Colbert Column

SPORTS

Dominguez f inishes 10th in discus at state track meet

Oregon’s Daniel Dominguez placed 10th in the discus at the 1A State Track and Field Meet in Charleston on May 28.

Dominguez recorded a discus throw of 44.69 meters, good for 10th in the field of 37 on May 26.

After an hour-and-a-half of weather delays, including a 30-minute lightning delay mid-discus, the Oregon t h r o w e r r e d e e m e d h i s e a r l i e r 23rd-place finish (13.40m) in shot put and punched his ticket to the state final in the last event of the day.

“Shot, it was kind of a bad day, but we got through it. Once we got to discus, it was over with, it’s done, it’s on to the next job,” Dominguez said. “Today, I felt like I finally got into the groove that I usually am in at the end [of discus] on my last two throws.

Dominguez said he enjoyed competing against familiar faces in the state prelims.

“We all know each other. It’s all fun,” he said. “It’s always fun going against people you’ve already met, especially going to indoor state for shot. It’s basically the same people from the same flight. And the same here in discus, it’s almost the same people. So we all know each other, we all joke around a little bit, we have our fun.”

Forreston’s Matthew Beltran narrowly missed the cut for the state final in the 110 hurdles as the third-place finisher in his heat, clocking a time of 15.94 seconds – just .03 seconds slower than the last qualifier in the event. Beltran also had a nine-way tie for 15th in the high jump, leaping 1.85 meters.

“I’m just feeling really blessed to be down here. Wouldn’t be down here without my coaches and family support, friend support, teammate support,” Beltran said. “Not the exact outcome I was hoping for in high jump. ... I think it was just kind of an off day. Definitely not my best race [in the 110 hurdles], but I went out here, gave it 100%.”

Rock Falls’ Matthew Marcum was the cream of the crop from the area, winning the Class 2A state championship in the 300-meter hurdles with a run of 39.59 seconds, edging East St. Louis’ Demarlynn Taylor by .3 seconds.

Dixon’s Dre Jackson was a medalist individually in the shot put, hurling a personal-record 16.50 meters on his final attempt of the day to finish fourth in the Class 2A field.

Newman’s Jacob Donald, Wyatt Widolff, Thomas Powers and Lucas Simpson placed fourth in the Class 1A 4x800 with a time of an 8:09.09.

Gary Middendorf - gmiddendorf@shawmedia.com Oregon’s Daniel Dominguez competes in the discus during the IHSA Class 1A State Track and Field Championships on May 28 at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston.

SPORTS COLUMN

The ‘Cardiac K ids of Forreston’ headed to the state f inals

What a roller-coaster ride it has been for the Forreston softball program the past four seasons, with the big thrill culminating Monday at the 1A supersectional final with a dramatic comefrom-behind win over Biggsville West Central.

I n 2 0 1 8 , I r e m e m b e r w a t c h i n g Dakota sticking a dagger in the Cardinals at the regional final at Freeport, scoring in the seventh inning for a wild 11-10 win.

Besides the girls, I felt so bad for Kim Snider, as genuinely nice as any coach I’ve been around.

The next year, Forreston got that regional title, but lost another heartbreaker in the sectional semis, 12-10 to Eastland. After COVID-19 stole any 2020 possibilities, it was Pearl City doing the damage the following year with a 3-2 regional title win over the Cardinals.

After Forreston pulled out a 12th-inning squeaker over Pearl City at this year’s sectional semifinal, I sent Kim a congratulatory email, saying “How exciting.” Little did I know that those seventh inning comebacks were just getting started.

In the sectional final, three runs in the bottom of the seventh gave Forreston redemption over Dakota, 8-7. And don’t forget, the regional final against a very solid Durand team was no gimme.

The win over Biggsville was no fluke, as Forreston pounded the ball, with 12 hits compared with nine for their opponent.

Biggsville’s trip to the super was similar to Forresto n in that they needed eight innings to advance to the sectional final and then eked out a 2-1 win in final.

Compared with baseball, having a good pitcher in softball makes all the difference in the world.

Being involved in track and field, I rarely get to softball games, but am making my first trip to the state finals to cover Forreston against Casey-Westfield. With the type of crowds that Forreston gets for its sporting events, a large fan base should be present at Louisville Slugger Field in Peoria.

Lost in all the publicity garnered by the Cardiac Kids of Forreston was the excellent showing by the Oregon and Stillman Valley softball teams in the 2A sectional.

Richmond-Burton took out both squads, but only by 1-run games, again exhibiting how tight so many of these games truly are. Then in the supersectional R-B lost 1-0 to Rockridge, winners of their last 63 games.

Oregon loses a lot with its senior class, but has talent coming back. Combined with Nate Rogers as coach, the Hawks will be in the mix for 2023.

One advantage of living in small towns like ours in Ogle county is seeing kids grow up and I can remember coach Rogers when he was kid playing youth baseball.

That thought was on my mind as high-school graduations played out. How many games we won in our highschool careers is not as important as the type of men and women we grow up to be.

I’ve known people whose highlight in life was the glory days of prep sports and you probably have to.

I’m not sure how many teachers and coaches are retiring this year, but did notice that Don Reece and Mark Downey of Polo are. Those two gentlemen were a pleasure to be around and will be missed.

This past weekend was spent at the boys state track meet, where for only the second time in the past 20 years Oregon was shut out of having a state medalist.

Daniel Dominguez, who placed last year, finished one spot out of the medal hunt in the discus. Forreston-Polo had a similar fate, coming home empty-handed, also a rarity for them.

In fact the only state place for the county was a seventh place in the 1,600 relay by Byron. Losing a season to COVID-19 hurt track more than most other sports.

If you’re a numbers person, track and field meets have all kinds of neat data. Here’s an example of one – an eighth grader from Bloomington pole vaulted 15-feet at the junior high state meet, a mark that would have won the 1A high school competition.

GUEST VIEW

Andy Colbert

• Andy Colbert, an avid runner, has been a sports writer for Shaw Media and has covered high school sports in Ogle County for more than 30 years.