CHS Track Team Wins Own Relays; Scores Key Victory in Rochester

by Matthew Sprague

Macoupin County Enquirer

5/1/97

To mimic a phrase from Mark Twain, the reports of Carlinville's boys' track team's demise is greatly exaggerated.

The dauntless Cavaliers picked up two more huge wins last week, distancing themselves from the pack to win their own Relays on Tuesday, April 22, and outlasting Rushville, the team that finished second to the Cavaliers in state last year, to defend their title in the Rochester Invitational on Saturday.

Carlinville won the Relays for the 10th time in 12 years, finishing with 93 points. The closest team was Pana, 29 points behind the Cavaliers.

Carlinville's strength came through their distance runners. In the words of senior Amit Chopra, "they were the bomb." The 3200-meter relay team of Brett Nejmanowski, John Genta, Luke Smith and Matt Smith won easily, with a time of 8 minutes, 42.9 seconds. The distance medley team of L.Smith and M.Smith, Genta and Robert Pollard won with a time of 11:27.3. The 1600 relay team also emerged victorious, in a time of 3:33.9.

In the throwing category, senior Bryan Lusk and sophomore Matthew Sprague did their part, winning the shot put with a combined distance of 88-3 1/2. The pair also placed third in the discus competition.

In other relays, the varsity 400 relay team placed third with a time of 47.4. The frosh-soph 400 relay team of Brent Rosentreter, Jeff Klaus, Ben Daniel and Mike Genta won with a time of 47.7 seconds, and the heavyweight 400 relay team of Lusk, Matt Bilyeu, Sprague and Larry Lambeth placed fourth with a time of 55.7.

Senior Dan Wills won the grueling five-event pentathlon, accumulating 3,110 points, holding off a Greenville pentathlete by a slim 43-point margin.

Nineteen tough teams converged on Rochester High School Saturday for the Rochester Invitational. Carlinville ran into a roadblock early, as powerful thrower Lusk did not make it to the meet. The Cavaliers, however, never gave up and didn't use Lusk's absence as an excuse. Chopra stepped it up and won the long jump, with a leap of 21-1, and the triple jump, jumping 41-8 1/2. Fellow Cavalier Wills finished second to Chopra in the long jump, jumping 20-3.

Once again the distance runners gained many points for the Cavaliers. Senior M.Smith won the 3200 with a time of 9:52.2. He finished third in the mile run with a time of 4:43.6. The 3200 relay team of Nejmanowski, J.Genta, Pollard and Smith won with a time of 8:45.

Chopra added more points when he placed second in the 100-meter dash, in a time of 11.3. Nejmanowski finished third in the 800 with a time of 2:05.5.

However, the Cavaliers could not shake the Rockets of Rushville. In fact, Rushville actually led 78-76 with one event left - the 1600 relay. What did the Carlinville team members, boys' and girls' teams, do? They spread out around the track to cheer their teammates (Nejmanowski, J.Genta, M.Genta, and Chopra) on to the finish line.

Whatever they said, it worked. The relay finished first in an amazing time of 3:38.5. Rushville finished fifth, 7.4 seconds behind. More importantly, the win enabled Carlinville to successfully repea as Rochester Invitational men's champions.

"There are a lot of meets in my career that I'll remember," Carlinville coach Ken Garrison commented. "However, this is one that I will never forget. The guys could have given up early on, but they didn't. They showed everybody here what they were made of. I had other coaches come up to me and tell me what a great team they were."

The Cavaliers' next meet will be today (Thursday) at home in the Carlinville "7" meet.