like you get to see your competition here (at Downers North).” 

The 3,200 relay broke 8:00 even though second-place Naperville Central more than 26 seconds behind in 8:26.76. Zea had a team-best 1:57 split, followed by Clevenger (1:58), Smith (1:59) and Diamond (2:03).

This was the first time the lineup was united since the Mustang Invite March 10 at North Central College, where the Trojans ran an indoor school-record 7:55.87 FAT for second to Lane Tech’s invite-record 7:54.21.

At the indoor conference meet March 21, junior Zac Christensen ran in place of Clevenger. Zea, Smith and Clevenger missed the Glenbard South Invite after being accepted to compete at the Arcadia (Calif.) Invitational the same day. Diamond competed in the open 3,200.

The Trojans were basically on their own after Smith took command during the first leg.

“We wanted to get under 7:50 (Saturday). Even though we didn’t do that, we’re pretty excited to still get under 8:00 on an off day like that,” Diamond said.

”This is just the beginning of outdoors. I feel like some of us are getting used to running on the different-sized track (400 versus 200 or 160 meters). We’re all feeling fit and real excited what we can do. Our whole lineup for sectionals is really up in the air at this point so no one’s set in stone.”

Charrier was second in long jump to Thornton’s Jowahn Brown (20-8 1/2) by 10 inches and pulled out second by one-half inch. The 800 relay claimed second coming out of the first heat. The Trojans finished 1.78 seconds behind Joliet West (1:31.30).

”To be honest, I’d probably say the 4-by-200 (was my biggest highlight) because they had us in the slow heat. It was about only two other teams racing with us and we still took second overall,” Charrier said.

”I feel if I can get the technique down (in long jump), then I’ll be able to compete at the state meet. It’s a long ways to go, but I’m just going to take it one day at a time.”

In his first 3,200 race of the season, Spilky led a great team effort. While taking second to Plainfield South senior standout Dan Lathrop (9:37.28) by more than five seconds, Spilky pulled out a battle in which the next four finishers were separated by just 3.57 seconds.

Spilky and fifth-place senior Marc Mathy (9:46.61) both had huge personal records.

”I knew I could run a time like that, but it’s one thing to know it in your head and another thing to do it. It was great,” Spilky said.

“I’d love to beat Dan Lathrop, but I knew in the back of my mind I probably wasn’t going to win. I was surprised I was even that close to him. He probably was conserving energy for the 1,600, which he also won (4:27.70). I made a move with two laps to go and tried to go with him but he was able to separate from the rest of the guys. Coming around the last lap, normally I get out kicked. I never really saw them (closing). I was surprised at that.”

Perhaps the most surprising aspect was that Spilky has just returned to the lineup after only competing in the season opener indoors, finishing second to Diamond in a 1,600 at Hinsdale Central.

Spilky didn’t return until his outdoor debut with a 1,600 at Glenbard South. Spilky has been cautious with a hamstring injury that affected him throughout the cross country season.

“I ran through it a lot during the cross country postseason so it’s kind of lingering,” Spilky said. “It’s basically fine now. I probably could have raced more indoors but (distance coach John Sipple) was rather that I’d be conservative. We came to an agreement to train through indoor and put in the work so I can run fast times outdoor.”

Senior distance runner Jeremy Craven, who also barely competed indoors, was fourth in the 1,600 (4:34.18), .58 from third place.

Creamer was fourth in the 110 high hurdles (16.41) and the 1,600 relay of senior Andrew Adams, junior Damian Margarites, Smith and Zea was fourth (3:32.56). Smith replaced Clevenger from the original lineup.

In the 400, Zea (51.17) and Adams (51.74) were fifth and sixth, both with personal bests. Juniors Joe Carter (800 in 2:03.29) and Nate Powell (11-3 in pole vault) also were sixth.

”I knew and (head coach and sprints coach Eric Buhot) knew that this was the first meet this year that I was going to have some real competition,” Adams said. “He just told me to get mentally ready before the race and that’s exactly what I did. I knew I had to go at it hard.”

Adams continues to shave time in his first season consistently running the 400. He did so Saturday by taking second out of the second heat. Zea competed in the fastest heat.

”Coming around that last turn, seeing that time, I was shocked, but when I crossed that (finish) line, there was no greater feeling in the world,” Adams said.

“Hopefully I’ll be able to get that state mark soon and that’ll be the greatest feeling in the world. I’m just hoping to go out the next couple of meets and just see how much more I can get that time down.”

The dual PRs in the 400 have the Trojans thinking even more that they could qualify a 1,600 relay for the state meet. For Saturday’s 1,600 relay, Zea ran a 51 split, Adams and Smith had 53s and Margarites a 54.

The state-qualifying standard is 3:23.74 so the Trojans still have a better chance of getting the berth automatically with a top-two sectional finish, regardless of time. The state-qualifying standard for the 400 is 49.94.

”It’s exciting this year to see all of the pieces starting to come together,” Zea said. “With this being Andrew Adams’ first year (running 400s), we didn’t really expect much out of him and he’s just blowing all of the expectations out of the water. We have a solid chance (to qualify) if we can both go low 51s, high 50s and I feel like we definitely can get a couple of other guys fast enough to have a chance to qualify.”

-- by Bill Stone