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Lake Park, Kline brothers soar into finals
Updated: May 27, 2011 8:08PM
CHARLESTON, Ill. — When Jermaine Kline started throwing the shot put as a freshman at Lake Park, 50 feet seemed like the end of the world.
So imagine the journey it’s been for Kline, now a senior committed to South Carolina, who popped the longest outdoor shot put effort in Illinois history during Friday’s Class 3A preliminaries at Eastern Illinois University’s O’Brien Field.
Kline’s third and final throw traveled 66 feet, 5.75 inches, breaking the state-meet record of Larkin’s Kevin Coleman (66-1.75 in 1988) and the all-time Illinois outdoor mark of 66-3 set two years ago by Lake Park’s Dan Block.
“It’s mind-blowing,” Kline said. “I never thought I could accomplish something like this. [Getting the record] in my senior year, in the last meet was a good way to end it.”
Of course, Kline has a chance in today’s finals to push the record out there a little more. And he also can go for the family mark: his twin brother Jeremy went 67-6.5 indoors earlier this year. Jeremy, also bound for South Carolina, qualified third in the shot (61-9.5) and first in the discus (185-10), while Jermaine advanced with the fifth-best discus effort (168-7).
It was part of a predictably dominant effort by defending 3A champ Lake Park in the field events. Senior Zach Ziemek, the reigning pole vault champ, was one of 11 pole vaulters to advance with a 14-3 clear and he also qualified first in both horizontal jumps by wide margins.
“I tried to put pressure on everyone so they can think about it overnight,” said Ziemek, who went 23-8 in the long jump and 48-6 in the triple jump.
There’s no pressure on the Lancers to repeat, according to Ziemek. “All we have to do is compete,” he said. “We don’t have to PR or anything to win, just do what we’ve been doing.”
Also having big days were sprinters Timothy Faust of Thornton and Darius Smith of Vocational, along with Minooka’s Joe McAsey and Thornwood’s London Hawk in the middle distances.
Faust, the 3A runner-up in the 200 each of the past two seasons, qualified second in that event (21.60) and first in the 100 (10.62) in addition to anchoring the Wildcats’ No. 1-qualifying 800 relay team. He would be finals-bound in four events had Thornton not been disqualified in the 400 relay because a runner stepped out of his lane.
“Overall, I’m happy. It’s the first time I’m seeded No. 1 in the [100 and 200 coming to state],” Faust said. “Last year I was sneaking up on everyone. Now they’re coming after me.”
Smith qualified No. 1 in the 200 (21.56) and No. 2 in the 100 (10.80). McAsey anchored Minooka’s advancing 1,600 and 3,200 relays and qualified third in the 800, while Hawk qualified second in the 800, sixth in the 400 and by anchoring the 1,600 relay.
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