By Mark Gregory
@Hear_The_Beard
Derrius Rodgers
CHARLESTON – As Derrius Rodgers leaves Lockport High School, he does so leaving his legacy on the school and the track and field program.
The senior claimed three medals in last weekend’s IHSA state finals at Eastern Illinois University’s O’Brien Stadium and by doing that, secured five medals in his career, making him the second most decorated Porter ever behind Nick Setta, who won six medals from 1995-98.
Rodgers does own the Lockport honors of the most individual medals with four, as Setta has three individual awards and was part of three relay teams.
He also joins Setta and Dan Schrock as the only Lockport athletes with three medals in one state final.
Rodgers earned a pair of second-place finishes, coming up just short of Galesburg’s Josh Eiker in both the 100-meter dash (10.66 seconds) and the 200 dash (22.13).
“He is one helluva competitor,” Rodgers said of Eiker. “He is a great guy to run against. He pushes me and I will give credit to him. I am happy with my performance.”
A season ago, both titles would have belonged to Rodgers, as Eiker and Galesburg were in Class 2A, but moved up a class this season.
“I have been thinking about that,” Rodgers said. “He got moved up to 3A this year and I would have been a state champ, but it is part of the game. I like the competitiveness and competing at the top level, so I am happy I got to run against him.”
Rodgers’ medal in the 100 dash is the first-ever for a Porter and his second-place finish in the 200 ties him for second all-time with Ed Flink, who placed second in the 220-yard dash in 1919.
“I love to represent the Porters,” Rodgers said. “There is a lot of pride in that and I love representing the Porters. “It is awesome to have milestones and I am proud to be part of the moment.”
Rodgers’ third medal came as he joined Chris Gargano, Jesse Bustami and Sheldon Snapp to place sixth in the 800-relay with a time of 1:27.67.
“We were kind of performance about our performance (in prelims) and we kind of messed up some handoffs and we got lane nine and we were kind of upset about that,” Rodgers said. “To run a 1:27 out of lane nine is pretty impressive.”
The only thing a Porter teammate could do to come close to bettering Rodgers’ performance at state was to claim a state title – and that was exactly what John Meyer did.
The sophomore won the shot put crown with a put of 61-feet, 2-inches.
He becomes the eighth track and field champion for the Porters and the first in the shot put. He joins only former NFL offensive lineman Tony Pashos (3rd, 1998) as shot medalists.
“It feels good,” Meyer said. “I came in here with no expectations and no pressure and just wanted to do my best. I was really focused and kept my mind on the goal I had which was to win it all.”
Meyer also competed in the discus, but missed the finals with a throw of 150-0.
As a team, the Porters placed sixth in state with 30 points, finishing one place ahead of Minooka, who was seventh with 29 points.
The Indians were paced by their relay teams, as they earned a second-place finish and two thirds.
The Minooka quartet of Colin Marchio, Maceo Findlay, Brandon Adams and Justin Wolz placed second in the 400-relay with a time of 41.73 and were third in the 800-relay in 1:27.09.
“Last year didn’t go as well as we wanted it to, so we put in a lot of hard work,” Findlay said. “We are blessed to be able to stand on that podium and be all-state athletes. We used that pain as redemption and we just came out hard.”
The Indian sprinters had more on their minds this weekend than just earning state medals, as they were running for sprint coach Mark Smith, who is battling Stage 4 cancer.
“That was what really kept me going was that I was trying my best to get him a medal,” Marchio said. “No matter how painful it is running or how bad I hurt, I know it is not as bad as Smith and I wanted to do my best to make him smile knowing he trained some of the best 4×1 and 4×2 teams in the state.”
Findlay also said Smith was a motivation.
“He is a big part of this track family,” Findlay said. “It is not just the sprinters and vaulters he coached. He coached everyone and he is our inspiration and we hope we made him proud.”
Wolz was another runner who wanted to make Smith proud as he and Adams were also part of Minooka’s 1600-relay team that placed third in 3:17.73. They were joined by Aaron Arroyo and Matt Dlugopolski.
“Even though we didn’t get a team trophy, we know that as long as we put out our best, he was going to love us no matter what. At the end of the day, we know we gave it all we had.” Wolz said. “Obviously, you want to win, but I am happy with our performance. There is no better way to end my senior year. It is a good feeling to finish high school on this note.”
It wasn’t only the sprinters that were inspired by Smith, as Soren Knudsen also dedicated his 1600-run to Smith. He placed third in the race in 4:17.10.
“Today was all for coach Smith today,” he said. “He is one of the most important people I have ever had in my life and every meet and today, I am just thinking about coach Smith.”
In the pole vault, Minooka’s Brennan Loughran finished just shy of a medal, placing 10th with a vault of 14-6, while teammate Marcus Hayden advanced to finals as well and was 17th, clearing 13-6.
Minooka’s 3200 relay team of Jake Swank, Jordan Freese, Chris Drey and Miguel Lomeli posted a time of 8:23.5 did not advance to the finals.
Minooka’s Kevin Lam had a shot put throw of 54-3.25 and did not make the finals.
The Lockport 400 relay group of Gargano, Snapp, Jacob Freese and Conor McCarthy missed the finals after a time of 43.58, while Bustami posted a jump of 20-05.5 in the long jump and missed the finals. In the pole vault, Porter Wade Walder cleared 13-6, but missed advancing.