The Belleville West boys track and field team won only one event at the Class 3A state meet, but that doesn't begin to tell the story of another memorable performance for the Maroons.
West had 39 points to tie Harvey Thornton for third place at the meet, held May 27-28 at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston. Roselle Lake Park won the team title with 74 points while Elmhurst York was second with 43.
It was the second team trophy in three years for the Maroons, who placed third in 2009 and fourth in 2010.
"We're not making any guarantees for the future, but it has been a very good three-year stretch," said West coach Patton Segraves.
"For the kids to come back after losing some of the people we lost from last season, like Kyle Ishman, Jerrod Hawkins and Jarvis Patterson, and score 39 points, which is the most we've ever scored, is a great accomplishment.
"A lot of people at the beginning of the year us labeling as rebuilding and I may have fallen in that trap a little bit too. These guys show that we're a good program, with or without some of the stars we've had in the past. They stepped up and had a great state meet."
West's 400-meter relay (Divonte Ridley, Tyree Buchanan, Raymond Scott and Jeremy Randolph) took first place in 41.87 seconds. The 1,600 relay (Scott, Randolph, Buchanan and Tre Brinker) finished second in a school-record 3:17.05. The 800 relay (Ridley, Scott, Brinker and Buchanan) finished third in 1:28.06.
Ridley placed fourth in the 110 hurdles (14.56) and fifth in the 300 hurdles (38.51). Steven Day was eighth in the 300 hurdles (39.16) and Randolph was ninth in the 400 (49.36).
"Ridley runs leadoff on the 4x100 and he's one of the best hurdlers in the state," Segraves said. "At the sectional, our 4x200 didn't run as strong and it was ranked 13th coming into the state meet. I felt we needed a boost and Divonte was the perfect candidate for it. It was an unselfish move on his part because if he's fresh and ready to go, he would have been tough to beat in the 300 hurdles. He sacrificed that to run the 4x200 and had to come back and run his best race on short rest.
"He did it all for the team, but it obviously worked because on Friday we were second overall in prelims in the 4x200 and Saturday we finished third. Coming into state, a lot of people were thinking West wouldn't score in that event, but those were seven big points."
With bad weather approaching on Saturday, meet officials decided to condense the event schedule, meaning that Ridley's anticipated 25 to 35 minutes of rest between the 800 relay and the 300 hurdles shrunk to 15 minutes.
"He was actually on the medal stand for the 4x200 and he had to run over to where the 300 hurdles was starting," Segraves said. "Divonte was eighth or ninth with about 100 meters to go, so he had to charge up to get fifth place. That was important because we needed every single point that we got.
"The past three years we've been first, second and first in the 4x100, but it was not the same four guys. Divonte on the leadoff was the only guy back from last year, so we had three new guys who had never run on a varsity 4x100 before. They won pretty handily and they were the only team all weekend to break 42 seconds.
"At the sectional they had a school record time of 41.49. The state record is 41.42, so they had a chance to break it, but the weather wasn't conducive to that because it was kind of windy. But when you get up there, you worry about a state title, not a state record. It was a commitment by four individuals who believed they could be state champions."
Heading into the 1,600 relay, the Maroons knew they had to finish at least second to tie for third place in the team standings.
"It was one of the best races I've ever seen and the finish was amazing," Segraves said. "Plainfield South (which won the race in 3:16.95) was the No. 1 team in the state and they were obviously the favorite. South Thornwood (which placed third at 3:17.20), had London Hawk, the 400-meter state champion, running the anchor leg. Plainfield South had Sheldon Magee, who was third in the 400, running the anchor leg.
"We lead off Ray Scott and he runs a personal best 49.3, then Randolph runs the second leg and goes in the low 48s. We've got a 15- to 20-meter lead and Tyree Buchanan runs a great solid race in the mid 49s to hold the lead. That takes us to the anchor leg with Tre Brinker, who had a huge year for us.
"In the last five meters, he got passed by Sheldon Magee, who somersaulted over the finish line to beat him. But Tre held off London Hawk to give us second place. We ended up breaking the school record by one full second."
Graduation losses from West's state meet contingent include Ridley, Buchanan, Brinker and Day. On Friday, Day ran a personal best 38.57 in the 300 hurdle prelims.
"We have some pretty good guys coming back, including Jeremy Randolph and Raymond Scott," Segraves said. "Jeremy was disappointed with finishing ninth in the open 400 because he felt he could have been in the middle of the pack. He'll use that as motivation for next year and come back stronger."
