Tunney’s 3200 win highlights great Bob Cohoon meet

Minooka dominates for team win behind Colwell double and two relay wins

By Michael Newman [email protected]

Downers Grove, Ill – A giant storm front hit the Downers Grove area an hour before the scheduled beginning of Friday’s Bob Cohoon Invitational at Downers Grove South High School. While some meets in the area caved in and cancelled their meets, South High School meet management used radar to chart the course of their meet.

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Weather cleared up by 5 PM and the meet started by 6:30 PM. There was concern that the meet would not finish. A 10 PM curfew would shut off the lights in the stadium. No problem. The meet ended at 9:15 PM.

Declan Tunney of Sandburg had one of the top individual performances in this high powered meet where Illinois #1 marks were falling. Tunney and Roy Llewelyn of Downers Grove North pushed the pace from the start of the 3200 Meter Run breaking away from a good field early in the race. Llewellyn led Tunney through a fast 4:34.5 opening 1600. The rest of the pack led by Kyle McNally of Downers Grove North was back still at a good pace of 4:43.

Tunney decided at that moment it was his turn to push the pace as he took the lead. Llewellyn stayed close to Tunney for a couple of laps. Tunney defined the race finishing the final two laps in a quick 2:11 to take the win with a 9:07.29 time (IL #5).

“The plan was to go in the final two laps. I knew Roy (Lewellyn) would be pushing the pace fairly good,” Tunney said after his race. “I felt good at the mile and pushed it from there.”

Llewellyn ran a great race in running 9:14.04 (IL #10) to finish second. Three more runners finished under 9:31 in the windy conditions with Noah Schalliol of Neuqua Valley (9:25.92), Jeff Luka of York (9:28.80), and Zac Close of Neuqua Valley (9:30.97) finished third through fifth.

Minooka has displayed early in the outdoor season that they will be the team to beat in Class 3A. They showed that in this high powered again scoring a dominating 117.33 to win the team title ahead of Lockport (62.5 points) and Neuqua Valley (56 points). They trended in the right direction in winning the 4x800m Relay.

It was the opposite of the week before when Sandburg caught Minooka on the final leg to win that race. This meet it was Minooka turned the tables. York built a big lead as Garrett Schwan running 1:58 and Ethan Summer running 1:57. Minooka held their own on their first two legs staying within reach of the Dukes. Zach Balzer brought Minooka within four seconds of York on the third leg. Emerson Fayman was the difference maker running a 1:55.9 anchor leg to pass York’s Aidan Hill on the final lap to give Minooka the win in 7:55.53 (IL #2) with York running a season best of 7:56.06 (IL #3) to finish second.

Tyler Colwell is the cog that makes the Minooka machine run. The senior it seems is on a mission in his final year of high school running. It showed as he won two individual races and anchored Minooka to two relay wins.

Minooka and Neuqua Valley were close together entering the final leg of the 4x100m Relay. That closeness was over once Colwell got the baton. Minooka went on to run the state’s fastest time (42.41) for the win with Neuqua Valley at 43.42 and Downers Grove North at 43.50 finishing second and third.

Colwell had to deal with a strong headwind in his race in the 100 Meter Dash. It did not seem to bother him as he got a good start out of the blocks and had the lead by 35 meters into the race. Colwell stormed to the win (11.01) ahead of Downers Grove South’s Elijah Reed (11.19).

Minooka was a step ahead of the rest of the teams in the 4x200m Relay. The Indians had a sizeable lead as Colwell got the baton for his anchor leg. He brought Minooka to a big win at 1:30.17 with York (1:33.20) and Neuqua Valley (1:33.39) finishing second and third (1:33.39).

The second win for Colwell came in the 200 Meter Dash. He had a lead coming off the curve in the final section. Elijah Reed was close the entire way and was close to Colwell at the finish. Colwell came away with the win at 22.00 (IL #6) with Reed a close second (22.19).

Reed had a good night in the two sprint races. He stepped int the spotlight winning the 400 Meter Dash dipping under 50 seconds for the first time in his career. Reed’s time of 49.95 (IL #7 tie) won ahead of second-place Jimmy Davis of Stevenson (50.43).

Zachary Balzer came back after his leg for Minooka in the 4x800m Relay to a convincing win in the 800 Meter Run. Balzer pulled away from the field in the final lap to take the win (1:57.67) with a flurry of eight runners behind him finishing between 2:00 and 2:02. Ryan Eddington of Downers Grove South (2:00.25) and Nicholas Motuelle of Downers Grove South (2:01.02) finishing second and third.

Brock Rice of Sandburg made the race in the 1600 Meter Run his own leading from the start to hold off York’s Ethan Summer for the win. Rice was timed at 4:18.90 (IL #7) to claim the win ahead of Summer’s 4:20.10 (IL #10). The depth of this field showed as the next seven runners finished between 4:25 and 4:29). Minooka’s Emerson Fayman led that pace in third (4:25.05).

Gabe Czako of Lockport looked great in winning the 110 High Hurdles (14.55) despite the strong wind that was in their face. Collin Forrest of Minooka at 14.77 (IL #5) and Ian Kelley of Oak Park-River Forest (15.32) finished second and third.

Czako had the lead entering the final three hurdles of the 300 Intermediate Hurdles. Kelley came from the outside lane to catch Czako on the final hurdle. Kelley out leaned Czako to take the win with the state’s fastest time (38.61) with Czako only nine hundredths back in 38.70 (IL #2).

Czako came back to lead Lockport to the win in the 4x400m Relay (3:27.75) with York (3:30.16) and Downers Grove North (3:31.26) finishing second and third.

Field events were hampered by the delay of the start of the meet and the cooler than normal weather. Conditions were deemed too tricky for the Pole Vault to be held.

Cole Selzer of Lockport had a 46-11 mark to win the Shot Put by more than three feet. Ethan Aghakhan of Stevenson threw 129-9 to win the Discus.

James Ammenhauser of Neuqua Valley jumped 20-6.5 to win the Long Jump ahead of Nzube Nwafo of Oak Park-River Forest (20-6). Sam Bowerman of Downers Grove North jumped 43-5.75 to earn the win in the Triple Jump with Ammenhauser jumping 42-11.75 to finish second. Mark Hellwig Jr. of Stevenson cleared 6-4.75 to win the High Jump.