Wheaton Warrenville South senior Amari Williams repeats as Class 3A 300 hurdles champ at IHSA state meet

CHARLESTON — Amari Williams knew he had to give it his all down his final back stretch.

As the Wheaton Warrenville South senior took his lead in the Class 3A 300-meter hurdles into the final 100 meters of the race, he heard the roar of the crowd start to grow as Belleville East’s Daylin Donaldson creeped closer towards him, giving Williams a sign to push himself to his limits.

But as he approached the finish line, he saw a familiar face among the crowd.

His own. Being held by his mother.

And that was confidence enough for him.

“Seeing my mom just standing there with my face gave me even more power to just push through and finish that race,” Williams said with a laugh. “It sure gave me that confidence.”

Williams ended up running a 36.94, breaking the 37-second mark for the first and only time in his career, to help defend his Class 3A 300 hurdles title at the IHSA Boys Track and Field State Championships.

“It’s an awesome feeling to be able to defend my title,” said Williams, a Northern Illinois football commit. “I’m out of words. I’m just shocked to be at this point.

“Coming into the finals I wanted to be more focused and aware, and just set myself to the highest standards coming in. So I feel like I matched my best potential and set my goal from the start of the season correctly.”

Williams also had some fuel in the fire from Friday’s preliminary rounds. The senior missed out on qualifying for the finals in the 110 hurdles by .06 seconds, a goal that he also wanted to achieve this season.

“That definitely gave me motivation to defend my title,” Williams said. “But having that experience pushed me into the 300 hurdles to come out fast, make sure everything was smooth throughout the race so I could defend my title.”

Williams wasn’t the only runner to defend its state title Saturday. Downers Grove North started off the meet with a big win in the 4x800 relay. The team of seniors Grant Schroder and John Courtney, along with juniors Will Surratt and Philip Cupial came together to run a 7:36.40, setting a Class 3A state record in the process to defend its title in the event.

“It was so close all the way up to the line, but I knew we had it,” said Cupial, who anchored the Trojans. “I saw the other three legs and I was just so fired up to go. None of us really felt good heading into the race since three of us tripled. It was a rough going but we put our heads down, trusted the work and coaches, and we got it done.”

Of the four runners, Courtney was the only one that didn’t run in last season’s state and national title team, as took the place of Ryan Eddington, now a freshman at Missouri.

And even with a bit of nerves while knowing the shoes he had to fill, Courtney knew he wanted to give his all in his final high school race in Illinois.

“The last couple of races I’ve done in the 800, I haven’t done the best,” Courtney said. “This 4x800 team won state and nationals last season, so in the preliminary round I was super nervous for my first state race. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. But Schroder gave me a nice little talk before the race and told me to make my last race count. And it felt really good. I knew we could do it.”

Schroder and Surratt added individual medals for the Trojans with fifth-place finishes in the 800 and 1,600, respectfully, while senior Emanuel Murphy took seventh in the 400 in 49.86. The three plus Cupial also took seventh in the 4x400, running a 3:20.39.

Glenbard South junior Kyle Quaid-Bowman also walked away from the meet as a state champion. After no-heighting in the Class 2A pole vault finals as a sophomore, the junior ended up taking the title after clearing 4.70 meters.

“I told myself that I’d come back and win it this year,” Quaid-Bowman said. “I’m so grateful that I was able to overcome that and really do it like I told myself I would a year ago today.”

Despite the win, it didn’t exactly go to plan. Quaid-Bowman said that the original plan was to share the title with Rochelle junior and friend Andrew Nuyen. But after missing his first jump at 4.50 meters, he said the plans went out the window.

“We discussed it four months ago that if we clean sheeted it all the way up to three bars, we would share the gold,” he said. “But I missed my first height, so going into that final attempt at 4.70 meters, it was either I win or he wins. And I know he’d do the same in the situation, so I just took it.”

Wheaton Academy had three All-State finishers on the day. Junior Griffin Schlenbecker led the Warriors with a fourth-place finish in the Class 2A high jump after clearing 1.96 meters.

Schlenbecker, who missed his entire sophomore track season with a fractured back he suffered during basketball season, said he was grateful to come back and get an All-State medal.

“I’m just happy to be out here and have the ability to compete,” he said. “I didn’t jump as well as I wanted to, but I’m still happy to be out here with all these guys.”

Senior Emery Eckert added a seventh place finish for the Warriors in the 100 after running 10.73. The 4x800 team of seniors Michael Olsieski and Daniel O’Carroll, junior Luke Osterholm and sophomore Miguel Boney ran an 8:03.45 to take ninth.

York finished the day with two All-State performances. After finishing 40th in the 300 hurdles a season ago, senior Luke De Simone came back this season to take fourth in the event, running a 38.86 in the finals.

“It really is like nothing else,” De Simone said. “It’s something that I’ve been looking at for the past three and a half years. I’ve always wanted to be here, and I finally made it.”

The Dukes also had an All-State finish in the 4x100, with the team of seniors Bruno Massel and Danny Kurnatz, along with juniors Henry Duda and Justin Cello taking ninth in the event in 42.65.

IC Catholic senior Evan Smith finished Saturday with two state medals in Class 1A sprinting events. The senior finished his first and only season running the 400 with a fourth-place finish in 49.63 and also finished third in the 200 in 21.69.

“This is my first time getting All-State in my three years doing track in high school, so it feels really good,” Smith said. “I wish I could’ve gotten a win, but I managed to do this much, so I can’t be mad at it.”

Fenwick had two All-State finishes on the day. Junior Matthew Simon took fourth place in the Class 2A 400 after running 49.63, and junior Aiden Williams finished the 110 hurdles in sixth, running a 14.73.

Willowbrook junior Otis Powell took All-State honors in the Class 3A high jump after clearing 1.99 meters for seventh place.