What a difference a year makes.

Lyons Township senior Ed Awah can attest to that after Saturday’s IHSA Class 3A boys track and field state finals in Charleston.

A year ago Awah was not well known in the hurdling world. That changed this spring as Awah was a conference and sectional champion in the 300-meter hurdles and runner-up in the 110 high hurdles at conference and third at sectionals.

Now add all-state medalist to the list.

Awah made the most of his first trip to O’Brien Stadium at Eastern Illinois University by taking ninth in the 110 hurdles finals.

“It’s amazing,” said Awah, following his time of 15.32. “I’m kind of mad that I kicked that hurdle, but I’m still happy with just being here.”

In Friday’s preliminaries, Awah ran in the second heat of the 110 hurdles. He finished fourth in 14.87 but that ended up being the ninth and final qualifying time for the finals.

“I didn’t even know I qualified,” said Awah, who just missed the finals of the 300 hurdles by placing 11th in the preliminaries in 39.57. “I didn’t even think I qualified. Someone told me I qualified and I was like, ‘Wow.’ It was a good feeling because I wasn’t even supposed to even make the finals, so this is new to me.”

Awah was not the only LT runner to earn all-state hardware.

Senior Alex Lyons made his way to the medal podium following a ninth-place finish in the 800 run. Lyons, though, was hoping for more after clocking the sixth-best time in the prelims.

“To be honest I’m not very happy right now,” Lyons said. “This is the second slowest or slowest 800 open I’ve run outdoors all year. I’m frustrated that it happened now, but things break that way I guess. I’ve still got something to take home so that’s good, but I’m frustrated.”

Lyons said the race went out the way he was hoping, but when it came time to make his move he just didn’t have anything left. He crossed in 1:56.17 in the 12-man race.

“About the only thing I can take from this is it wasn’t a tactical error that I did that messed it up — I just didn’t have it today,” Lyons said. “I kept it together at least mentally and didn’t go way out. If you fade mentally in this race you can get last very quickly. I’m proud of myself for staying in it.”

Lyons, too, could take solace in the fact he got an all-state medal. Last year at state, Lyons missed that honor in the 800, taking 10th.

“It made me work hard during the season,” said Lyons, who will run at American University next year. “Taking everything in perspective, your last race senior year to get all-state in the 800 is not a bad thing.”

Also on Saturday, senior Mike Janusek finished third in his section of the 3,200 run and placed 15th overall in 9:34.24.

During the preliminaries on Friday, Awah, Lyons, junior Pat Rhode and senior Dane Krzyskowski placed 20th in the 4 x 400 (3:23.35). Krzyskowski cleared 6-2 in the prelims of the high jump but needed to make 6-5 to get to the finals. He tied for 16th.

Seniors Jack Hostettler and Steve Kovalski, junior Andrew Allabastro and sophomore Tim Pollard finished 26th in the 4 x 800 (8:07.93). Senior Karston Anderson, sophomore Jeremy Keys and Eric Covington and junior Ryan Mitchell sprinted to 35th in the prelims of the 4 x 100 (44.14).

Anderson was also 19th in the prelims of the 110 high hurdles (15.2) and junior Sam Telfer finished 23rd in the 1,600 (4:29.18). Brookes Wittkamper competed in the pole vault, but did not make the opening height.

Fenwick
Making his first trip to the state finals, Mike Yerkes advanced to the championship heat of the 800 run on Saturday in Charleston. The senior came close to an all-state finish, taking 11th in 1:57.71.

The top nine in each event earn all-state medals and Yerkes was less than 1.6 seconds from that.
He qualified for the finals with the ninth-best time in the preliminaries (1:56.61).

Also on Saturday, junior Martin Grady competed in the 3,200 run, finishing 14th in his heat and 29th overall in a time of 9:51.16.

In the prelims, senior Tom Laser closed out his prep career with a strong run in the 1,600, taking 17th in 4:23.0. Sophomore Steve Blazer was 23rd in the 800 (2:00.29).

Nazareth
Sophomore Miles Dobis cleared the opening height in the preliminary round of the state finals and finished with a mark of 5-11.

St. Joseph
Junior Sterling Jackson competed on Friday at the state meet and finished 22nd in the preliminaries of the triple jump. His best effort was 40 1-1/2.

Proviso West
In the preliminaries, junior Trent Ervin was fifth in his flight of the long jump and finished 19th overall with a top mark of 21-2.