York clinches team title in final four events on home track

Eloe earns the spotlight in “new” Stan Reddel Invitational with meet record in the 55m Dash

By Michael Newman

Elmhurst, Ill – Friday evening’s meet inside York’s Joe Newton Fieldhouse was renamed the Stan Reddel Boys Invitational in 2023 honoring the long time York Hall of Fame coach. Reddel was the head coach for the track team that produced two state championships from 2001 to 2014. Reddel was also the program’s sprint coach for more than 30 years.

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In a meet that has traditionally had great races in the distance events, it was a coincidence that a sprint event stole the spotlight in front of Reddel who was in attendance for this meet.

Danny Eloe of Naperville North was in the field for last year’s race at 55-meters where he finished second behind Joshua Duncan who had run 6.49 to break the meet record.

It was a moment that the Naperville North senior had tucked in his memory as he went into the blocks for the start of Friday evening’s race. Eloe got off to a great start. The race was over at 30-meters as Eloe had already separated himself from the field. His time was a personal best of 6.43 (IL #2) that won the race and set a new meet record. Aidan Orlando of Prospect and Josh Evans of St. Charles East both ran 6.62 tying for second.

“Last year I ran 6.59 in this race. I had plenty of injuries before that and was ready to give up track. I decided to work harder to get better,” Eloe said. “I came back my junior year and I could not believe that I was all-state (in the 100 Meter Dash). I’ve just worked harder than I have before to get to this point.

Eloe ran a leadoff 23.0 split to put Naperville North in contention in the 4x200m Relay. York came from behind to run 1:33.03 to capture the win ahead of the 1:33.66 time that Naperville North ran in the race. St. Charles East ran 1:35.36 to finish third. Eloe was scheduled to run the 200 Meter Dash but had some slight muscle cramps forcing him to not run the event.

York scored 125 to win the team title with 125 points finishing ahead of Prospect (101.5 points), Naperville North (83 points), and St. Charles East (55 points). The Dukes clinched the team title in the four events.

Danny O’Shaughnessy helped by moving from fourth starting the final lap to finish second in the 1600 Meter Run. Cash Langley ran 23.14 to win the fourth section of the 200 Meter Dash. He had to wait until Nathan Jacobs of Naperville North won the fifth section of the event in a 23.33 time clinching the win for Langley.

York then won the “B” level 4x400m Relay (3:39.80) as their anchor Danny Karnatz pulled away from Prospect (3:40.83) in the final leg to capture the win.

The two schools faced off again in the final 4x400m Relay of the night. York started off in sixth after the first exchange as Prospect took the lead early in the race. York moved up on the next two legs to get behind Prospect as the final baton exchanges were made.

Prospect had their top runner Dominik Balenda anchoring for them. Balenda earlier in the meet had run 50.76 to win the 400 Meter Dash. Payton Noble, York’s anchor, had earlier cleared 6-0 to tie for second in the High Jump.

The two runners stayed even for the first 300-meters of that final leg. Noble took the lead passing Balenda just before the two runners went into the final turn. The York senior held on approaching the finish line running a 50.3 split to give York the win in 3:32.53 (IL #3) with Prospect running 3:34.84 to finish second.

All four distance races in the Varsity races failed to disappoint. Evan Rainville of Payton Prep and Michael Polizzi of Taft pushed the pace through a 56.1 opening 400-meters with Aidan Hill of York close behind. Rainville opened up a lead on the third lap passing 600-meters at 1:25.6. Hill made his move past Polizzi entering the final lap but was still a full second behind the lead.

The pace slowed enter the back straight away for Rainville in which Hill took advantage of taking the lead with 125 meters left. Hill went on to run an indoor personal best of 1:56.68 (IL #6) to earn the win. Colin Nelson of Wheaton-Warrenville South (1:59.43) and Ryan Chung of Glenbard South (1:59.97) charged from behind in the final lap to finish second and third. Polizzi (2:00.24) and Rainville (2:00.60) finished for fourth and fifth.

Hill and Polizzi were both on the track less than an hour later to compete in the 600 Meter Run. Both runners passed 400-meters in 55.3 heading into the final lap. Hill made several moves to try to take the lead including the final 50-meters when Polizzi moved to the outside off the final curve. He never gave up the lead running 1:24.41 to claim the win. Hill was just four hundredth of a second behind in 1:24.45 (IL #3) to finish second. Bryce Thomas of St. Charles North ran 1:26.01 (IL #7) to finish third.

Hersey started off the meet with a convincing win in the 4x800m Relay. The quartet of Jon Choi, Mateus Salomao, Cameron Donner, and Liam Naughton ran 8:14.71 (IL #3) to easily win ahead of Prospect (8:23.12). Naughton also made it look easy in winning the 1600 Meter Run. Naughton had the lead running the first three 400’s in 68 seconds. Naughton closed in a 63 final 400 to win in 4:27.54. Danny O’Shaughnessy of York moved in the final lap to run 4:32.54 to finish second. Carter Hayes of Palatine ran 4:33.04 to finish third.

Luka Kuzmanovic of Prospect pushed the pace early in the 3200 Meter Run opening up a lead running 66.7 on the first two laps, Wheaton-Warrenville South’s Nathan Virginelli was content to be patient and stay in the middle of the chase pack. Two 76 400’s between 800 and 1600-meters passing in 4:52 made Virginelli’s decision easy to take the lead.

He was pressured by his teammate Sam Cruz and St. Charles East’s Jed Wilson on the next four laps with Wilson in a few moments of the race trying to take the lead. Virginelli negative split the race winning in a 9:35.20 time. Wilson ran a 20 second personal best of 9:38.39 to finish second. Cruz ran 9:39.41 to finish third.

Meet Notes

Giovanny Hernandez of Hoffman Estates ran 8.32 to win the 55 Meter High Hurdles ahead of Matt Hall of St. Charles East (8.35) and Liam Westfallen of Prospect (8.42). Harper Bryan of Glenbard South ran 7.74 to win the 55 Meter Low Hurdles ahead of West fallen (7.85) and Hernandez (7.86).

Bryan won his second event of the day as he jumped 21-4 to win the Long Jump. Luke Holtmeier of Prospect jumped 21-3.5 to finish second. Logan Wood of Hononegah jumped 41-6 to win the Triple Jump.

Will Viken of Rolling Meadows cleared a personal best of 13-8 to win the Pole Vault with Nathan McLoughlin of St. Charles East clearing the same height to finish second. Evan Weder of Willowbrook cleared 6-4 to win the High Jump. Jacob Klink of Hononegah had a 58-9.5 put (IL #5) to win the Shot Put. Will Nolan of Hersey had a 56-1.25 effort (IL #7) to finish second.