Franklin stomps while Hope floats

Rich South's Dallas Crain (middle) wins the first heat of the 200 meter dash.
(Jason Han/SouthtownStar)

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K.J. Franklin's footprints were all over Thursday's SICA South Conference track and field meet in Chicago Heights.

He ran a monster first leg of the 400-meter relay, leading Crete-Monee to second place behind runaway meet winner Bloom Township in that race, then ran the 100-meter dash in 10.64 seconds to beat Isaac Provitt of Rich Central to the line. After that, it was back to where Franklin started his day, to the long jump pit at the south end of Bloom's Sarff Field, where his three jumps in the final round awaited.

All the other jumpers, including teammate Vanalari Hope, were finished.

"It's a little difficult when you're the only jumper, especially right after you've run the 100," Franklin said between deep breaths when he was finished. "There's no rest."

His best jump in the final round was just over 20 feet, not good enough to beat the 22-foot, 11/4-inch leap of Hope. But Franklin's preliminary-round mark of 21-41/4 was, by a quarter inch, good enough to take second, ahead of Japheth Cato of Bloom. They will be his chief rivals next week in the Class AA Lockport Sectional as well.

"I might not have won the long jump, but my teammate did," Franklin said. "We've been going back and forth all year. We've both jumped over the qualifying distance (22-3) more than once. I feel good knowing I have a challenge right in my back door."

Franklin was pushed hard by Provitt and Bloom's Imani Carey in the 100. Franklin was three-hundredths ahead of Provitt, and beat Carey by 13-hundredths with a big push in the final 25 meters. Carey came back to win the 200 in 21.95 seconds.

The Blazing Trojans received two victories each from Pershaun Mathis, who doubled in the hurdles, and Cato, who won the pole vault, then scooted to victory in the 400, along with his third in the long jump. Cato vaulted a career-high 15 feet, while Matthew Page took second in the pole vault, also at 15 feet, but with more misses.

Kalvin Cheeks of Rich East captured the high jump, clearing 6-5, and narrowly missing a personal best of 6-7.

"I wanted to go for 6-7 (first) for a new record, but I thought 6-5 would be safe, so I took it down a notch," said Cheeks, who set a career record at 6-6 last week.

Charles Giles of Bloom Township won the shot put with a career high of 52-4, then took third in the discus with a throw of 133-3, behind Buck Lawson of Rich East (143-6) and Marvin Moraga of Rich South (133-7).