Junior hurdler Roland Amarteifio qualified in both of his races and Evanston’s boys track team maneuvered into position for a possible team trophy after advancing all three relays to Saturday’s Illinois High School Association state finals.
The Wildkits will be seeking their best state finish since 1999, when they placed 5th, following the preliminary competition held Friday at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston.
Amarteifio qualified in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 14.48 seconds, then came back to record a personal best of 38.62 in the 300 intermediate hurdles. He posted the fastest qualified time in the field.
Joining Amarteifio as an individual finalist is senior Carl Klamm, whose 48.04 clocking in the 400 meters ranks 4th fastest coming into the finals.
The 800 relay team of Reggie Murphy, Brad Garron, Marcus Starks and Malachi Adams broke the ETHS school record with a time of 1:27.06, eclipsing the old mark of 1:27.10 set in 1994. The Kits figure to be involved in a 3-way battle for the championship in Saturday’s race with Plainfield East (1:26.81) and Plainfield North (1:27.05), who were heat winners like the Wildkits in Friday’s prelims.
In the 400 relay, the team of Murphy, Garron, Adams and Klamm registered the fastest qualifying time of 41.63. And the foursome of Ryan Christie, Garron, Trinton Jones and Klamm turned in a 3:19.10 effort, third quickest among the qualifiers in the 1600 relay.
Non-qualifiers from Evanston included Adams, 10.82 in the open 100 and 22.16 in the 200; Starks, 23.01 in the 200; Jones, 1:57.11 in the 800; Murphy, 10.88 in the 100; and sophomore Morgan Brown with a best throw of 135 feet in the discus.
Source: ETHS Sports Information