Boys Track and Field: Oswego East’s Alexander Das overcomes adversity, wins 1,600 to return to state for third time

PLAINFIELD – Alexander Das has dealt with his fair share of adversity the last two school years.

Oswego East’s senior distance runner missed most of the cross country postseason his junior year with a stress fracture that kept him sidelined for four months. A stress reaction flared up this past fall, limiting another cross country season.

But he’s finishing his high school career in a familiar place.

Das beat out defending state cross country champion Aden Bandukwala of Hinsdale Central to win the 1,600-meter run at Wednesday’s Class 3A Plainfield North Sectional, and in doing so qualified for state in the metric mile for the third consecutive year.

“To come back from that, I’m pretty proud,” Das said. “I put a lot of faith in my coaches and parents who have believed in me, and that’s helped me get this far. It’s definitely gratifying.”

Neuqua Valley, with 109 points, won its fifth sectional championship in the last six postseasons. Hinsdale Central (82) was second, Naperville Central (71) third, Naperville North (48) fourth and Oswego East (39) fifth.

Das, who took third at conference the week before, followed his strategy to go out hard and ended up posting a season-best time of 4:18.93 in the 1,600, with Bandukwala second (4:20.05) and Oswego East teammate Parker Nold third (4:21.59).

“I wanted to go out hard,” Das said. “My last conference race we went out the first lap in 1:09. I tried to run a 62-second first lap, second lap get under 2:10. I was going to pace it and then kick it the last couple laps.”

Neuqua Valley senior Jake Lansdowne, a 110-meter high hurdles state qualifier last year, will be back in Charleston for a busy weekend, with the wind at his back.

Lansdowne swept the 110 high hurdles with a PR of 14.73 seconds that puts him fourth-fastest in the state, and the 300 intermediates in 39.64 seconds. He also ran on Neuqua Valley’s 4x100 relay that took second.

In both hurdles races, Lansdowne beat out Lemont’s Quinton Peterson, who came in with top-five times in both events and took second in the 110s at 14.93 seconds.

“We both ran great races – I PR’d by a lot in the 110s,” Lansdowne said. “I was waiting for it to click, and it finally clicked. I still didn’t run as clean as I could have. It will be fun once I do have a clean race. I will be able to drop that time even more.

“I’ve been having a little trouble bringing my lead leg back down faster, so it finally clicked, I finally figured how to bring it back down faster.”

Leading Hinsdale Central’s contingent to Charleston will be the 4x400 relay, which posted the nation’s fastest indoor time at New Balance Indoor Nationals in March in Boston and has the fastest outdoor time in Illinois of 3:19.33.

On Wednesday, standout anchor Dan Watcke, who earlier won the open 800, took the baton in a neck-and-neck competition with Bolingbrook’s Ifechukwu Inoma. Inoma, who won the open 400, shot ahead in the first 100, but Watcke ran away from him in the final 200 for a 3:23.31 finish.

“I’m like a distance guy, so I kind of have that endurance, I don’t have to go out super hard,” Watcke said. “I guess that worked to my aerobic advantage. I’m super excited. It should be a really fun experience.”

Watcke will be competing in Charleston in the 800, 4x400 and 4x800, which took second to Downers Grove South on Wednesday, but scratched out of the open 1,600 despite being the No. 1 seed in the sectional.

“I made it out in the 800, so decided to scratch in the 1,600,” Watcke said. “It’s a really hard quadruple, not a lot of time. It’s a lot to ask to do in one day.”

Naperville Central’s Maverick Ohle, state-runner-up in the discus last year, will be returning to Charleston with a good dose of momentum.

Ohle fought off a bad crosswind to post a PR of 56.02 meters (183 feet, 9.5 inches), which surpasses Lake Park’s Tyler Michelini for the top mark in the state.

“It was a bad wind, so I wasn’t fully expecting to PR, but I still got the PR, so I was really happy with it,” Ohle said. “As soon as I released it I knew it was probably going to be a good throw. When I heard the 56 meters, I was ecstatic.

“It sets me up well for next weekend.”

Ohle has been working toward taking home a state championship, but it has not been a season without adversity.

“All offseason I was just working on footwork, getting stronger, bigger, faster, but it didn’t come together right away. I had a really rough start. I lost our second meet down in Belleville to a sophomore,” Ohle said. “That’s been motivation to get back and do what I can do. I’ve been PR’ing consistently lately. It’s time for a really big jump, and hopefully it comes next weekend.”

Plainfield East senior Michael Jimmer, who won the other throwing event Wednesday, has had a quicker progression to state.

The football left tackle, an NIU recruit, first tried track as a junior to stay active. Jimmer has made a big jump this year and won the shot put with an effort of 16.27 meters (53-4.5.).

“I always thought about going to state as a joke, but I started taking myself seriously when I started to perform better than usual in my opinion,” Jimmer said. “I was at 14 meters last year, I jumped to 16 this year, it’s a pretty big difference, more repetition. It was really just about putting all your momentum together, building up enough force in your body to release and get behind the shot, that’s really how it is, the science part of it.”

Jimmer wasn’t the only track novice to enjoy a huge evening.

Oswego East senior Jalen Lewis, who previously played football, basketball and baseball, tried track for the first time this spring. On Wednesday he took second in the high jump (1.90 meters) and third in the triple jump (13.45 meters) to qualify for state in both events.

“Coach always told me I could do good things. I kept listening to him during practice and kept getting better every day,” Lewis said. “First day of practice, we did a drill to jump up and touch the rim, Coach already told me I could do high jump we did a little triple jump drill. He said I was good at it, decided to stick it. I came with the long jump not knowing the other events. Now I love it.

“I’m blessed, man. I just feel blessed. "

Other individual winners included Neuqua Valley’s James Ammenhauser in the long jump and triple jump, Downers Grove South’s 4x800 relay, Naperville North’s 4x100 relay, Neuqua’s Zac Close in the 3,200, Naperville North’s Danny Eloe in the 100, Naperville Central’s Henry Kane in the pole vault, Hinsdale Central’s Michael Prieto in the high jump, Neuqua’s 4x200 relay and Neuqua’s Austin Belle in the 200.