Chicago Public League Sports Blog

CPS Impressive Showing at Nike Football Combine

CPS has 3 of the top 11 performers

Brian Carter(jr) of Kelvyn Park time of 4.57 in the 40 was in the top 7 out of a field of about 1000 football prospects from the midwest.

Top 11 Illinois performers at the Nike Football Combine
March 26, 1011
Barrington, IL

1. Perez Ford(jr) - Romeoville HS - 114.66 SPARQ
2. Tevin Ford Coleman(jr) - Oak Forest - 103.56
3. Ben Rogers (jr) - Geneva - 102.48
4. Giovanny Canty(jr) - TF South - 101.19
5. Steven Reese(jr) - Julian - 97.23
6. Gerald Butler(jr) - Homewood Flossmore - 94.62
7. JJ Robertson(jr) - Lincoln Way-East - 94.56
8. Austin Guido(so)- Waubonsee Valley - 94.32
9. Devonte Wilcox(so)- Warren - 94.26
10. Brian Carter(jr) - Kelvyn Park - 93.81
11. Desroy Maxwell(jr) - Amundsen - 93.45

 

My analysis of top indoor CPS times

Duwane Pipkins(sr) of Robeson celebrates after winning yet another 4x400 event. Year in a year out it seems like no one does better than Robeson, the relay school, in the 4x400. I suspect that anything less than a state championship will not bode well for them.

55 meter
6.47 - Darius Smith(sr) - CVS
One of the fastest times in the state. Darius starts outdoor season as state favorite in the 100 meter.

200 meter
21.72 - Darius Smith(sr) - CVS
He will undoubtably finish in the top 3 in the 100 and 200 at state - if not win both. All eyes in the entire state will be watching every single race that Darius Smith runs from here on out.

400 meter
50.54 - Mac Melto(jr) - Northside
Mac Melto progressed nicely at the end of last season with a time of 50.80 at the Loyola Sectional. He has already surpassed that time this year running indoors. I expect him to keep dropping times during the outdoor season and will be a major force in the 400 in every race he runs. 5th in the 400 at IPTT!

800
2:02.31 - David Timlin(jr) - Lane Tech
The ubertalented Lane Tech junior has become the face of Lane Tech track. The versatile Timlin could be Lane's fastest runner in the 400, 800, 1600, and 3200. The only question for Lane coaches is what event to run him in? He has split time below 2 minutes in a couple of 4x800 races. So I feel if he runs an outdoor open 800 in good conditions he is capable of a time of dare I say 156'ish.

1600
4:25.55 - Oscar Medina(sr) - Lake View
With a 3rd place finish at IPTT, Medina has definitely defined himself as a class AA elite runner. The senior has already stamped himself as one fo the greatest distance runners in Lake View history. (There have been some good ones e.g Alex Agafonov from a few years ago, and David Sosa from the late 80's). I'll enjoy watching Oscar run every race as he winds down his senior year.

3200
10:10.91 - Marcelo Burbano(so)- Lane Tech
The next in line of distance greats for Lane seems to be Marcelo Burbano. With so many great CPS distance runners, I was very surprised to see that Burbano ended up on top. His best two mile time last year as a freshman was only 10:51. He has dropped 41 seconds from his best last year. It's premature for me to predict any outdoors times for him, because he seems to improve every week. He can also run a killer 800!

55 meter hurdles
8.06 - Marcus Griffith(sr) - Mather
8.06 - Devonte Elzy(sr) - Simeon
While an 8.06 may not be the greatest time, it is for the CPS which seems a bit down this year in hurdles. Both go into the outdoor season with momentum.

4x200
1:35.95 - Simeon
Relay will be big for Simeon's chances at city this year. This time of 1:35.95 tells me they have speed and can compete with anyone in the city at that event. Other schools may have individuals faster than anyone Simeon has, but can they put together 4 people faster than Simeon? By the way a 1:35.95 is good enough for a top 3 finish at city in most years.

4x400
3:29.88 - Robeson
After running their season best 3:29.88, 4th leg Duwane Pipkins(sr) was angry: "I wanted us to do a faster time," he told me. This just tells me that the expectations at Robeson, the relay school are sky high. Their time of 3:29.88 is one of the fastest class 2A 4x400 times in the state this year. WIth all 4 legs returning from a team that placed third in the class 2A state meet last year, I suspect nothing less than a state championship will satisfy Robeson the relay school.

4x800
8:06.39 - Lane Tech
No one has come close to Lane this year in the 4x800 as the 2nd fastest time of 8:27 by Whitney Young is over 21 seconds away from Lane the 800 machine.

Shot Put
47-6 - Phillip Martin(jr) - Kenwood
Phillip Martin goes into the outdoor season with the best shot put time and the pre-outdoor season favorite.

Long Jump
21-7 - Darius Smith(sr) - CVS
The stud can show he can do more than just sprint!

High Jump
6-1 - Devonte Elzy(sr)- Simeon
Good indoor season jump. Elzy has not yet come close to his magical leap of 6-5 last year.

Triple Jump
40-1.5 - Josh Williams(jr) - Northside
No one could have predicted that Josh WIlliams would be the end of year Indoor season leader. Northside has not gotten too many points in the jumps (after Eric Nelson graduated a few years ago). The development of WIlliams has been a big factor to Northside's surprising success this year. They will need all of his points if Northside wants to beat the Mather, Lane and Simeon's of the world comes city.

Sun-Times Ranks Lane Tech #10 in Boys Track

As a Lane Tech grad, even I am surprised that the Sun-Times ranked Lane so high in their rankings. I know Lane is a solid program, but I still have some concern about this years team and to rank them so high this early in the season may be a question mark. Although Lane has won 5 city championships in a row, Lane is not invulnerable. I still remember last year's city finals when Lane's 800 machine and their vaunted 4x800 relay team was upset by Lake View at the city championship. Pictured above is Eduardo Bustamonte(sr) running the final leg of the 4x800 at last year's city championship before he was chased down by Eduardo Chavez of Lake View.

Chicago Sun-Times Pre-Season Boys Outdoor Track Rankings
1. Lake Park
2. York
3. Plainfield South
4. Thornton
5. Nequa Valley
6. Lyons
7. Crete-Monee
8. Wheaton Warrenville South
9. Prospect
10. Lane Tech

Final 2011 Indoor Leaderboard Leaders

Phillip Martin (jr) of Kenwood threw a CPS indoor season best 47-6 in the shot put.

55 meter
6.47 - Darius Smith(sr) - CVS

200 meter
21.72 - Darius Smith(sr) - CVS

400 meter
50.54 - Mac Melto(jr) - Northside

800
2:02.31 - David Timlin(jr) - Lane Tech

1600
4:25.55 - Oscar Medina(sr) - Lake View

3200
10:10.91 - Marcelo Burbano(so)- Lane Tech

55 meter hurdles
8.06 - Marcus Griffith(sr) - Mather
8.06 - Devonte Elzy(sr) - Simeon

4x200
1:35.95 - Simeon

4x400
3:29.88 - Robeson

4x800
8:06.39 - Lane Tech

Shot Put
47-6 - Phillip Martin(jr) - Kenwood

Long Jump
21-7 - Darius Smith(sr) - CVS

High Jump
6-1 - Devonte Elzy(sr)- Simeon

Triple Jump
40-1.5 - Josh Williams(jr) - Northside

2011 Indoor Leaderboard

11th Annual Mather Invite

 
The Mather distance crew of Juan Mendez(jr), Bana Negash(jr), and Abe Haji(jr) still have to strut its stuff. I have not seen what they are capable of yet. Maybe we'll find out!

The 11th Annual Mather Invite will be held this Saturday, April 2, 2011. It is traditionally one of the first big outdoor CPS meet.

Meet Website

Likely teams
Mather
Lane Tech
Collins
Francis Parker
Ogden
Clark
Fenger
Little Village
North Lawndale
University
North Grand
Sullivan
Foreman
Hyde Park
Kelly
Lincoln Park
Schurz
Steinmetz
Westinghouse

More coming soon...

 

Here comes Simeon Baseball

With the rise of Baseball, Simeon is no longer just a basketball school

Quintin Richardson (sr-IN, 5-8, 150) of Simeon ranks as one of the top senior 25 baseball players in the state of Illinois. He accepted an offer to play at Western Illinois after turning down offers from Boston College, Grambling, and Kentucky. (Simeonbaseball.com photo).

Everyone knows about the Simeon state championship basketball team. However, Simeon is really starting to develop in the other sports. The football team made it to the state quarterfinals. The track team is a city championship contender. Now, I hear baseball is really on the rise.

Simeon lost a 2-1 heartbreaker to Taft in the quarterfinals of last year's city playoffs. This year, with most of the core of last year's team returning, the goals are much higher.

Simeon returns at least 3 state rated players: Blake Hickman (6-3, 190lbs, Catcher, jr), Shane Brown(OF, jr), and Quintin Richardson(sr, IF). Furthermore Simeon returns one of the most talented freshman class it has had in years: Elbert Dunnigan, Darien Clifton, Cory Ray, Marshawn Taylor, Anthony Ray, Nolan Bullock III, Robert Fletcher Jr., and Sharaoid Roach. All were varsity caliber players last year AS FRESHMAN. Not all of them played varsity due to lack of roster space.

Then to further add to the talent pool, Simeon has added freshman Darius Day, a 5-10 165lb outfielder who some have ranked as one of the top 5 incoming freshman (class of 2014) in the state of Illinois.

Whitney Young, Lane, Clemente, Taft, Von Steuben, and Harlan watch out....here comes Simeon!

Undertapped Talent Starting to Emerge in the CPS

Damarius Reed(sr) of Simeon ran track in elementary school, but did not lace up his track spikes again seriously until this year (his senior year). Now, with his help Simeon won the city indoor title and is aiming for at least a top 3 finish at outdoor city.

I was amazed to learn that Darius Smith (sr) of CVS only had a few months of track training. New to track, he bursted out of the scene at CPS prelims last spring. He then started on an amazing run that led to an individual city championship title and then state runner up finish for the 100 meter dash.

Damarius Reed of Simeon is running track seriously for first time this year- his senior year and will help Simeon in open 100, open 200, and sprint relays. Because of Reed, I expect Simeon to be a top 3 city team.

The CPS has tons of untapped or under tapped talent. How many more Smith's and Reeds are out there?

I feel that the CPS, more than any other conference in the state of Illinois has so much talent just waiting to emerge. The CPS is so big that it had to hold 3 separate championships at the CPS indoor meet. It was brokien up into 3 groups and after a quick count, I counted 46 schools. Group C alone had 23 schools. That's a lot of numbers. The CPS is by far the biggest conference in the state and has so many kids.

Talent is not the question. The CPS has the talent. What we need to work on is identifying talent freshman year and then developing them for 4 years. There are only a handful of schools that do a good job on the model of identifying talent freshman year and taking the time to develop them. Lane Tech probably does the best job with that model.

That being said below are some new freshman and sophomore that stood out to me at the CPS meet. None of these athletes are there yet, but if they keep developing, I suspect a few of them could start appearing more regularly on these blog pages.

Emerging new freshman/sophomore CPS talent
Victor Taylor (so) - King - sprinter
Brandon Lane (fr) - Phillips - sprinter
LaZyrick Middlebrooks(so)- Bulls - sprinter
Nirajan Chaudhary(fr)- Amudnsen- middle distance
Vernon Beasley(fr)- Foreman - middle distance
Joshua Hernandez(fr) - Bulls - distance
Antonio Smith(fr)- Agriculture Science - hurdles
Breon Bland(so) - Steinmetz - jumps
Dominic Masciopinto(so) - Steinmetz - jumps
Rogelio Heredia (fr)- Von Steuben- distance
Tyquone Greer(fr)- Orr - jumps

Oscar Medina 4:25.55!

  Oscar Medina(sr) originally did not plan to run at the Illinois Prep Top Times. But after some convincing, his competitive nature took over and about a week ago he decided to go. Hiw move worked as Medina ran a personal record 4:25.55 in the 1600 meter run as he placed third overall in class 2A. He was within 3 seconds of champion Paul Zeman of state cross country champion Belvidere North.

Oscar has clearly defined himself as an all-state type distance runner. Thanks to the performance of runners like Oscar Medina, the CPS is showing that they are way more than just sprinters.

IPTT Results

 

Jamison Dale of Jones - 4:33 1600 meter run.

Jamison Dale(so) of Jones College Prep made his season debut (someone correct me if I am wrong) at the Bolingbrook Invite at Lewis University with a 4:33.94 in the 1600 meter run. That time is about 7 seconds better than his freshman best time of 4:40 last year.

Lane Tech Len Jareczek Relays

Times suffered a bit on a bright but cold day

Results
Results Page
New - 2011 Outdoor Leaderboard

some notable results

100
1. 10.8 -  Matt Rowe(jr) - Lane Tech

1600
1. 4:43 - Lucas Beltran(jr) - Lane Tech

High Jump
1. 6-0 - Mark Brand(sr) - Lane Tech
2. 5-8 - Kenneth Murphy(sr) - Mather

Long Jump
1. 19-11 - Max Guerra(jr) - Lane Tech

Triple Jump
1. 40-1.5 Shakell Rosario(jr) - Mather