Chicago Public League Sports Blog

CPS Track Review - Surprise Teams in Review

At the beginning most people felt that Lane Tech was hands on favorite to win the boys varsity track championship. So to tell a story about them would be redundant. I will say congratulations to Lane for winning a 6th straight city title and with so much talent coming back and a very motivated coaching staff things look very bright for the Lane Tech Indians in the future.

That being said here in my opinion are teams that over met my expectations at the beginning of the year:

Calumet Perspsectives - is shown here with the 2nd place city championship plaque. Few, including myself saw Calumet taking 2nd at city. The reason why I take the city meet in such high regard is that unlike the state meet it is very difficult to place high in city with only one or two top individuals. Calumet truly had a TEAM. They had to squeeze out points from 9 different events to score the 53 points needed to take 2nd in a race which saw 3 teams finish within 4 points of each other.

Northside Prep - The rise of star Mac Melto helped propel Northside to it's highest team finish at indoor(2nd) and outdoor city (4th) in team history. Melto accounted for 22 of the teams 49 points at city, including rare sprint points for Northside. Melto scored in the 100, 400 (champion), and 4x400 relay (2nd).

North Lawndale - These showed it where it counts the most - on the track. 7th place team city finish and state sectional championships were team records for North Lawndale. With the team returning 2 of the city's top freshman sprinters in Terry Magee and Imani Payton, North Lawndale looks to be heard LOUD and CLEAR in the following years.

Medina, Dale - Showing the CPS is more than sprints

Jamison Dale(so-left) of Jones College Prep placed 8th in the state in the 3200 meter run at the boys class 2A state meet. He became the first runner in the school history of Jones College Prep to medal at state in boys track.

Oscar Medina(sr-right) of Lake View capped off his Lake View career with a 4th place state finals finish in the 1600 meter run. He became the first Lake View runner to medal at state in the mile or 1600 meter run since E. Elliot in 1901. He also became the first CPS runner in any class to medal at  state in the 1600 meter run since Whitney Young's Scott Anderson placed 3rd in 1992.

Neilski's Top 10 CPS Boys Track Freshman 2010-11 Season

 
Terry Magee ranks as the #1 freshman sprinter in the CPS

Top 10 Sprinters/Field/Hurdlers
1. Terry Magee, North Lawndale -11.06 100 meter runner, top freshman sprinter in sprint rich CPS.
2. Eric McMiller, Lane Tech -Next great Lane Tech sprinter?
3. Imani Payton, North Lawndale - Top freshman hurdler.
4. Celso Ramos, Lane Tech - Versatile and very talented; Lane cannot keep him hidden for long.
5. Ben Satterfield, Phillips-This is the name you will hear most from a resurrected Phillips program.
6. Virgil Miles, Clark-Top freshman finisher in the 200 and 400 at Frosh-Soph City.
7. Shaquille Welch, Mather - Top freshman discus thrower.
8. Louis Koll, Northside- Top freshman high jumper at 5-7.
9. Tyron Jordan, Dusable -Top freshman long jumper.
10. Lucien Fitzpatrick, Northside -Can high jump and hurdle.

Top 10 Middle Distance/Distance
1. Deivi Tajiraj, Mather - Seems destined to be next great Mather distance star. Ran 4:40.76 mile at sectionals.
2. Kevin Johnson, Jones - City frosh-soph 3200 meter champion with a time of 10:38.95.
3. Daniel Lorden, Jones - 5th in the 1600 and 3rd in the 3200 at frosh-soph city.
4. Claudio Flores, Mather- Runner up city frosh-soph 3200 meter run.
5. Jorge Rodriguez, Curie - Quietly ran top freshman open 800 time of 2:09.35.
6. Michael Stubna, Lincoln Park - You will see this talented freshman more in Lincoln Park's cross country season.
7. Jonathan Vara, Lane Tech -Lane's #1 freshman distance runner. Work in progress.
8. Johnny Castillo, Jones - 3rd Jones runner in top 8 gives Jones lot's of depth and a very bright future.
9. Jon Villasenor, Whitney Young- Whitney Young's #1 freshman distance runner.
10. Jasper Acosta, Lincoln Park -sub 5 minute miler.

Top 10 Freshman 2009-10

 

McNeely - The Next Darius?! - Brian Who?

Jamal McNeely of Kelvyn Park finishes 2nd in the 200 and 3rd in the 100 at the class 2A state meet.

Jamal McNeeley(so) of Kelvyn Park

For the past two years, when someone talked Kelvyn Park, the first name mentioned was 2010 state 100 meter runner up Brian Carter. Or if they talked about CPS sprinting, Darius Smith(sr) of CVS was brought up.

Now, with a 2nd place finish in the 200, a 3rd place finish in the 100 at the class 2A state meet McNeeley will get the headlines from this point on. McNeeley will go into next season as the top returnee for class 2A in the 100 and 200 meter dashes.

Robeson the "all state" Relay School

6th place 4x400 finish gives Robeson 2 all-state 4x400 relay teams in a row!


Few specialize in sprint relays as well as Robeson.

Congrats to Robeson for finishing 6th in the state in the 4x400 relay, their specialty. This marks the second year in a row that Robeson finished all-state in the 4x400 relay. Last year was a surprise, the difference was that this year it was expected. With a good group of upcoming freshman and sophomores, I fully expect Robeson to do well again next year. Why not?!

 

Darius Smith of CVS - 2nd in the state in the 100 and 200

Darius Smith(sr) of CVS

Forget about the 2nd place finish. His times of 10.62 in the 100 and 21.54 are really fast - good enough to win state I'd say about half the time. Smith's performance at the state meet surely cements him on the list of some of the top sprint greats to come from the CPS. It is certainly one of the top individual sprint performances for the CPS since at least the 1980's.

Conrats to Darius Smith.

Melto gives Northside it's first track medalist

Mac Melto finishes 7th in the state in the 400 meter dash


Mac Melto(jr) of Northside Prep is shown here with his distinctive photo pose.

Mac Melto has broken all kinds of school records for Northside Prep. He holds the school record in the 100, 200, 400, and in the 4x400 relay. You can another one to his resume as Melto became Northside's first state track medalist when he finished 7th in the state at the boys track class 3A state meet. He did it with an amazing time of 48.86. The whole state now knows Melto and surely he will be talked about a lot next year as he will  return as the 2nd top returnee in the 400.

Crayton of Hyde Park, a surprise all-state long jump finish.

Crayton becomes Hyde Park's first state track medalist in over 50 years!

Rashaud Crayton of Hyde Park - 7th in the state long jump.

My hat has to go off for Rashaud Crayton of Hyde Park. He was not even in too many people's radar as an all-state candidate at the beginning of the season. Maybe all-city but all-state seemed like a long shot. After all, his best indoor jump of the season was only 20-5. By outdoor city he improved to 20-11.5 to finish 3rd. Finally at the state meet he made another leap, jumping 22-3.25 to give Hyde Park it's first state medalist in boys track since Edward Houston finished 3rd in the 220 yard dash in 1958.

Boys State Track Finals - Class 3A

updated 4:56pm

Long Jump
7.   22-3.25   Rashaud Crayton(sr), Hyde Park

100
2.   10.62  Darius Smith(sr), CVS

400
7.   48.86  Mac Melto(jr), Northside

200
2.    21.54  Darius Smith(sr), CVS

Boys State Track Finals - Class 2A

updated 9:46pm

100
3.  10.76  Jamal McNeeley(so), Kelvyn Park
6.  10.97  Christopher Dalton(sr), Morgan Park

1600
4. 4:21.48 Oscar Medina(sr), Lake View

400
7.  50.32 Juwane Pipkins(sr), Robeson

200
2.  21.95 Jamal McNeeley(so), Kelvyn Park
3.  21.99 Christopher Dalton(sr), Morgan Park
 
4x400
7.  3:22.27 Robeson

3200
8.  9:37.87 Jamison Dale