Will Lusthoff has earned his way to state, again.
The Riverside Brookfield senior qualified for the state meet for the second consecutive season in the 400-meter dash after coming in second place in 51.32 seconds at last Friday’s Class 2A Glenbard South boys track and field sectional.
Lusthoff qualified for last year’s state meet out of the South Shore sectional in 51.90. He looks to rebound from his 2008 trip to Eastern Illinois University in Charleston after being disqualified in the No. 5 heat of the preliminaries.
“It was my primary goal to make it down state,” said an exhausted Lusthoff, who will study business at the University of Illinois in the fall after deciding not to play football at Illinois Wesleyan. “Hopefully I’ll be able to qualify for the finals out of the prelims.”
Joining the Suburban Life All-Area wide receiver at state will be teammate Joe Swon, who won the triple jump (42 feet, 4-3/4 inches) and 300 intermediate hurdles (41.28) and qualified in the long jump (21 1/2) after posting a second-place finish in that event. The Bulldogs went on to tie for second with St. Francis after both teams scored 75 points, well behind the host Raiders (156).
Third-place finishers included Swon in the 110 high hurdles (16.20), Alex Amaya in the 800 run (2:03.8), Joe Adams in the discus (140-0), Matt Waas in the pole vault (12-3) and Justin Pomey, Joe Witkowski, Lusthoff and John Mossman in the 4 x 400 relay (3:34.52).
Pomey, Lusthoff, Kirk Razon and Waas came in fourth place in the 4 x 100 (45.76), as did Andrew Biggerstaff in the discus (129-3). Conor Maye was sixth in the pole vault (11-3).
Nazareth
At last Friday’s Class 2A Glenbard South sectional, Miles Dobis qualified for the state meet with a second-place finish in the high jump after clearing 6 feet, 1 inch, helping the Roadrunners take sixth in the team standings with 26 points.
The 4 x 100-meter relay of Greg Marker, Jon Nelson, Mike Dore and Steven Murphy came in third (43.94) and missed qualifying for state by .09 seconds. They also earned a third-place finish in the 4 x 200 (1:34.29) while Antonio Miranda came in third in the shot put (46-2).
St. Joseph
Also at Glenbard South, the Chargers’ Jackson Sterling advanced to this weekend’s state meet in the long jump after earning runnerup honors with his effort of 41 9-1/2, pacing St. Joseph’s ninth-place total of 22.5 points.
David Anderson took third in the 300 hurdles (42.25). Roosevelt Carr came in fourth in the high jump (5-9) while Brian Thomas matched that finish in the triple jump (39 2-1/2).
