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Marmion’s Grahovec crawls to victory
Updated: May 27, 2011 11:56PM
CHARLESTON, Ill. — Eddy Grahovec didn’t have a personal best time on Friday in the Class 2A boys track state preliminaries.
That made sense, because the Marmion senior wound up crossing the finish line on all fours in his 300-meter hurdles heat. He was one of four athletes who collided with the barriers during various heats of the event, and the only one of them who was smiling afterward.
“Luckily I fell right in front and was able to crawl over,” said Grahovec, who still managed to win his heat in 39.81 seconds and qualify fourth for Saturday’s finals. “It was a good time. Hopefully I can do better.”
That seems reasonable, assuming he can avoid the same kind of mishaps that impacted Friday’s races. “I just heard hurdles [falling] behind me,” Grahovec said. “I didn’t know what was going on. It was a crazy race.”
The day was less eventful, but equally successful for sprinters Christopher Dalton of Morgan Park and Garret Payne of Glenbard South.
Dalton edged out Public League rival Brian Carter of Kelvyn Park to win his heat and qualify first at 21.862, just ahead of Centralia’s DeVantre Whitelow (21.869). Carter qualified fourth at 21.97.
“I’ve seen [Carter] all season,” Dalton said. “He’s been my competition all season.”
This time, Carter brought out the best in his city rival. “I’ve been running high 22s all season, I couldn’t get down to the 21s,” said Dalton, who also qualified seventh in the 100.
Payne qualified first in the 400 in a Class 2A record of 48.06. “I expected [to be] around that,” he said. “My goal was to go under 48 in the prelims. It was still a great time.”
And it was enough to get him the finals spot he wanted in relation to Downstate Morton’s D.J. Zahn, the No. 2 qualifier and the indoor state champ. “I wanted to be in the best lane and Zahn to be on the outside of me,” Payne said.
Payne also qualified fourth in the 100 and as a member of the Raiders’ 400 relay team. Glenbard South, which also advanced Nick Boesso in both the shot put and discus, has 11 entries (nine individuals, two relays) in today’s finals. That’s the same number as defending 2A champ Hillcrest (eight individuals, three relays), which was paced by multiple qualifiers Michael Malone (long jump, pole vault, 400 relay), Mark Hicks (triple jump, 300 hurdles, 1,600 relay) and Justin Kilpatrick (200, 400 relay, 800 relay).
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