Track and Field notes: ‘Very proud’ Yorkville’s Clabough siblings sweep shot put titles at Top Times

Kyle Clabough had a standard to live up to Saturday in Bloomington that had nothing to do with being a defending state champion.

Keeping up with kid sister.

After Clabough’s younger sister Courtney, a Yorkville freshman, won the Class 3A shot put title at the Top Times indoor track and field state championships, it was up to Kyle to keep the championship in the family on the boys side.

“When I found out she won it, it put a lot of pressure on me,” said Kyle, a senior and Wisconsin recruit. “I didn’t want to blow the sibling sweep.”

No worries, there.

Kyle Clabough, Class 3A outdoor state shot put champion last spring, took the shot put title at Top Times. It gave Yorkville’s Clabough family an unusual sweep of the throwing championships at the unofficial indoor state meet.

“That was really cool that my brother and I got to share the experience,” Courtney said. “I don’t know what else to say. We both train together and see how hard each other works.”

Courtney, who won the Southwest Prairie Conference indoor title the week before, uncorked her winning throw of 12.13 meters (39 feet, 9.5 inches) on her fourth attempt Saturday. It’s her personal best this indoor season.

“It felt crazy, especially because I was not expecting it at all,” Courtney said. “I was hoping to place top five. To win it was so cool. I was not expecting that. I realized after my first throw that I might have a chance to actually win it.”

Kyle’s winning throw of 18.76 meters (61 feet, 6.5 inches), while not his best this indoor season, was coincidentally the same distance he threw to win the outdoor state title last June.

“I wasn’t really happy with the distance; it was a lot less than what I’m capable of throwing and hitting in practice, but when you get to those meets the goal is just to win. I got it done,” Kyle said. “I guess I was proud that I was able to handle adversity. The ring was really slippery, I couldn’t really push off the back, I relied on my strength to get it out there and get the distance I needed.”

After football season ended in November Clabough went into two months of heavy lifting to get his size and weight up. He was able to get his weight up to 275 pounds. He just finished his last strength phase and is now starting into his power phase. He’s won every meet during indoor season.

“I’m taking less time to lift now and working on more throws. When you consider how little I have thrown it’s pretty promising. Now it’s about getting the speed and explosive power and the technique down,” Clabough said. “What I threw last year was good but I’m hoping to be more consistent this year. I’m hitting 65-66 feet on the good ones but I feel like there’s more left in the tank. I want to reach 68 feet.”

Courtney started to focus on throwing in the seventh grade, but didn’t get a true season or practice at school because of the pandemic. Fortunately, she had her brother and dad to work with in their back yard. She’s trained with her brother every day after school and then sometimes they’d throw on weekends, either in the back yard or at school when their coach would open the gym for them to work on technique.

Middle school did not have outdoor state last year because of the pandemic, but Courtney won the shot put at an elite meet similar to Top Times.

“I’m very proud of my sister that she was able to accomplish something like that [winning Top Times],” Kyle said. “She’s worked hard like I have. I think we can have the same success outdoors.”

Sandwich’s Allen wins Class 2A shot put

Sandwich’s Claire Allen established herself as a girl to watch in the throwing events last spring when she took second in the shot put and fourth in the discus at Class 2A state.

She further validated that last Saturday.

Allen, with an effort of 39 feet, 1 inch, won the Class 2A shot put championship at Top Times to complete an unbeaten indoor season.

Allen was leading the competition until the fourth throw, when an opposing girl threw it one inch further. Allen beat her with both her last two throws.

“Super exciting. I was competing against all those seniors. I knew the competition would be big and I had to show up,” Allen said. “I think I threw it pretty good but I know I can throw it farther. I throw better outdoors than inside. I’m hoping to get at least 43 feet this year. My goal is to throw it as far as I can, 43-45 feet in the shot put, discus I want to go 150.”

Oswego’s 4x800 smashes school record

The Oswego boys 4x800 relay had one clear goal going into the Top Times meet.

Smash the school record.

The group of Balin Doud, Braden Cardamone, Jett Breed and Brady Nelson did just that. With a time of 8:03.28, the Oswego relay took first place at Top Times and shattered by more than seven seconds the previous best of 8:10.62 set in 2017. Prior to that, the 4x800 relay record stood since 1993.

“Going into that race we drilled the handoffs,” Doud said. “If we were going to do it, we wanted to crush the record and not make it close. That was the main goal was to smash the indoor record. Goal two was to win, obviously.”

Doud said the relay’s previous best time this season was around 8:12, but they were set up for a big run Saturday.

“We train all the time together; we are all on pretty much the same training regimen,” Doud said. “We do occasional relays together. We run every single day together. Finally we got the best guys together to get it done.”