Wildcats' Lindsey stays on track in prelims

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CHARLESTON – In contrast to Hillcrest's dominance of Class 2A in the 115th state track meet, the team champion in Class 3A isn't expected to come from the Southland. Bloom and Homewood-Flossmoor each advanced five competitors to today's finals, which is impressive, but off the pace of York's eight finalists.

However, several individual champions may come from the area, beginning with William Lindsey, who has set the pace over the hurdles for Thornton all season.

Lindsey, a senior who had come up short at O'Brien Field in the past, breezed to victories in both the 110-meter high and 300-meter intermediate hurdles in Friday's qualifying session for Illinois' largest schools, setting himself up for today's finals. He's looking only at first, especially in the 110.

"I took ninth before (in 2007), and I took third (last year)," Lindsey said. "I can't go down in numbers. I've got to take first."

Lindsey came from behind to capture his heat in 14.31 seconds, two-hundredths behind the 14.29 posted by Marian Catholic's Erick Gavin in winning an earlier heat.

"If you don't come prepared Friday, thinking today is the finals, you're not going to make it to Saturday to be in the finals," Lindsey said.

That's even more difficult in the 1,600-meter run. Sandburg's Zach Dahleen advanced to the final by running 4:13.14 in the mid-afternoon sun, leaving Conant's Jeff Thode to run an apparently effortless 4:11.80 to win their heat.

"I got exactly what I wanted out of it, moving on to the finals," Dahleen said. "I'll have to run a great race tomorrow to catch Thode. He definitely moves in the second half."

Lindsey is one of four area individuals to qualify in more than one event. Bloom Township's Japheth Cato is in both the long jump and pole vault finals, Morgan Park's Nigel Jolly has advanced in the long jump and the triple jump, and Homewood-Flossmoor's Eric Oliver made both the 200 and 400-meter dashes.

As always, the difficulty in the qualifying races is to exert enough energy to make the following day's final, but not exhaust yourself. Some runners pace themselves. Others are like H-F's Jeff Kilgore.

"It's full out," Kilgore said after advancing to the 110 hurdle final. "You've got to trust your training and go like it's the finals, like it's your last race. You don't think about the fatigue. You just block it out of your mind."

Kilgore did so, running his heat in 14.553 seconds, the best time of the non-winners. He's also anchoring the Vikings' two advancing relay teams.

Overall, 21 Southland individuals and seven relay teams advanced to Saturday's Class 3A finals. Several events have a quartet of area competitors. Besides Cato, Lincoln-Way East's Mike Sheetz, Lockport's Steve Monte and St. Laurence's Josh Hodur are among the dozen left in the pole vault.

Jolly and Cato are joined in the long jump by Josh Moore of Mount Carmel and Bloom's Alex Robinson, the first-day leader with a leap of 23 feet, 1/4 inch.

Both hurdle races have four area runners. In the 110 hurdles, Lindsey, Kilgore and Gavin are joined by Morgan Park's Da'Ron Brown. In the 300, Bloom's Joseph Tooks, Lockport's Abe Omar and Lincoln-Way Central's Ryan Newtoff will be running along with Lindsey. Took also anchors Bloom's 1,600-meter relay team, which will see stiff competition from Thornwood and top-seeded Batavia.

"After this race, there's no pressure," Omar said after winning his 300 heat. "It's all been the same through the whole year. It's like a regular meet, only with more people. That's the only difference."

Today, with medals on the line, Omar and the others may decide it's a different story.