With Wednesday's injuries to sprinters Tim McVey and Marquee Montgomery, several Wildcats step up on Friday night and lead Coach Chuck Kyle's team to 170 points. St. Edward was second with 161 points and Normandy and Cleveland John F. Kennedy placed third and fourth with 85 and 56 points, respectively.
BY EDDIE DWYER, COPYRIGHT MAY 2012
Lakewood, Ohio – On a night when he led off the winning 4x400 meter relay team, took first place with a personal-best 39.93 in the 300 meter hurdles and placed second in the 110 meter hurdles, Saint Ignatius junior Pat Jeffries talked about the Wildcats as a team and how significant their run at the Lakewood Division I District is.
“It’s extremely important to us, we’re really proud of it,” Jeffries said of a district championship meet that Coach Chuck Kyle’s Wildcats have dominated since the early 1990s. “I ran here as a freshman and seeing that tradition continue as a sophomore, I was thinking all week that I have to push it for my team. It isn’t about myself right now, it’s about my team. It’s a big deal for us to keep this tradition alive.”
The road to another championship on Bunts and Madison actually started on Wednesday night, when the Wildcats’ gifted 4x800 meter relay team of Mitch Baum, Jack Miller, Vince Bartram and Drew Galang took first place in a time of 8:07.91.
Wednesday’s other highlights included a first place by Keith Carmichael in the pole vault , a third place by Pat Politowicz in the same event, a second place by Adam North in the long jump and a second place by Blake Thomas in the discus.
The top four in each event qualified for next week’s (May 23 and 25) demanding Amherst Regional.
Along with Jeffries’ Friday night fever, Saint Ignatius got a first-place performance from Galang in the 800 meter run (1:56.28) and a third place from Baum in the same event (1:57.81). Baum (4:27.81) and Bartram (4:28.27) went 1-2 in the 1600 meter run and Miller was second in the 3200 meter run at 9:38.87.
Zach Lozar was second in the shot put with a toss of 51-02, North and Ron Gross took third and fourth place, respectively, in the high jump and Matt McVey, Tim’s younger brother, placed third in the 110 meter hurdles.
Tim McVey, a sprinter and relay mainstay, tweaked a hamstring during Wednesday night’s cold and windy conditions, but is expected to be back for the Amherst regional. Standout sophomore sprinter Marquee Montgomery has been battling a hip/growth plate problem and wasn’t able to run the sprints on Friday night. However, Marquee gutted it out for his teammates by helping the 4x100 meter relay team to a third-place finish.
“Wednesday was kind of a disaster,” said Coach Kyle. ‘We had a cold windy day and had a couple of injures. It does happen in track and field. It basically effected our sprint situations right on through. When was it ever that they lined up for the 200 meter and we didn’t have anybody in it? The sprints, the relays, it just added all up.
“But the kids that filled in, as you saw, they got all that they could get,” Coach Kyle continued. “And for us to run the 4x4 in 3:22, Tim McVey is on that team (the 4x400 relay). Brendan Kobunski fills in and runs a PR by two seconds (50.7). Now that’s coming out of the bullpen and saving the day. That’s how we win a track meet. We’ll get a few firsts, but we also get the seconds, the thirds and the fourths, and the points add up.”
Along with Kobunski’s outstanding effort, the 4x400 relay, which was the final event on Friday night, also saw Jeffries start fast, Lamar Kemp run like the wind and the reliable, talented and big-meet tested Galang put on another strong finish.
The 300 meter hurdles was not only a personal-best effort for Jeffries, but also a PR for senior Tim Shenk, who placed third in 41.30. Jeffries said he "messed up'' his steps a little bit at the start, but then got over the second hurdle clean, got back in his rhythm and powered through it at the end.
Shenk, an All-Ohio and record-setting place kicker for the Wildcats’ Ohio-best 11th state-championship football team this past fall, credited his dessert at school on Friday afternoon as being a factor in his PR time.
Grinning from ear to ear, Tim, who will be furthering his education and football career for the Air Force, said it was his mom’s chocolate chip cookies, that include an Oriole cookie baked inside, and the vanilla-flavored cake he devoured that gave him the edge he needed on Friday night in legendary Lakewood Stadium.
How sweet it is!
*BLAKE THOMAS COMES WITHIN RANGE OF HIS COACH: In winning the discus competition at the recent All-Catholic Meet, Saint Ignatius senior and Ohio State football recruit Blake Thomas threw 188 feet.
Blake's effort was close to that of fomer Wildcat discus and shot put great Ryan Franzinger '02, who still holds Saint Ignatius' all-time mark in the discus, and one of the all-time marks in Ohio, at 189-4. Ryan, currently the Assistant to the Dean Students at Saint Ignatius and a football and track coach for his alma mater, set his discus mark during the 2002 state finals competition.