Oliver Hassard will graduate from Evanston’s track program without really knowing what his best event is.
That’s OK with the senior standout.
After dabbling in every event but the pole vault and distance races during his Wildkits career, Hassard advanced to the state finals in two of the most difficult events to master – the high jump and the 300-meter intermediate hurdles – out of the Class 3A Loyola Academy Sectional meet on Thursday in Wilmette.
Teammates Jack Kleinschmit (800), Dallas Amos (400), Enijel Shelton (shot put) and Jordan Harvey (300 hurdles) will join him for the Illinois High School Association Class 3A state meet set for May 24-25 at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston.
Event champions and anyone who exceeded the IHSA qualifying standards earned the right to keep their seasons alive for one more week. All five Wildkits qualified by turning in efforts that topped those standards.
Evanston finished seventh as a team Thursday with 47.5 points in the 16-team field. New Trier won the team title with 107.5 points.
Four of the five ETHS qualifiers had state qualifying efforts under their belts prior to the sectional showdown. But Hassard, who placed 14th in the state in the high jump last year, was the only one with previous success on the sectional stage.
No surprise
Now those five will move on to a bigger stage and that’s not a surprise to veteran head coach Don Michelin.
Michelin, an educator in the Evanston community for five decades, has seen success for “front row” students and athletes who embrace learning. He’s seen it in the classroom and he’s seen it from his athletes when he addresses them in practice groups and at meets.
The messages sink in faster for the guys in that front row.
“I have a term for it: mature growth,” Michelin said. “When we talk about qualifying for state, or other things of importance, they get it. They sit in that front row, they sit up straight and they listen. They get it.
“They listen when we talk and they understand that every practice has a purpose, that it all leads up to this [sectional] day. This is what you need to do to have another day [at state]. They get it.”
Personal record
Hassard, an AP student in the classroom, became a student of the sport to the degree that he’s planning to take on all of the events in the decathlon when he starts his college career. He placed fourth in the high jump, matching his season best of 1.90 meters (about 6 feet, 3 inches), then stunned the 300 hurdles field with a personal best time of 40.75 seconds to grab fourth in that event.
Hassard didn’t even compete in the fastest heat in that race, instead charging to a win in the first heat. He earned a top finish in a quick field that featured four runners – including his teammate, fifth-place finisher Harvey – who had already eclipsed the qualifying standard.
“I knew I had to run against the clock, and I was lucky enough to win the race,” he said. “That was a PR [personal record] for me by one second, but I know I have more in me. I just wanted to run and enjoy it.
“I had a runoff with a great teammate of mine, Lee Muir, for the last sectional spot in this race [for ETHS] Tuesday and he pushed me to a time in the high 39s. I owed it to myself, and I owed it to him, to give it my best in this race.
‘Giving myself to the team’
“Coach Caines [assistant Kevin Caines] has been trying to get me into the hurdles since my freshman year. I remember trying the 400 as a freshman and I almost threw up after my first race. Sophomore year I really had the high jump as my thing. Then last year I tried the 300 hurdles a little, but I was mainly a high jump and relay guy because we had such a strong team. I was fine just giving myself to the team.
“This summer I tried hurdling a little more and this is where I am now.”
“Obviously I’m very happy for him to get downstate in two very different events,” said Caines. “The training for both is really different. Coach Michelin’s philosophy is always to put our best athlete in the hurdles and the jumps, but the key factor was Oliver’s willingness and enthusiasm to do it as a senior.
“He’s a heckuva athlete. When he sees the challenge, he’ll do the work. He wasn’t a phenom when he first came to us. He’s come a long way.”
So has Kleinschmit, another senior who rose to the occasion Thursday after all of the competing teams had to wait an extra two hours for the meet to actually start due to rain and lightning in the area.
It was worth the wait. Kleinschmit stayed right on the shoulder of a runner who’s been his nemesis in the 800, Glenbrook North star John Ihrke, and finished just one stride behind him for a runnerup clocking of 1:55.30 that was easily a personal record.
Eight seconds faster
He ran almost eight seconds faster than his race at the Central Suburban League South division meet, when he was bothered by a cold and didn’t really challenge Ihrke at all.
“I needed that [time], and it felt good to get it,” said Kleinschmit. “The last couple of weeks have been pretty rough for me. Last week I didn’t feel good, and when I got to about 350 or 400 meters my legs hurt.
“This time I felt good. I tried to think positive thoughts and I knew that time was in me. I didn’t want this to be the last race of my career. That was my motivation.”
Kleinschmit is the program’s first half-miler to qualify since former star Carl Klamm, who broke through to state as a sophomore in 2012.
Amos saved his best for last in the 400. His season best time of 51.06 wasn’t quick enough to make it into the fastest heat at the sectional, but it didn’t matter as the junior ran the race of his life at 50.26 to earn third overall behind Lukaas Nales of Highland Park (49.53) and Tucker Anglemyer of New Trier (49.60).
Shelton, a junior, and Harvey, a sophomore, also registered breakthroughs of their own. Shelton claimed sixth in the shot put at 15.90 meters and will have another opportunity to reach his goal of 16 meters next week.
A bad start
Shelton’s start couldn’t have gone much worse. He couldn’t muster a legal throw in the discus and his first two preliminary efforts in the shot – one under 14 meters and the other at 15.03 – left some doubt as to whether he’d even make it to the finals on his last throw.
But he came through with that 15.90 toss.
“Honestly, I just had it in my head that my third throw was going to be my best,” Shelton noted. “I called it. I had to keep my confidence up. On those first two throws I was shaking, I was nervous. I knew I had to make it on that last throw to go down state. Do it – or not.”
Harvey was clocked in 40.86 on his way to a fifth-place showing in the 300 hurdles, a personal best by almost a full second. Loyola Academy’s Nicholas Arogundade won the race in 39.53.
“With the [weather-related] delays we had, it was hard. You warm up, then you have to go inside [for shelter], then you have to warm up again,” he said. “Oh my gosh, it feels so good to make it to state. I didn’t make it last year and this year has been so different for me. I felt zero intimidation. The guy next to me [Arogundade] pushed me to do my best and compete hard.
“Not making it to state last year was the kicker for me. I said at the beginning of this year that I’d qualify and I kept it in my head the entire season. I really wanted to make it.”
Non-qualifying efforts of note for ETHS included freshman Justin Johnson, fifth in the long jump at 6.5 meters; and freshman Jaden Jean-Paul, sixth in the high jump at 1.85 meters.
The Wildkits also just missed advancing in the 1600 relay, where the team of Johnson, Harvey, Amos and sophomore Deshawn Preister was timed in 3:27.53, just off the state qualifying cut of 3:26.76. They finished sixth overall. The 400 relay unit of Hassard, Johnson, Jeremiah Schwartz and Jayden Gumbs also came close, timed in 43.20 to earn sixth place. The IHSA standard to meet was 42.97.
ETHS boys track: Kits send five to state track finals is from Evanston RoundTable, Evanston's most trusted source for unbiased, in-depth journalism.