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1600 meter run action. Lake View's Luis Gomez(so), Lane's Adalberto Aviles(so), and Jones's Benjamin Boswell(fr) were 3 freshman or sophomores that broke 5 minutes.
Left to right -
#6 Benjamin Boswell(fr) of Jones - 4:59.58
#3 Sean Mythen(sr) of Lane Tech - 4:55.35
#13 Alex Bermudez(so) of Little Village- 5:14.63
#5 Adalberto Aviles(so) of Lane Tech - 4:59.56
#1 Abe Haji(sr) of Mather - 4:49.30
Oscar Cornejo(jr) of Little Village-5:21.49
Full Results
Jamison Dale - 1:57.12
Stedman Foster- 1:58.24
Deivi Tahiraj- 2:01.23
Jamison Dale(jr) wins the 800 with Stedman Foster of Morgan Park right behind him.
After the indoor season, the 800 was viewed as a competitive event for the CPS. After the Mather Invite today, the 800 has got even tougher as Jamison Dale(jr) of Jones won it with a 1:57.12, Stedman Foster(sr) of Morgan Park took second with a 1:58.24, and Mather sophomore Deivi Tahiraj(so) took 3rd with a great time of 2:01 for a sophomore. Those are all personal records and the top 3 800 times in the CPS in this first really big meet of the outdoor season.
Much more coming soon...
One of the premier field events is the triple jump. It features 2011 CPS triple jump runner up Shakell Rosario(sr) vs. 2011 Catholic League champion Timothy Norwood(sr)- who transfered from Loyola to Mashall.
Triple Jump- Shakell Rosario(sr) of Mather, Lester Harris(jr) of Payton, Timothy Norwood(sr) of Marshall, and Rahim Milz(jr) of Mather all have seeds over 40 feed. Rosario is the CPS Triple jump runner up. Norwood was the Catholic League triple jump champion last year, before transferring to Marshall this year. Harris is an up and coming atlete from Payton who jumped and scored at the CPS frosh-soph meet last year. Lane's Jason Gutierez(jr) is best known as a 13 feet pole vaulter, but he can also triple jump- as attested by his winning 39-3.5" leap in winning the triple jump at last year's city frosh-soph meet. Also look out for Zach Auger of Northtown, who leaped 40-5 to win the triple jump at last year's Marshall Class 2A sectional last year.
High Jump- Lane's Emmanuel Odiase(sr) is the top seed at 5-10. I'll be looking out to see if he can do that. Lane will need him to score at the city meet to enhance Lane's chances at city. A 5-10 will score at city. A 5-8 may or may/not. I'll also be looking out for Lane's #2 jumper Jeremy Carr or Bobby Kurek. One of them may hit 5-6. Steinmetz's Breon Bland(jr) was noticeably absent at the Group B indoor championship. Brand is a complete athlete and could surprise at this meet.
Long Jump- Mather has the top two seeds in Raheem Milz(jr) and Damiola Idaowu(jr). Milz is the only jumper seeded over 20 feet at 20-2.5. Milz was the CPS frosh-soph champ last year. Also look out for Zach Auger(sr) of Northtown. The 2011 state qualifier had a good indoor season and could push 20 feet. Von Steuben's Clarence Maxwell, a soccer player will try the long jump.
Ed Harvey(sr) of Payton, 3rd at the Group A indoor meet, is the top seed in the shot put at 46-11.
Shot Put- Payton's Ed Harvey is the easy favorite with a seed mark of over 4 feet greater than the #2 seed Aaron Harrisof Marshall. Lane has 3 shotputters that will all thriw around 40 feet. Lane is hoping one of them will emerge as a bonafide #1 to give them a solid shot put threat. The most experienced of the three is football player Alex Mueller(sr).
Discus- This event is wide open with the 6 atop all seeded within 3 feet of each other all between 110 -113 feet. 2 of those top 6 seeds are from Lane Tech. I did not realize Lane has 2 discus throwers close to 110 feet. One of them is Timothy Pinner(jr)- the CPS frosh-soph discus last year. Pinner threw 111-4 to win last week's Lane Tech Len Jareczek Relays.
Distance runner Claudio Flores(so) of Mather. Mather has the top 3 seeds in the 3200 meter run.
Saturday, March 31, 2012
North Park University Outdoor Track
FAT timing
Field events begin 10:00am
Running events begin at 11:00am with the JV unlimited entry mile.
Teams: Amundsen, #17 Fenger, Foreman, Gage Park, #8 Jones, Lake View, #1 Lane Tech, Lincoln Park, Little Village,#20 Marshall, #9 Mather, #15 Morgan Park, Powerhouse, Northtown, #18 Roosevelt, Schurz, St Scholastica, Steinmetz, Schurz, Urban Prep Bronzeville, Von Steuben, #16 Payton
Quick Outlook: 21 CPS teams run one of the first big meets of the outdoor season. The meet features Neilski's CPS ranked teams: #1 Lane Tech, #8 Jones, #9 Mather, #15 Morgan Park, #16 Payton, and #18 Roosevelt.
Previews: Hopefully coming soon
Some key members of Lane's frosh-soph team: Celso Ramos(so), Hamzat Irretola(so), and Andre Fredricks(so). Lane does as great of a job at the frosh-soph level as it does the varsity level.
Everyone knows Lane's main guys such as David Timlin(sr), Lucas Beltran(sr), Marcelo Burbano(jr), and more. Everyone also knows that Lane's boys track team is going for their 7th straight boys varsity city championship this. Ironically, part of the reason for Lane's on track success is precisely because they DO NOT focus ONLY on the top guys or winning championships.
We have all seen track teams where the main focus seems to be on a handful of their top guys. Those top guys may have success and the accolades that come with it, but what about the rest of the team? What happens to freshman, newcomers, or non-high profile guys if they are not given proper coaching, care, and love? I use the word love appropriately in this context, because those guys if they don't feel attended to or loved, then a certain percentage of them drop off or are simply forgotten.
At Lane, they do a good job (not a perfect job) at giving the proper attention to the whole team, not just the top guys. Here is the way I see how Lane's team operates. Lane has 4 separate teams:
Frosh-Soph Team
This is the breeding ground for all the other teams. Thus in my opinion is the most important level. Lane brings numbers to their frosh-soph team. I'm talking a lot of numbers. At the Myrtle and Gold #2 Lane only time trial earlier this month Lane had 36 frosh-soph entries running the 100 meter dash, 21 frosh-soph entries in the 1000 meter, and 16 frosh-soph entries in the long jump. Lane uses these meets to give guys a meet because, most of them won't be able to represent Lane at limited entry meets. They also use these meets to evaluate talent. With so many numbers combined with quality coaches Lane always finds a way to make a very competitive team at the frosh-soph CPS meet. Lane is always a contender at the CPS frosh-soph meet every year.
Junior Varsity Team
Lane uses early season indoor and outdoor meets to get their JV guys some action. JV guys are juniors and seniors who don't usually run at the very biggest meets. But it does not mean they are low quality runners. It's just that at Lane it is very difficult to wear the Myrtle and Gold uniform at a big meet. For example Danny Zimny Schmitt(sr) and Mansur Soleman were top 7 varsity cross country runners for Lane. They are both sub 5 minute milers. In most CPS teams a Zimny Schmitt or a Soleman would be a top distance runners. Not at Lane. Junior varsity runners play a big role by competing with the top guys for spots in the big meets.
View the frosh-soph team and the JV team as the minor leagues in baseball. They provide a pool of talent to develop. When someone is ready, they move up to the next level. Or if the varsity team has a need to fill, they take someone from the frosh-soph or JV team.
Varsity City Meet Team
At last year's city meet unheralded guys like Emanuel Odiase scored in the high jump, and George Chronis and Eduardo Bustamonte ran on the Lane Tech 1st place 4x800 relay team. They contributed to Lane winning the city championship. So at Lane developing frosh-soph guys to the JV team or to compete for varsity city team are very important to Lane's success.
State Team
For much of the 1990's and the early 2000's Lane was basically a non-factor at the state meet. Then, a few years ago, a paradigm shifting thing happened. Lane scored at the state meet. Ever since they scored, the expectations seemed to change at Lane. Now, Lane has expectations to score at every single state meet. Every year, they seem to regularly produce some state caliber type athletes. A few years ago, it was the sprint crew led by Chris Kyles. Two years ago it was state champion hurdler Jonathan Jackson. Now it's primarily the David Timlin led middle distance crew looking to do some state meet damage.
It's taken Lane a while to develop the quality coaching and culture to get to this point. But I feel that Lane's track success is here to stay. I'm not saying that other CPS schools should follow the Lane model to track success. Nor am I saying, that Lane is unique. They have been doing it for decades in the suburbs. But there seems to be a growing trend in the CPS to developing track programs. The distance program at Jones is incredible. Brooks and North Lawndale have good young coaches who get it. I'm optimistic in the future of boys track in the CPS.
Justin Feulner(jr) of Lake View was the meet's only double winner, winning the long jump and the 300 hurdles (42.78).
Ahmad Bradshaw(jr) of Brooks prepares to high jump at the CPS meet. Brooks is vastly improved and has suddenly become a top 10 if not better caliber CPS team after scoring 0 points at the varsity level at last years city meet. This is the best varsity Brooks team that I have ever seen.
Northside Prep
Mac Melto(sr) breaks IPTT class 2A record in the 400 meter dash with a state best 49.25. He also showed great speen in running a 6.61 in the 55 meter. He seems to be a whole lot faster than he was last year. His best 100 meter time last year was 11.07. I'm sure he could dip into the 10's. Any time a runner goes into the 10's we are talking about an all-state 100 meter runner. It will be interesting to see where Northside focuses on where to run Melto outdoors. He could do the 100, 200, 400, 4x1, 4x2, or 4x400. Then when the state meet comes, should he focus only on the 400? Or could he double up? These are questions that will have to be unraveled during outdoors.
Brooks
Malik Lee(jr) breaks 2 minutes for the first time in the 800 meter run when he ran a 1:59.89. He is the only CPS runner to break 2 minutes in the 800 this indoors and is the top CPS indoor time this year. Lee has to be considered one of the most improved 800 runner in the CPS considering his best time last year was 2:08.1 - an improvement of over 8 seconds. In the 800, 8 seconds is huge. 13 CPS runners are returning last year who ran better than 2:08.18, Lee has the best individuall 800 time of them all. Lee also ran a 52.47 in the 400 at IPTT- his best 400 time of the season. Brooks has the luxury of having another runner run faster than Lee in the 400. Byron Kelly(jr) ran a 52.17 at the CPS indoor meet. Brooks is all over the Indoor Leaderboard. They won the frosh-soph title last year. Those guys return this year and all seem vastly improved. After scoring 0 points at the varsity city meet last year, Brooks goes into the outdoor season as the best varsity Brooks team that that I have ever seen.
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