Providence Catholic’s Jack Wajda tied for third place in the state in the IHSA’s King of the Hill “Three-Point Showdown” held at the University of Illinois’ State Farm Center on Saturday in Champaign.
Wajda advanced to the final round by winning the Class 3A portion of the shootout Saturday morning.
Wajda hit 12 3-pointers in the preliminary round to advance to the Class 3A’s final four of the event. He then connected on 10 3-pointers to find himself at the top of the class, which advanced him to Saturday afternoon’s King of the Hill finals with classification winners from 1A, 2A and 4A.
In the final shootout, Wajda started strong, connecting on all five of his 3 on the first rack of balls. He cooled off after that, however, finishing with eight 3s, which tied him for third in the event with Yorkville Christian’s David Douglas (Class 1A winner).
Bloomington Central Catholic’s Cole Certa (Class 2A winner) won the event by knocking down 12 3s.
Joliet West’s Toby Onyekonwu also advanced to the finals of the Class 4A shootout, as well.
Onyekonwu tied for most 3s during the preliminary round by making 11 3s, but only made seven in the Class 4A finals. That was not enough to topple Oswego’s Joshua Nelson, who made 13 3s to advance to the King of the Hill finals. Onyekonwu ended up in fourth in the Class 4A field.
Minooka’s Preston Van Pelt of Seneca’s Noah Quigley also participated in the event, but neither advanced past the preliminary round.