Shuckman wins 800/1600 double; Hendershot over 60 feet to win Shot Put

Photo: Jared Shuckman winning the 800 Meter Run (Laura Duffy Photo)

By Michael Newman

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Charleston – The chances were not good during the indoor season that Marmion Academy’s Seth Groom would compete at the state meet. A back injury slowed him down to the point where he was not allowed to work out. Patience and a goal at the end of the year were the difference for Groom. He scored 32 of Marmion’s 44 points for the state championship. Mahomet-Seymour scored 40 points to finished second. Normal University scored 36 points to finish third just two points ahead of fourth-place Rich Central.

Groom, in four events, used his energy economically in these hot conditions. He only jumped once in each of the Long Jump and the Triple Jump. Groom jumped 23-5 on Friday which was good enough to win the Long Jump. His only jump on Friday of 48-3.50 won the Triple Jump.

All that saved energy on Friday was used on Saturday. He took 12 attempts in the High Jump clearing 6-9 to finish second in the High Jump. He did not have much in his legs for the 200 Meter Dash. He did finish sixth in the finals.

“This weekend was absolutely incredible,” Groom said. “I never thought I could make it this far. I know with the heat in that 200, I was so exhausted.”

The other points for Marmion came from their distance group. Their 3200 Meter Relay finished fifth in Saturday’s finals. Michael Ronzone came back from that relay to finish fifth in the 1600 Meter Run. Sean Galle also picked up points as he finished eighth in the 3200 Meter Run.

Mahomet-Seymour made the most of their seven finalists in their second-place finish. The Bulldogs were led by the win from Hunter Hendershot in the Shot Put. Only a sophomore, Hendershot threw a personal best of 60-3.25 for the win over five-feet ahead of second-place Austin Klokkenga of Dunlap (55-2). Hendershot came back to finish third in the Discus.

Callan Whitehouse picked up a state championship in his final time at the state meet. Whitehouse cleared 16-0 to win the Pole Vault ahead of Dunlap’s Jack Pompe (15-3).

Mathias Powell traded off the lead in a heat sweltered 3200 Meter Run. Powell had the lead entering the final 100-meters of the race before being caught by Metamora’s Adam Gilbreath-Glaub at the finish. Gilbreath-Glaub ran 9:20.62 for the win just ahead of Powell (9:20.96).

Mahomet-Seymour also got points from Riley Fortune’s ninth-place finish in the 800 Meter Run and Brandon Bretz finishing sixth in the 400 Meter Dash.

800/1600 Double leads Normal University to third-place finish

Three distance events accounted for all the points for Normal University in their third-place finish. Jared Shuckman led the group with a double win in the 800 and 1600 Meter Run. Tis is the second year in a row that this double has been accomplished in the 2A meet. Last year, it was Jake Gillum that was successful in it. Austin Knight of Carterville took the lead in the 800 Meter Run just after the first lap with Charleston’s Nic Oakley close behind. Shuckman stayed close waiting to make his move. The three came off the final curve together with Oakley and Knight pumping strongly. The two seemed to over-exert especially with the hot temperatures. Shuckman kept his form coming down the straight passing the two runners in the final 20-meters. As Shuckman crossed the line as the 2A state champion (1:53.87), Knight (1:54.04) and Oakley (1:54.45) finished second and third both collapsing right at the finish.

Shuckman and teammate Matt Zacharais controlled the pace for most of the 1600 Meter Run. Daniel Chen of Illinois Math & Science Academy at one point had the lead. Zacharias appeared to have the win coming down to the finish of the race with Shuckman right by his side. Shuckman made one final surge right before the finish to pick up the win (4:19.97). Eight hundredths of a second separated the next three runners with Spencer Smith of Alleman (4:20.16), Chen (4:20.19) and Zacharias (4:20.24) finishing in that order.

“I have been running this double (800/1600) the past three weeks. I was prepared for it,” Shuckman said. “In the last 100-meters (of the 800), I felt like I was leaning back too much. I started to lean forward which helped a lot.”

The thought was played around of moving Zacharais or Shuckman in the 3200 Meter Relay for the finals. After seeing his team run 8:00 in the prelims, U-High Coach made the decision to keep the same quartet for the finals. That move paid off as the team of Zachary Wolford, Jackson McClure, Nathan Clay, and Harrison Porter ran 7:52.17 to win the 2A title just ahead of Marion (7:53.32) and Mascoutah (7:53.42).

Other 2A Highlights

Marian Catholic was in charge of both sprint relays. It started when they ran a season’s best of 42.27 to win the 400 Meter Relay ahead of Mascoutah (42.44) and Peoria Manual (42.66). Marian Catholic doubled back to run 1:27.57 to win the 800 Meter Relay ahead of Peoria Manual (1:28.09).

Geneseo’s Nick Swartzendruber did not have much time to recover for the 400 Meter Dash after he ran 1:54.66 to finish fourth in the 800 Meter Run. Swartzendruber was in fourth coming off the curve and made his move there. He caught defending champion VanHarvey Vance of Rich Central with 10-meters left to capture the 2A title (48.49) just ahead of Vance (48.80) and Providence Catholic’s Gavin Jamie (49.39). Vance came back at the end of the meet to run 21.98 to win the 200 Meter Dash just edging Sterling’s Nyrell Sullivan by just two hundredths of a second.

Ronald Reed of Decatur MacArthur had been ahead of the 2A pack most of the season in the 100 Meter Dash. Reed completed his odyssey to the top running 10.72 to win the title just ahead of Sullivan (10.79). Solomon Wilson-Smith of Tinley Park used an explosive start to win the 110 High Hurdles (13.98) ahead of Tolono Unity’s Steven Migut (14.19). Harrisburg’s Niko Neal had the lead coming off the curve in the 300 Hurdles but falling over the third to last hurdle. Migut took advantage as he and Geneseo’s Reed Vanderheyden coming off the final hurdle together. Migut got to the line first (38.20) just ahead of Vanderheyden (38.28).

Providence Catholic ran the fastest time of the day in the 1600 Meter Relay running 3:19.28 for the 2A title ahead of Burlington Central (3:19.87).

Clinton’s Austin Rauch only had a personal best of 6-7 heading into this meet. He cleared a personal best 6-10 to win the state championship ahead of Seth Groom and Karl Wright of Lanphier who both cleared 6-9.

Harley Russell of Mt. Zion threw a personal best of 186-11 to win the Discus just ahead of Jordan Hawkins of Roxana and his 184-3 second-place finish.