Sports
Loyola Academy Boys Track: Toraason Fights Off Injury, Jumps to Sectional Title
Loyola Academy had three state qualifiers at Thursday's sectional meet, including Jeff Toraason, who won the high jump event.
Junior Will Hague had to wait his turn last year when it came to the big meets. With a number of talented senior distance runners at Loyola, Hague didn’t have a chance to run the 3200 in last year’s sectional meet.
But when he got the opportunity this season, he definitely made the most of it. Hague took fourth place in a very deep field of two-mile runners, but was more than two seconds under the state qualifying mark with a time of 9:26.40 at the IHSA Class 3A Skokie Sectional at Niles West on Thursday. Seven runners from the race qualified for the state meet by running under the qualifying mark.
“With such a great field like this, I was just looking to roll with the pack and end up getting a good time,” Hague said. “Unfortunately it wasn’t as smooth as I planned it to go so I had to do most of the work myself.”
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Hague fell behind Maine South’s Dave Eckhart and Niles North’s Kosta Papzoglou, who broke away in the last mile. Yet Hague hung in and ran a couple fast finishing laps to get in under the qualifying time.
“It’s weird to think of the state meet because I’ve always just watched it,” Hague said. “But I’m looking forward to it and a great race.”
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Senior Jeff Toraason also qualified for the state meet in the high jump, but it wasn’t without a little bit of intrigue. With a sore hamstring, Toraason had to pull out of both hurdle events. Toraason qualified for state in the 110 high hurdles last year.
Even with the injury, Toraason won the high jump sectional title, almost eclipsing the school record with a mark of 6-05.
“I haven’t jumped anywhere close to that since indoor season,” Toraason said. “My head was really in it today. I was focused and the weather was really nice.”
Toraason missed his three attempts at 6-06 in the finals, but was more than satisfied with his effort.
“This is beyond explainable how good this feels right now that I actually made it to the state meet,” Toraason said. “I want to make the top 25, that’d be great. But just going down there is great, that’s plenty for me.”
Junior Todd Ford finished fourth in the 1600 (4:19.50), joining Hague and Toraason as Loyola’s three state qualifiers.
Senior Ryan Santacrose was fifth in the long jump at 20-10.5 while junior Tim Norwood placed fifth in the triple jump (43-04).
