Payne, Glenbard South Make History at Boys State Track Meet

Glenbard South boys track coach Andy Preuss mentioned prior to last weekend’s Class 2A state meet that he thought the Raiders would have to run a near perfect meet in order to go where no South team has gone before:

To the winner’s stand.

Well, the Raiders—behind the performances of state champions Garret Payne in the 400-meter run and high-jumper Joe Boesso—did put together a near flawless performance, which enabled them to bring a team trophy back to Glenbard South thanks to their third-place finish.

Glenbard South’s 40-point total was well ahead of fourth-place Belvidere North’s 34 points. Cahokia captured the 2A title with 62 points and Glenwood Chatham finished second (44).

“It was a great weekend," said Preuss, who caps a memorable 2010-11 personally with the Raiders’ performance and being named to the Illinois Track and Cross County Coaches Association earlier this year.

“You think you have an idea (of what the team will do) but you never really count on it because so many things can happen in that environment. It was an outstanding weekend.”

What did happen, for starters, is Payne’s record-setting performance. The senior not only defended his 400 state crown, he broke his own 2A state record twice—first in last Friday’s preliminaries (48.06 seconds) and then in the final (47.31).

“Nothing he does surprises me,” Preuss said. “You turn into a track fan watching him because he’s such a competitor. We’ve asked him to do a lot over the last couple of years and he’s responded every time.”

Payne, however, had more to do on Saturday. He ran the anchor leg of Glenbard South’s 4x100 relay team. Payne, running with senior Lamar Johnson, junior Wesley Sanders and freshman Tim Magitt, took second in a school-record 42.36 seconds.

Preuss believes the 4x100 team would have been state champions if Payne just had another five meters to work with.

“Five more meters and I think we could have won it,” he said. “He (Payne) was bringing it on and charging hard (at the end).”

If that wasn’t enough, the Wisconsin-bound Payne took home two additional all-state medals. He raced to sixth place in the 100 (10.89 seconds) and was part of Glenbard South’s eighth-place 4x200 relay team along with Johnson, senior Tyler Benware and sophomore Jarius Shannon.

Boesso, meanwhile, had a classic matchup with eventual runner-up Peter Stefanski of Marmion for the high jump title. Both jumped 6 feet, 7 inches and then went into a jump-off, which Boesso won.

“He (Boesso) had the best jump of his life on the jump-off,” Preuss said. “It was a thing of beauty. It was the most perfect jump I’ve ever seen him take.”

Boesso’s state championship jump keyed a noteworthy performance by the Raiders in the field events. His younger brother, Nick, turned in an all-state performance in the shot put with a throw of 52-4, good for seventh place. Nick also made the finals of the discus and was 11th (143-7).

Senior Robert Cary was 11th among the 12 finalists after Friday’s long jump prelims, but Cary turned it up a notch and jumped up to an eighth-place finish (21-4 ½), which secured him all-state honors.

“Robert got us started (on Saturday),” Preuss said. “With him and Nick, it was a nice way to start the meet.”

Perhaps the gutsiest performance of the weekend was turned in by freshman John Wold in the 1,600. Wold made it to the finals despite running without one shoe for most of his preliminary race. Wold banged up his foot during the race and finished 11th in the final, but Preuss is confident Wold would have placed higher if his shoeless foot had been 100 percent.

“He ran a 4:23 with one shoe and made it to the finals,” Preuss said. “I don’t have any doubt in my mind that if he was healthy on Saturday he would have run a sub-4:20 and would have been a top three or five (finisher) in the meet.”

In the 3,200 final, senior Collin White and freshman Joe Singleton finished within two seconds of each other. White placed 12th in 9:41.98, while Singleton was 14th in a personal best time of 9:43.55.

Preuss loses a number of talented seniors, but has a strong core of juniors and underclassmen back next spring.

“I can’t ask for anything more than what we got from the guys down there,” he said. “Good things happened. For these seniors to go out with a state trophy is very nice. The other guys are already thinking about next year. Nick (Boesso) said, ‘I think we can score 60 points next year.’ ”

Glenbard West

The Hilltoppers’ Mike Lederhouse gained all-state honors in a star-studded Class 3A 1,600 field by finishing sixth with a time of 4:15.02. Lederhouse, a junior, was in a field that featured Jack Driggs—a double state champion in the 1,600 and 3,200—and runner-up Cody Webster of East Moline.

Only one other junior, Leland Later of New Trier, posted a better time than Lederhouse in the final. Based on their times, Later and Lederhouse are the state’s top two Class 3A 1,600 runners going into next season.

Lederhouse was Glenbard West’s only finalist. Senior John Nibble just missed reaching the finals in the 100.