| By Cody Cutter, NISB Publisher [email protected] Writer's Note: This week, there were a lot of updates to the new NISB website, which took up most of the time this week. Plus, the annual State of the Site Address was being written. Together with usual circumstances, the Friday 5 is late this week. Today is Saturday, May 30, 2009. There are 14 days remaining in the high school sports year. Only 48 days until the start of the 2009-10 prep sports season, and 67 days until high school football starts. Boys Track State Finals Update Illinois's oldest state final meet, the Boys Track and Field State Meet, is being held this weekend at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston. Each of the three classes completed preliminary and semifinal action on Thursday and Friday afternoon. This year marks the first year under the three-class system in boys track and field. In Class 1A, Oregon's Jordan Thomas leads in both the 100 and 200 dashes. Thomas leads the 100 dash with a time of 11.04 (.01 of a second ahead of second place), and is the NISB area leader at 10.30. He leads the 200 with a time of 22.37, leading by .20 of a second. Oregon's 800 relay team is also at the top of the Class 1A leader board. The team of Ryan McWethy, Garrett Thomas, Nick Snyder and Dylan Puckett has a time of 1:30.99, which is 0.34 of a second ahead of second place Lena-Winslow. Winnebago's Alex Thompson leads the discus throw with a heave of 179 feet, eight inches. His throw is 12 feet better than second place. Thompson's throw of 181 feet, five inches during the Lena-Winslow Sectional put him in the state's top 10 discus throws for athletes from small schools. Chillicothe IVC's Terell Williams is the Class 1A leader in the triple jump, with an effort of 45 feet, 5.25 inches. He is ahead of second place, held by Erie-Prophetstown's Dylan DeJonge, by 8.25 inches. In Class 2A, Belvidere North's 3200 relay team of Anthony Gedwell, Cody Laseman, John Mariani and Jordan Kremer has the top time of 7:58.58, the only 2A team under the eight-minute mark. They are 2.02 seconds ahead of Sycamore, who is in second place. Galesburg's Lucas Junk leads the 800 run with a time of 1:57.17, and is 0.86 seconds ahead of second place. Dixon's Kasey Ferrigan leads the 1600 run with a time of 4:20.19, five seconds better than his Sectional time. He leads Galesburg's Greg Whittle, who is in second place, by 1.97 seconds. Many area pole vaulters and high jumpers are tied for the state's top spot. Galesburg's Bailee Ricketts and Kaneland's Nick Sinon each have 6'2� in the Class 2A high jump. East Moline UT's Michael Crabtree and Jacob DeJaegher each have 6'5� in the Class 3A high jump. Oregon's Ethan Gale and Drew Smith, Genoa-Kingston's Ronnie Sribniak, Winnebago's Nathanael Rittmeyer and Seneca's Luke Collins each have 13 feet in the Class 1A pole vault. Seven Class 2A pole vaulters have the top height of 13 feet: Streator's Logan Pflibsen, Rochelle's Colton VanKirk, Dixon's Chris Greenwalt, Kaneland's Josh Bloome and Logan Markuson, Sycamore's Kevin Kingsbury and Burlington Central's Paco Wleklinski. East Moline UT's 3200 relay team of Steven Carlson, Jordan Johanson, Andrew Wright and Andrew Martinez is in second place in Class 3A with a time of 7:46.45. They are 1.09 seconds behind Oak Park and River Forest high. This is the 118th running of the State Final Meet. Boys Tennis State Finals Update Moline is tied for 16th place in the IHSA Boys Tennis State Meet, held at various locations in the north suburbs. The Maroons' doubles team of Kurt Sandholm and Luke Wood accounts for six of the team's points with a 4-2 record. They defeated the Teutopolis team in two sets (6-1, 6-1) in their first match, followed by a three set win over the Loyola Academy team (2-6, 6-0, 6-3). They then lost to the Highland Park team in three sets (3-6, 7-6 (8-6), 4-6) and were knocked out of the championship round. They went 2-1 in the consolation round. Ian Golden went 3-2 at state and made it to the fourth consolation round. The doubles team of Austin Boyle and Eric White went 1-2. Rockford Guilford's doubles team of Austin Roos and Danny Parks advanced the furthest of the area's athletes. They reeled off four straight wins: against the Gurnee Warren team (6-2, 6-2), the Decatur St. Teresa team (6-1, 6-1) the Naperville North team (6-3, 4-6, 6-4) and the Highland Park team (6-3, 6-4). They fell to the Lincolnshire Stevenson team in the quarterfinal round in three sets and a playoff (6-1, 5-7, and 7-6 (4)). They will face off against the Hinsdale Central team in today's consolation quarterfinal. LaSalle-Peru's Patrick Hammers went 4-2, bowing out by injury default in the sixth consolation round. He defeated IMSA's Gary Sheng in two sets (6-3, 6-0), then Golden in two sets (6-2, 6-0), and fell to Deerfield's Jason Brown in two sets (3-6, 2-6). He defeated Naperville North's Gordon Zhang (5-7, 6-1, 6-0) and Galesburg's Alex Foley (6-3, 6-4) in the consolation round. Alleman, Boylan, Hononegah, Ottawa and Rock Island also had athletes compete. Girls Soccer State Finals Update This year also marks the first year for the three-class system in girls soccer. Class 1A girls soccer has their state playoffs one week before the two larger classes. The Class 1A tournament finals are being held this weekend at North Central College in Naperville. Rockford Lutheran, who competed in Class 2A last year, made it to the Class 1A State Finals this year. The Lady Crusaders won the Class A State Championship in 2007 and placed third in 2006. The Lady Crusaders are 20-2-3 on the season. They fell to Alton Marquette on Friday afternoon 2-1 in overtime. They will play in the third place game against Pleasant Plains, who fell 1-0 to Manteno. Marquette's Kylee Evans scored the first goal of the match at 37:01 off an assist from Amy Wuellner. Lutheran tied the game with an unassisted goal by Mary Buzzard at 66:32. Marquette's Heidi Wickenhauser won the match for her team with a goal at 88:07. Other than Buzzard's goal, Lutheran only had two shots off goal and no other shots on. Lauren McKee had four saves for the Lady Crusaders. Freeport and Sycamore played in the Class 2A Belvidere Sectional on Friday. The Spartans won 1-0 in overtime, advancing to the Rochelle Super-Sectional on Tuesday against Peoria Notre Dame. Sycamore's Emma Norris scored the goal with 8:33 left to play in the overtime period. Notre Dame needed four overtimes and 11 rounds of penalty kicks to send Normal U-High home. Baseball Playoff Update Class 1A and 2A Sectional finals are being played today, while the Class 3A and 4A Regional finals are also being held today. Eastland and Somonauk will play for sectional championships in Class 1A. Chilicothe IVC, Byron and Morrison will play for sectional championships in Class 2A. Nine teams will compete for Class 3A regional championships: Alleman, Belvidere, Freeport, Galesburg, Kaneland, LaSalle-Peru, Rock Island, Streator and Sycamore. Boylan, Moline and Hononegah will compete for Class 4A regional championships. Softball Playoff Update Class 1A and 2A Sectional finals are being played today, while the Class 3A and 4A Regional finals are also being held today. Dakota and Somonauk will play for sectional championships in Class 1A. Oregon and West Carroll will play each other for Byron Sectional championship in Class 2A. Eleven teams will compete for Class 3A regional championships: Belvidere North, Burlington Central, Geneseo, Kaneland, Marengo, Ottawa, Rochelle, Sandwich, Sterling, Streator and Sycamore. East Moline UT, Harlem, Hononegah and Moline will compete for Class 4A regional championships. Cody Cutter is the Publisher of Northern Illinois Sports Beat, and writes columns about Illinois high school sports. He can be reached at [email protected]. |
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| Friday 5: 05/30/09 |
| Boys Track State Finals Update � Boys Tennis State Finals Update � Girls Soccer State Finals Update � Baseball Playoff Update � Softball Playoff Update |
| Northern Illinois Sports Beat - May 30, 2009 |
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