The Oak Park and River Forest boys’ track team said goodbye and hello on Saturday in the final day of the IHSA State Meet held at O’Brien Stadium in Charleston.
OPRF senior Antonio Jones concluded his final track meet of his high school career with a respectable sixth place finish in the 400-meter. Jones finished in 49.98 seconds and helped the Huskies to four points to tie for 56th overall.
Distance runner Brendan Murphy made a name for himself with a favorable 39th place finish in the finals of the 3200-meter run. The junior timed out in 9:58.69.
Fenwick: Fenwick’s lone representative at the IHSA Boys’ State Track and Field Meet finals was distance runner Mark Spadavecchio, who followed his cross-town rival Murphy with a time of 9:59.26 in the 3200-meter run, good for 40th place.
OPRF tennis battles
While the OPRF tennis team missed advancing into the final round of the IHSA State Tennis Meet on Saturday, the Huskies don’t have any reason to hang their heads.
The doubles team of Andy Mertz and Kevin Walsh played more tennis on Thursday and Friday than most people do in a month.
Mertz and Walsh won their first round match against Latin 7-5, 6-1, but then fell to Naperville North in the second round 6-2, 6-3. The duo battled back in the consolation bracket with three straight victories, including a hardfought 7-6 (7-4), 6-2 win over Hinsdale Central’s Alex Klein and Nabeel Atassi.
Mertz and Walsh were unable to hold off Aurora’s Chirag Shukla and Tony Sheng in the fifth consolation, falling 1-6, 7-6 (7-5), 7-5.
Other OPRF winners in the first round of the State prelims included singles player Jacob Cappel (3-2) and the doubles team of Aaron Press and Jared Connolly (2-2).
The Huskies finished 18th overall with 14 points.
