Imani Carey was motivated. The Bloom senior had come in third in the 55-meter dash, by his standards two places below the minimum acceptable finish, and for the worst possible reason.
"I wasn't ready when they shot the gun," Carey said. "I was mad."
Carey wasn't a great deal behind. Only two-hundredths of a second separated him and K.J. Franklin of Crete-Monee, with Courtney Sanders of Rich South in between. But that wasn't good enough for Carey.
Channeling the anger into motivation, Carey went out in the 400 and won by 1.3 seconds and then came back to set a track record at Bloom's venerable Elmer R. Nelson Fieldhouse with a 22.81-second clocking in the 200.
"It feels good," Carey said after picking up the T-shirt emblematic of a title in the SICA South indoor showdown. "I tried to run my fastest in the 400."
That was also a personal best for him, a 51.77 timing, and the third-best speed in the area this season.
Carey's performances were part of Bloom's overwhelming victory in the league meet. The Blazing Trojans more than doubled runner-up Rich East in points, scoring 170 to the Rockets' 84.
Franklin, meanwhile, was almost a one-man team for Crete-Monee, which finished third with 56 points. The senior won not only the 55 hurdles, his time of 6.29 seconds the best in the area this year and three-hundreds better than his previous pacesetting time, but also the long jump and the triple jump. Already qualified for next week's Prep Top Times meet at Illinois Wesleyan for the long jump, he's now qualified three times over.
"K.J. has been our senior leader since his sophomore year," Warriors coach Mark O'Connor said.
Rich East's lone win came in the 3,200-meter relay, but a quartet of second-place finishes boosted its point total.
Bloom had another standout aside from Carey. Juan Sanchez ran the anchor leg of the 1,600-meter relay to victory and set a track record in the 400 with a time of 2:01.78.
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