Boys track and field: Kaneland's Walker looks for second state title in pole vault

MAPLE PARK – When Kaneland pole vaulter Danny Walker won the state championship as a sophomore in 2015, it came with a price.

Not only did he surprise the state by winning as one of only two underclassmen in the field, Walker took the top prize in Class 2A while having a partially torn labrum and a fractured bone in his foot.

The damage required separate surgeries for each injury after the season and sidelined him for most of his junior year. Finally healthy, he comes into the Class 2A Boys Track and Field State Meet this week with the top sectional mark of 15 feet, 3 inches, and a chance for his second state title for the Knights.

“I took a lot of Advil, let’s put it that way,” Walker said of competing with the injuries. “(At state), I’d say my foot hurt more than my shoulder, but toward the end of the year, my shoulder got a little worse. As I took jumps, I think it continued to tear – which sounds bad, but it wasn’t as bad as it was getting. At the very end, I think the week after state I took a jump and really just didn’t feel right.”

Walker in pole vault is one of nine entries Kaneland qualified for the state meet, which begins with preliminaries Friday and finals Saturday at Eastern Illinois University’s O’Brien Stadium in Charleston. Joining Walker will be Jack O’Sullivan (pole vault), Clayton Hannula (shot put, discus), Matt Richtman (1,600-meter run, 3,200), Drew Gould (110 hurdles) and the 400 and 800 relays.

Sycamore qualified in six events at Class 2A, including Connor Weckerly (shot put, discus), Evan Jacobs (800), Stephen Poorten (3,200) and the 3,200 relay.

In Class 3A, DeKalb is sending its 400 relay and Zuerek Day in the 300 hurdles.

In Class 1A, which has its prelims Thursday and finals Saturday, Hinckley-Big Rock’s Tanner Chada qualified in the 1,600 and 3,200 and has the fastest sectional time in the field for the 2-mile. Indian Creek’s Michael Gaston made it in the 100, getting an automatic qualifying time at the Class 1A Manlius Bureau Valley Sectional.

For Walker, he is the only current area athlete that already has an IHSA track and field state title under his belt. Unbeknownst to him at the time, he fractured the navicular bone in his foot during gym class and sat out most of his freshman season. During a meet in March his sophomore year, he had landed facedown on the mat after a vault with his left arm across his chest.

He said he felt some pain, but on the next jump, he landed the same way – resulting in what he found out after the season was a partially torn labrum.

“Just a tough kid,” said Kaneland coach Andy Drendel, who was Walker’s vault coach at the time. “He never said anything about it the entire season, and he didn’t show it at all. He kept everything the same. He told me later that if he showed any pain there, I’d stop him from vaulting, which I would have.”

Despite the injuries to his planting foot and his left shoulder, he posted a mark of 14-9 to win state. He had surgery on his foot Aug. 14, 2015, and his shoulder Sept. 15, 2015 – he said he would have had them earlier in the summer but his doctor went on vacation – and wasn’t fully cleared until April 20 of his junior season.

Even with limited time to vault during the season, he still made the Class 2A state meet in 2016.

“My big thing last year when he was a junior was to do everything correctly,” Drendel said. “You never want to mess around with a shoulder injury. We didn’t want to push him, I didn’t want to rush him into it. The good thing was it was only his junior year. The big picture thinking was, ‘Anything you do your junior year is cake. Let’s get ready for your senior year.’”

Walker, who’s personal best in the vault is 15-6, said he has his sights set on the school record – Drendel’s former teammate Sam Kranz posted a mark of 16-5 in 2007. He’s one of three Knights that comes into the state meet ranked in the top three in sectional marks.

Richtman, who was fourth at state during cross country season, broke the school records for the mile and 2-mile and has the third-best sectional time (9 minutes, 31.11 seconds) in the 3,200 and seventh-best in the 1,600 (4:24.56). Hannula, who made state in both throwing events last season, is second in the discus (167-9) and tied for second in the shot put (56-2).

“It’s a little bit different (this year), there’s a little more on the plate,” Hannula said about the high sectional marks. “But the fact that I’m not seeded first takes a little bit off me. I just try and stay calm.”

For the Spartans, Poorten has missed most of the season with a foot injury suffered during cross country but comes into the 3,200 seeded eighth (9:39.62) and the 3,200 relay (8:01.21) is fourth. Weckerly, who is the school record holder in the discus, is seeded tied for third in that event (165-6) and is eighth in the shot put (51-9).