Harris, Hawks live to run another day

Font Size

Email

Bookmark

Black Text

White Text

Danny Harris was worried. The top seed in the 300-meter hurdles, the Hillcrest senior had stumbled over the next-to-last hurdle. His time in his heat, 39.76 seconds, caused him to grimace.

"I haven't run 39s all year," Harris said. "I've always been in the 38s all year. Man! I just have to hope for the best, and try to redeem myself in the finals."

It took until the final heat to assure Harris made it in, but as the eighth-fastest in the field of nine rather than the top seed.

On the first day of the 115th state track meet, the key is in getting to the second day. That, Harris accomplished.

He has company in his fellow Hawks. Aside from that moment of worry, it would be hard to find anything that went drastically wrong for Hillcrest on Friday.

The favorite in Class 2A, the Hawks advanced 14 of their 18 runners, throwers and relay teams into today's finals, more than any other contender. Cahokia has 12 people or relays, Belvidere North and Normal U-High seven each.

"Our biggest obstacle was getting into the finals," Hillcrest coach Ron Towner said. "Today was the big day. The finals obviously are huge, but if you set yourself up well on Friday, and get a maximum amount of qualifiers in, you're in good shape."

The Hawks have two runners in four races: Maurice Lyke and Jamison Wilson in the 110-meter hurdles, Lyke and Harris in the 300 hurdles, Pierre Williams and Ryan Keen in the 100-meter dash, and Williams and Sam Russell in the 400. In all those races, the Hawks were seeded 1-2 coming out of sectionals.

Hillcrest also advanced to the finals of three relays: the 400, 800 and 1,600. Williams will also run in the 200 and Wilson is the leader in the triple jump. He's joined in field events by Aaron Carr, third in the discus going into the final day.

Barring disqualifications, the Hawks already are guaranteed 16 points from the running events alone. It's a classic example of strength in numbers.

"To us, there's a little bit of pressure, but we can compete," Lyke said after running a top-seeded 14.34 in the 110 hurdles. "We're just going out as if we're not the favorite to show everybody what we can do."

Williams said as much after cruising to victory in his 100-meter heat, running in 10.96 seconds.

"I just ran like it was an ordinary meet," Williams said. "There's no pressure, and I just go out to perform."

The Hawks aren't the only Southland team to advance runners to the finals. District 228 rival Oak Forest moved its 3,200-meter relay team to the final with a time of 8:03.18, fourth best in the field. Pathik Gandhi, Josh Driver, Ralph Woolard and Ed McDaniel did the honors.

Crete-Monee's 400-meter relay team also advanced, the quartet of Adrian McElveen, Anthony Westmoreland, Lexus Jackson and Dylan McElveen running their lap in 43.18 seconds, compared to top-seeded Hillcrest's 42.46.

Both the Warriors and Bremen will join Hillcrest in the 800-meter relay. The same quartet advanced for Crete-Monee, while Bremen had David Smith, Rodney Hammons, Marquice Rucker and Josh Techiera run 1:29.09 to move forward.

There are also three Southland runners in the 300-meter hurdle final. Oak Forest's Wana Wauna (38.80) joins Lyke and Harris in the race.

In field events, Oak Forest freshman Tevin Coleman's leap of 21 feet, 10 1/4 inches was good enough to join today's field of 12 in the long jump. Fellow Bengal Chris Powell advanced to the discus final with a throw of 153 feet, 3 inches, joining Carr.

Lemont pole vaulter Andrew Rachwalski cleared 13 feet and is one of 11 finalists.