Caldwell busts loose to win sectional

Every now and then an individual not very well-known will have one of those days and win a sectional title.

That day arrived on Friday for Jhamaar Caldwell at the Fenwick Class AA Sectional at Concordia University in River Forest.

The Oak Park-River Forest senior had a personal-best distance of 144 feet, 2 1/2 inches to win the discus event.

Caldwell won the event easily, as Andrew Caron of York was second with a mark of 136-2.

The first-place performance qualified Caldwell for the Class AA state meet, which begins on Friday at Eastern Illinois University.

Caldwell has been in fewer than a handful of meets this season for the Huskies.

"He won the event by more than eight feet," OPRF coach Tim Hasso said. "It wasn't a fluke. This is only his first full year of track."

Peter Geraghty won the pole vault with a height of 14-9, which tied the meet record. He was six inches better than second-place Max Anaya of Morton.

Geraghty had the seventh-best height among all state qualifiers in the pole vault.

Evan Scott advanced with a first place in the triple jump at 45-2 1/2 and Harper was a qualifier with a second-place in the shot put at 52-1.

Patrick Geoghegan advanced to state in both distance events. He was second in the 1600-meter run in 4 minutes, 22.63 seconds and second again in the 3200 in 9:26.30. He had the 11th-best time among qualifiers in the 3200.

The Huskies were second in the 800 relay in 1:27.54 with Levell Coppage, Brandon Smith, Josh Runnels and Eric Starks.

The same four runners are also headed downstate in the 400 relay after finishing third in 42.35 seconds.

OPRF also made it through in the 3200 relay with a second-place time of 8:03.48 with Brendan Donley, Kevin Binns, Colin McCarey and Kevin Baker.

Both relays appear to have a chance to advance past the preliminaries on Friday. The 400 relay will be seeded fifth and the 800 seeded 12th based on sectional times.

Runnels won the 300 hurdles in 39.60 and Smith was second in the 200 dash in 22.55. Both qualified for state.

York won the sectional team title with 169 points and OPRF second with 128.50.

"I thought we had an excellent meet to have that many qualifiers," Hasso said. "There was a lot of competition and not just because York was added to the sectional this year."