Boys track and field: Moore wins four events, Tigers finish third

CHARLESTON – Marcellus Moore didn’t perform as well as he had hoped in his first trip to the Class 3A IHSA Boys Track and Field State Meet finals in 2017. Although just a freshman, Moore took second in the 100, was fourth in the 200 and ran on a fourth-place 4x100 relay.

That provided plenty of motivation for Moore when he made his return to O’Brien Stadium on Saturday, and by the time things were done, all he had accomplished was finish first in the 100 and 200 and anchor winning 4x100 and 4x200 relays, setting state finals records in the 100 and 4x100 relay.

Coach Tony Holler’s Tigers never had won state titles in any events. Their four-title day helped them capture their first trophy after scoring 43 points. Neuqua Valley beat Homewood-Flossmoor, 52-48, to win the title.

“It’s really unexplainable how happy I am today,” Moore said. “I’m so excited and look forward to competing for another two years. It was really hot, and I got a cramp in the 200, and I didn’t think that I’d finish the race, but after two more steps, it went away, then I knew that I could finish. It’s always great to beat these other guys. They’re great competitors, and I love competing with them and being around them since they’re all great guys, and they’ve really rubbed off on me in the past two years.

“I was a little nervous going into the [4x200], but we pulled it off, and I was really happy about that. All of our guys ran great today. We were counted out in the [4x200], but we switched things around, and we were able to pull it off. And our [4x100] was electrifying. We learned a lot from last year recovery-wise and how we wanted to do things by setting the day up. This year, I didn’t have to go all out in the prelims; they were just to qualify, so that I could drop my bigger numbers today.”

The Tigers set a state record to win the 4x100 relay. Their time of 41.29 was well ahead of runner-up Homewood-Flossmoor (41.66).

The 4x100 championship was the first in any event for North and broke the Class 3A record of 41.42, which was set by Cahokia in 2006. The winning relay featured seniors Brendan Hanneman and Brian Registe, junior Anthony Capezio and Moore.

“Our coach kept telling us that we could do better than how we did in prelims,” Capezio said. “We knew that we were capable of breaking the state record. So I took off from my mark and we had really good handoffs. Marcellus told me that he just needed five meters. I knew if he was within five meters of Homewood-Flossmoor that we’d come home with it.”

“I was so excited to win the [4x100] and knew I was in the [4x200] and was ready, so we wanted to win that, too,” Hanneman said. “We deserved it since we worked so hard. This was very exciting, and I was happy to be here.”

Moore followed that up with a record-setting 10.31 in the 100, winning the event by 0.21 over Rock Island’s Courtney Lindsey. The previous Class 3A record in the 100 was 10.34, which was set by Galesburg’s Josh Eiker in 2016.

The good times continued in the 4x200 relay, where senior Joe Stiffend stepped in for Capezio on the third leg. Stiffend made up big ground and gave the baton in a good spot to Moore, who finished strong to give Plainfield North the win in 1:26.17, only 0.3 seconds ahead of Hoffman Estates.

“We had a little bit of a bad handoff for the second and third exchange,” Stiffend said. “Once I got the baton, I knew that I had to give it all that I had since this was my last high school race. Our team is just amazing, and I’m glad to be a part of it.”

“Marcellus is like our guardian angel,” Registe said. “It just seems like we’ve had good races all year long with just a couple of bad handoffs. But today, we had our best handoff day, and everything went perfectly.”

Moore finished in 21.3 to edge Lindsey by .06 for the championship in the 200. The Tigers also received a seventh-place effort in high jump from senior Dylan Webb (6 feet, 6 inches).