Neal Hernandez- Lanetechfan.com
9th Annual Mather Invite Boys Team Preview
The biggest Chicago Public Schools regular season meet of the year kicks off Friday morning at the 9th Annual Mather Invite. With 28 CPS teams and 1 Catholic League Team (DeLaSalle), this is always one of the most exciting CPS meets of the year.
The Mather Invite is unique in that each team can enter up to three entries per event. There will not be a separate frosh-soph and varsity events. It is all scored as one big level. So, all races will be run with a combination of frosh-soph and varsity runners.
The top ranked boys class 3A CPS teams will be #1 Lane Tech, #4 Mather, #5 Northside, and #6 Urban Prep. Whitney Young and Morgan Park will not be participating.
All the top 3A teams will be running their entire teams. Although many teams will showcase their freshman and sophomore talent by running them in certain events. So the final team scores will be a bit deceiving. Look for Mather, Harlan, or Lane Tech to finish with the most team points. Lane Tech will have the combo of sprints (led by Chris Kyles), distance led by Kulayfi Haji, and field events as Lane Tech. Mather has been under the radar a bit the whole year. But Mather always performs well at their home meet. Look for Mather to start gelling and improving big time by the end of the season. Northside is fresh off a victory over Mather at the Northside Invite last week. But that was at a small meet. We'll see how the Mustangs perform at a larger meet.
The top ranked boys class 2A CPS teams will be : #1 Harlan, #2 Payton, #3 Marshall, Lakeview, and Fenger. Robeson and Kenwood will not be participating.
Harlan will be the cream of the crop in class 2A. Harlan will be running most of their top runners and will be running in a meet with Lane Tech for the first time this year. Look out for sprinter Darien Williams, one of the top class AA Boys Sprinters in the open 100 and 200. Payton has a small team to begin with and will only be running 12 guys in this meet. However, they may have one of the top 1-2 combos in the city in distance runner Jose Mora and hurdler/jumper Donovan Harris. Marshall has a solid team and will score in some relays. Lakeview is led by middle distance runner Romeo Jurardo. Jurardo has expectations of finishing near the top in either the 400 or 800 (or both) at the city finals. He is the top see in the 800 where we will be running against Cuit Pineda of Northside and Ivan Coronel of Mather.
Mather Invite Premier Events
The Mather Invite tomorrow will feature some of the top athletes in the CPS. Below is my take on a few premier events:
3200 meter run
top 3 seeds:
1. Kulayfi Haji - Lane Tech - 10:00
2. Jose Mora - Payton - 10:02
3. Victor Terrazas - Lane Tech - 10:10
Nobody has broken 10 minutes yet in the Public League this year in the early outdoor season. In this race, the top 3 seeds Kulayfi Haji and Victor Terrazas of Lane Tech and Jose Mora of Payton are all capable of breaking the 10 minute barrier. Wheter they do or not depends on how fast the field runs in the first few laps. Jose Mora of Payton traditionally starts out slow then picks it up at the end. Pushing the top 3 will be Tarik Estrada of Mather. Estrada is only a sophmore and may be Mather's #1 or 2 runner next year in cross country. Mather has decided not to run Ivan Coronel. Northside Prep has decided to run Jonathon Kittaka in this race instead of their other top distance stars like Cuit Pineda or Charlie Mesimore.
110 meter high hurdles
top 3 seeds
1. Thaddeus Tate - Hyde Park - 14.90
2. Donovan Harris - Payton - 15.10
3. Demetrius Jacobs - Lane Tech - 15.20
Donovan Harris of Payton and Demetrius Jacobs of Lane Tech are generally regarded as one of the top two or three hurdlers in the city. Jacobs has beat Harris by .01 of second or so in their only head to head matchup of the year at the Lane Tech Relays earlier this year. If those two push each other look for them to have a chance to come close or break the record of 15.21 set by Mather's Roger Herard last year. The top seed and wild card of the race is Thaddeus Tate (sr) of Hyde Park. He is largely an unknown because Hyde Park does not run too many races but he was near the leaders in the Indoor Leaderboard.
100 meter dash
top 3 seeds
1. Darien Williams - Harlan - 10.8
2. Doran Hairston - Hyde Park - 10.9
3. Christopher Kyles - Lane Tech - 10.90
Look for the 100 meter dash to be a battle between two of one of the top sprinters in the state in Darien Williams of Harlan and Chris Kyles of Lane Tech. Kyles finished 5th in the state last year and was the MVP in the IPPT Meet earlier this year. Williams is one of the top class AA sprinters in the state and seems to be improving every week. But this year's 100 meter dash is much more than Kyles and Williams. Upto two or three additional runners may break the winning time of 11.04 won last year in this event by Curie's Keith Lewis. Any one of the remaining runners in the fast heat are capable of getting close or breaking 11 seconds. Melvin Johnson of Harlan and Thaddeus Scott of Lane Tech have all been overlooked due to their faster teammates Kyles and Williams. But do not over look them. The fast heat of the 100 is so fast that Fenger's top sprinter Tyshaun Beane - the city's top sophomore sprinter is in a slower heat.
800 meter run
top 3 seeds
1. Romeo Jurardo - Lakeview - 2:02
1. Ivan Coronel - Mather - 2:02
3. Cuit Pineda - Northside - 2:03
Romeo Jurardo is the new kid in town. He is usually left out of discussions in CPS distance events discussions because he goes to Lakeview and he does not run cross country. But his goal this year is a 1:55 and he has a dangerous kick. He has looked good all year and will be pushed by Ivan Coronel of Mather and Cuit Pineda of Northside. Any one of the top 3 seeds can win the race, but the winner may have to break two minutes to do so. |
