Thornton rolls to own invite crown

Updated: May 7, 2011 8:45PM

Memo to the competition awaiting Thursday’s SouthWest Suburban Red boys track meet at Thornridge: Look out for Thornton.

The Wildcats are loaded. That open secret became obvious in Saturday’s invitational on their home track. Led by Timothy Faust, Derrick Guest and Nate Whittington, Thornton won 10 of the 18 events and rolled up 164 points to win the title, beating Moline by 39 points.

“Faust is a great leader,” Whittington said. “He’s been there all four years. He keeps telling me to push more. And Derrick is one of my guys, one of my best friends. He’s always pushing me.”

Whittington won the shot put by almost five feet and set a school record with a discus throw of 169 feet, 10 inches. He finished second to Evanston’s Curtis Wideman (182-7) in the latter, but served notice he can rise to the occasion.

“This was my last throw at Thornton,” said Whittington, a senior headed to Ohio Dominican in the fall for football and track. “I threw everything into it. I had to. I’ve been talking about that (discus) record since last week.”

Whittington grabbed the Wildcats’ shot put record last week.

It was likewise the last day on the home track for Guest and Faust, and each came through. Guest won the 300-meter hurdles by a full second after being surprised in the 110 hurdles, and also captured the high jump. Faust won both the 100 and 200 dashes, the latter in a hand-timed season best of 21.20 seconds.

“I think my strongest race is the 200,” said Faust, who took second in last year’s Class 3A 200 state final. “I’ve got more time to do what I need to do. I get out hard and try to hold it.”

In Saturday’s final, he held off Evanston’s Xavier Levy on the turn and then pushed his way to the finish. Thornton’s Jalen Banks was third (22.40).

“I feel we have a chance to win conference,” Faust said. “We hadn’t won our home meet in four or five years.”

Thornton also won the 110 hurdles (Johnathan Anderson in 14.50, with Guest fourth in 14.90), the 400 and 1,600 relays, the long jump (Thomas Taylor, 21-3) and went 1-2 in the triple jump (Elisha Deramus, 44-6; Taylor, 44-5).

The only area school aside from Thornton to post a victory in the seven-team meet was Brother Rice, whose quartet of Tom Condreva, Mike Girzadas, Scott Corsey and Dan Caddigan captured the 3,200 relay in 8:09.40, the best time in the area this season.

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