Duncan’s two state bests headline York Boys Invitational

Distance races heat up Joe Newton Fieldhouse; Prospect edges Naperville North, York for team title

By Michael Newman [email protected]

Elmhurst, Ill – Joshua Duncan of St Charles North has unfinished business to take care of entering his senior season. His 2021 track season did not end the way that he wanted it to. Duncan did make it to Charleston in both the 100 and 200. He finished 13 in the finals of the 100 Meter Dash and did not run the longer distance.

RESULTS | VIDEOS

Duncan has made his presence known in the sprints early in the indoor season. His performance at York’s Joe Newton Fieldhouse Friday evening cemented that.

Duncan left the meet Friday night with the state leading times in the 55 Meter Dash and then later in the 200 Meter Dash. Those events were his dojo at this meet.

The 55 Meter Dash was supposed to be one of the spotlight races in this meet. Duncan had the second fastest state time in the 60 Meter Dash. Reece Young of Wheaton-Warrenville South was all-state in the 100 Meter Dash last June. Junior Daniel Eloe of Naperville North entered this meet with the fastest time in the state of 6.62 at this distance.

Young, due to a minor injury, did not run in this meet. It left this race to Eloe and Duncan. Both athletes got out of the blocks with great starts and were even through 40-meters. Duncan had a slight burst in the final stage of the race to cross the line in a state leading 6.49 seconds and a new meet record. Eloe was in it to the end as he ran 6.59 (IL #3) for a new personal best and second place. Another junior in the race, Aidan Orlando of Prospect, ran a huge 6.64 (IL #6) to finish third.

Duncan had run 22.60 last week at Huntley in the 200 Meter Dash and was looking fr a faster time at the end of this meet. This race was not as close as the earlier race. Duncan made up the stagger on the athletes ahead of him as he ran another state leading time of 22.30 to win the race. Eloe again was second. This time he ran a personal best 23.35 but was a full second behind the St. Charles North sprinter.

The four distance races at this meet again were great as they are traditionally at this haven of distance running. York started the night with a win in the 4x800m Relay. The host and Hersey traded off the lead for the first half of the race. A strong 2:02 third leg from Ethan Summer and a strong anchor from Colin Lewandowski gave their teammates Aidan Hill and Emmett Doyle the win with a new state leading time of 8:07.94. Hersey finished second in 8:18.70 (IL #7).

Michael Atkins of Wheaton-Warrenville South had the top seed time in the 3200 Meter Run. The race was all his after the first kilometer. Atkins passed the first 1600 in 4:44, then came back in negative splits running the final half of 4:36. His winning time of 9:20.75 (IL #9) was 22 seconds ahead of a pack led by Liam Naughton of Hersey (9:42.69).

Micah Wilson of St. Charles East opened up the meet by running a 1:59 split for his team in the 4x8. The meet ended up finishing 45 minutes ahead of schedule. The rest period between that race between the relay and the open 800 shortened. In the long run, this speed work will benefit Wilson as he heads to the New Balance Indoor Nationals next weekend to run the 2-Mile Run.

It was a three runner race throughout with Wilson and York’s Ethan Summer, who was also coming back from the relay, challenging for the lead throughout the race. Summer made a move in the final 200-meters to give him the win in a personal best of 1:59.87. That time was faster than his relay split. Nathan Virginelli of Wheaton-Warrenville South had a huge breakthrough 1600 last week at Lakes. His great racing is becoming more common place as he ran 2:00.37 to finish second in this race. Wilson had a nice double running 2:00.93 to finish third.

There was no question that Gabe Ryan of Naperville North wanted a fast pace in the 1600 Meter Run as he passed the 400 in 64.3 with the Hersey duo of Sean Safford and Connor Oiler leading the pack just two seconds behind. Ryan continued to push the pace stretching out the chase pack passing 800 in 2:11 and 1200 in 3:18. It seemed that the pack started to close the gap in the final two laps. The resolve that Ryan had would not let that happen.

Ryan led wire to wire and held on to win as the first five finishers in this race were within two seconds of each other. Ryan’s winning time of 4:25.05 was just ahead of Safford’s second-place finish of 4:25.66. York’s Jeff Luka stayed off the lead pace early but came on at the end to finish third (4:25.92) ahead of Oiler (4:26.40) and Palatine’s Mukal Verma (4:26.77).

OTHER MEET HIGHLIGHTS

The team title came down to the final event to determine the meet champion. It was Prospect that came away with the win with 104 points. York and Naperville North both scored 98 points to tie for second place.

The spark plug for Prospect in this meet was the efforts from junior sprinter Dominik Balenda where he was in three events. Balenda, who ran 50.42 last week at 400-meters in the meet at Lakes, stepped up a distance to run the 600 Meter Run. The pace was slow for the first two laps passing 57.3 with Balenda controlling the pace with York’s Aidan Hill and Emmett Doyle close behind. Balenda at the sound of the bell took off in an all out sprint distancing himself from the rest of the section. His winning time of 1:25.86 (IL #5) was almost two seconds ahead of the time of Hill (1:27.45).

The next event was the 55 Meter Low Hurdles. There was Balenda in the blocks ready to help his team get points. He hit the second hurdle in his race hitting the track. He still got up to finish. The junior came back at the end of the meet to anchor the Knights team in the 4x400m Relay. He was closing in on Naperville North’s Matt Pasteris in the final lap, but the finish line came before Balenda could catch the Naperville North athlete. Naperville North won the race (3:35.72) ahead of Prospect (3:36.60) and York (3:38.47). Pasteris earlier in the meet won the 400 Meter Dash. In this five section event, the senior ran 53.07 to win the fourth section and then had to wait. Froylan Alonso of Hersey won the final section, but his time of 53.72 to overtake the personal best of Pasteris.

Michael Campbell of Rolling Meadows took control of the 55-Meter-High-Hurdles halfway through his race to run the fastest time in the state (7.78) to win the event. Bryce Tuchner of Prospect ran 7.77 to win the 55-Meter-Low-Hurdles.

The Shot Put was the top field event of the meet. St. Charles North’s Paolo Gennarelli had a best put of 56-7 (IL #) to win the event ahead of Jhermari Mabry of Palatine (54-3) and Clayton Kamp of Prospect (54-0).

Logan Tunney of St. Charles North and Luke Richards of Wheaton-Warrenville South both cleared 13-2 in the Pole Vault. Tunney won the event on fewer misses. Dasharr Scott cleared a personal best of 6-1 to win the High Jump.

Ethan Groark of Rolling Meadows jumped 19-9 to win the Long Jump. His teammate Georgios Simos had a best of 40-9.25 to win the Triple Jump ahead of Hoffman Estates’ Chase Hampton (40-8.25).