Chicago Public League Sports Blog

Simeon Trio to Decide College Choice

The Simeon Wolverine Big Three college prospects are expected to make their college choices this Wednesday on the football National Letter of Intent Day.

Robert Gregory(sr-QB) of Simeon previously comitted to the University of Arkansas. However, after some thought he opened up his recruiting. He is still considering Arkansas, but Kansas, Purdue, and Minnesota are now in the picture.


Shaquille Joyner(sr, LB) was major force in the improved Simeon defense. He is expected pick between Eastern Michigan, Western Michigan, and Illinois State.

Jordan Diamond(sr/OL-right) (Joyner is on the left), a Parade All-American has dozens of offers; among them are Arkansas, Auburn, Michigan, Ohio State and Wisconsin.

Club Track Indoor Meet Times

The official indoor high school season opens tomorrow. However, some CPS runners have already run some meets at the club track level. Here are some noticeable times that a reader wanted to point out:

 

Stedman Foster------------------Morgan Park----------400M------------51.35 

Yusaf Hood----------------------Kenwood-------------400M------------53.73

Craig Henry----------------------Brooks----------------400M------------53.33

Terry Magee---------------------NLCP-----------------400M------------52.45

Deshawn Jordan-----------------NLCP-----------------400M------------53.42

Spencer Williams----------------Calumet----------------400M------------53.23

 

 

Lonnie Washington--------------Calumet---------------200M------------23.34

Deshawn Jordan----------------NLCP-----------------200M------------23.40

Terry Magee--------------------NLCP-----------------200M------------23.36

 

Terry MaGee------------------NLCP------------------55m------------------6.57

Dion Williams-----------------Dunbar------------------55M-----------------6.90

Stedman Foster---------------Morgan Park-----------55M------------------6.86

 

Malik Lee---------------------Brooks-----------------800M--------------------2:01.46

Stedman Foster----------------MP--------------------800M-------------------2:01.51

 

Imani Payton------------------NLCP-------------------55HH--------------8.12

 

4x2------------------------------NLCP-------------------------1:35.33(clocked 1:32.89 at Proviso Meet not sure if they all where from NLCP they ran under Legacy Runners I guess thats a club)

Timlin Sets Lane 600 Meter Time Trial Record

Lane Tech Time Trial Results

In this blog, and maybe throughout the state, you will hear the name David Timlin mentioned from now until May. The Lane Tech senior ran a Lane time trial record by running a 1:28.1 in the 600 meter dash. Timlin is running better now than at this point last year. The defending CPS champion in the 800 meter ran a season best 1:56.47 in the 800 meter run. If he improves by only 1-2 seconds we are talking about all-state times. I am not making any predictions yet on Timlin, I only hope he keeps improving and fans get a chance to see what Timlin is capable of by the end of the season.

Sprinters and some new freshman also ran well. This looks like the makings of another solid Lane team.

Lane-1st, Bowen-2nd, Taft-3rd at CPS Wrestling Meet

Gerardo Buscio(sr- 138lbs) was one of two city champions for Taft. Buscio is undefeated at 17-0 for the season.

Going into the CPS wrestling tournament, Lane was the hands on favorite to win and Bowen was expected to take 2nd. It all went as expected as Lane and Bowen finished 1-2.

Lane tied Bowen with 3 city champions. The difference was Lane took 7 runners ups, 1 3rd, and 2 4th place finishes. Lane had an incredible 10 wrestlers advance to the championship bout. Lane's Max Schneider had 3 quick pins to lead the Indians.

Taft was a surprise 3rd as it edged out Agriculture Science, King and Uplift for the 3rd spot.

Top 10 Team Results
1. 256- Lane Tech
2. 153.5- Bowen
3. 87- Taft
4. 67- Agriculture Science
5. 64- King
6. 62- Uplift
7. 46- Northside Prep
8. 45- Fenger
9. 43- Foreman
10. 42- Austin

Complete Results

Northside Chess Team Looking For More Than Just City

Attached is a photo of the Northside Prep varsity team with the city championship plaque. From left to right, coach Jeff Caveney, junior Alex Bologna, junior Edmond Jay, junior Aamir Ansari, freshman Slavisa Djukic, sophomore Christian Kavouras, junior Chengliang Luo, senior Jayce Feiger, coach Dan Caldwell, and junior Ahmed Akhtar. Photo credit to Kehuan Luo.

Interesting note: the four NCP players who won against Whitney Young included one senior, one junior, one sophomore, and one freshman. The team needed every class for this victory! You might also be interested to know that at one point earlier in the Board 7 game, Northside's Djukic offered a draw and Whitney Young's Natarajan declined. If they had agreed to a draw, Whitney Young would have won 35-33. Of course neither play knew that at that earlier point in the match.

State will be a very tough competition and also interesting to watch. I think Northside Prep and Whitney Young clearly deserve the 1 and 2 seeds. But many of the other top teams in the state have not yet brought their full teams to non-conference statewide events this year, so they will be tougher at State -- in particular Niles North, Stevenson, and Evanston. Hinsdale Central may field a stronger team for State as well. We saw Glenbrook South play Whitney Young down to the final seconds 38-30 at the Raider Tournament. Urbana and IMSA are always tough too. And the top teams can never afford to overlook lower seeds, as Wheaton-Warrenville South showed by playing Northside Prep so close at the Raider Tournament.

If Northside Prep and Whitney Young do get to play a rematch at State, I expect it to be just as tight as yesterday's match. It could go either way. The Whitney Young players who lost are capable of playing better, but the Northside players who lost are also quite capable of improving their results too!

Jeff Caveney

Northside Prep coach

 

CPS Chess Championship- Complete Results

Kelly (left) vs Lane Tech in round 3 action. Lane took this match up 45-23. To the left is Kelly's Lauro Navo of Kelly. Kelly came up with the win over Lane Tech's Danny Feng. Navo ended up as a suprise 2nd place finisher for all board #1's.

CPS Chess Championship- 2012 Complete Results

Team Results
1. Northside
2. Whitney Young
3. Lane Tech
4. Lincoln Park
5. Jones
6. Kelly
7. Lake View
8. Marshall
9. Hubbard
10. Ace Tech
11. King
12. Noble Street

Board 1 Individual Champion
1. Sam Schmakel(so)- Whitney Young

Board 2 Individual Champion
1. Christian Kavouras(so)- Northside Prep

Pictures Now- CPS Chess Championship 2012

Photo Album

All eyes are on Danny Feng of Lane Tech (left) and Sam Schmakel(so) of Whitney Young in a battle of board #1's. Shmakel came up on top in this closely contested battle. Lane is rebuilding after a coaching change. Meanwhile, Whitney Young has reloaded and is looking to repeat as state champions. Whitney Young shut out Lane 68-0 in the 2nd round match between rom top 2 tradtional chess programs in the CPS.

Barabas Kim of Lincoln Park is in deep thought.

Jose Leon(left) of Jones College Prep battles Bobby Blankenship of Marshall.

Complete results coming soon...

NCP Stuns Whitney Young 36-32 to win the CPS Chess Title!

Christian Kavouras(so- 2nd from left) takes a peek at the camera as Northside Prep (left) competes against Hubbard in 3rd round action of the CPS chess championship today.

I am hearing unofficial results that Northside Prep stunned defending state champion Whitney Young in the CPS chess championship. Both teams had their full squads.

Northside Prep breezed through the first three rounds against Lake View, Lincoln Park, and Hubbard to set up the showdown between the 2 state chess powers.

Whitney Young had easy wins against Kelly, Lane Tech (68-0), and Jones before the final against Northside Prep.

I believe this is the first time in school history that Northside Prep has beaten juggernaut Whitney Young in a chess match.

If anyone has any more details of this result please comment.

Khairi Bailey of Morgan Park starting to get interested colleges

Khairi Bailey (6-4, 230lbs, DE, jr) of Morgan Park is starting to get some looks at colleges for him to play football. Bailey had a good showing at the recent Core 6 Winter Showcase. Scouts liked his athletic results and at 6-4, 230lbs, they feel he has a good frame for them to develop.

Bailey also recently made an unofficial visit along with Simeon's Reggie Spearman(jr) to the University of Illinois where they got a glimpse into the football program of newly Illini hired coach Tim Beckman. Beckman replaced former head coach Ron Zook. Beckman, the former head coach at Toledo, is stressing more in state recruiting.

Bailey is part of a talented Morgan Park junior class than won conference under first year head coach Jeremy Gold. With so much talent returning, Morgan Park is expected to be better next year and may even challenge again to be one of the elite teams in the CPS.

I'll keep everyone upto date on the latest recruiting news of Khari Bailey.

Baby Indians Feeder Center

If you think Lane sports are good now, can you imagine how much better they will be if/when they develop athletes from their new academic center?

The new Lane Tech Academic Center (LTAC) opened up this fall at Lane. It is an elementary school within Lane Tech open for 7th and 8th graders. Technically, a LTAC student can goto another high school besides Lane. But the reality is most of them are set up to go to Lane after 8th grade.

Below is a list of potential sports LTAC can compete in:

Fall Boys’ & Girls’ Cross Country Boys’ Soccer Girls’ Volleyball Double Dutch (Coed) Girls’ Tennis Flag Football (Coed)

Winter Wrestling Girls' & Boys' Basketball Chess (Coed) Cheerleading Pom-Pons

Spring Boys’ & Girls’ Track Girls’ Soccer Boys’ Volleyball Boys’ Tennis Golf (Coed) Boys’ 16” slow pitch softball Girls’ fast-pitch softball

 

If done right, this looks like the makings of a potentially serious elementary sports feeder program for the school of champions.