Westerner 2.15.6., Story 1

Maine West's championship trackmen repeated at Interim Conference Track and Field Champions May 26, by edging out Glenbrook in the final event of the day, the mile relay. The host Warriors scored 42 1/2 points to 41 for the runner-up Spartans. Proviso West was third with 38 tallies.

TEAM TOTALS
Maine West 42 1/2
Glenbrook 41
Proviso West 38
Prospect 21 1/2
Wheaton 21
Glenbard East 19
Willowbrook 16
East Leyden 12
West Leyden 0

Coach Ed Smith's cindermen won the title last year under the mentorship of John Minerick, who retired this season.

Steele Leads Pack

Senior jumper Art "High Bar" Steele provided one of the meets greatest thrills when he broke the conference broadjump mark by a foot on his first leap. The old record was 20' 11 1/2" by Warrior Ray Leonardson set in last year's meet. Steele jumped 21'11" on his first attempt at the mark and broke that on his second jump with a record of 22'1/2". High Bar also leaped 22" 1/2" in the finals, beating his nearest opponent by a foot.

Later in the evening Steele vaulted higher than he had ever previously done, clearing 12' 6 1/4" on his second jump. He was forced to receive second place honors, however, as an entry from Glenbrook, Tom Koenig, leaped 12' 8 1/4", breaking the existing Interim mark of 11’ 6”.

A total of nine Interim conference records were bettered in the meet, with Warriors figuring in three of them. Besides Steele's broad-jump junior Lee Wolf successfully defended his 440-yard dash title Wolf ran the quarter mile in :51.5, and broke his own mark of :52.0, edging out Anderson of Proviso West in the process.

Maine West's strongman, senior Ken McLaughlin, lofted the 12 lb. shot 53 feet even, breaking Warrior John Charles' 49'4" mark by nearly four feet.

McLaughlin won by almost two feet over the second place finisher from Prospect. Another West shot putter, Tom Jacobs, missed by just inches of placing fifth in the finals.

West's ace hurdler, Dennis Luzinski, did not break any records, but nevertheless won the 180-yard low hurdles in :20.6. In the preliminaries in that event, Denny tied the existing mark held by Harris of Wheaton of :20.3. A few, minutes before the low hurdles final was run off, Denny nearly won the 120-yard high hurdles. Slightly ahead of the other five finalists going over the final hurdle, Luzinski's knee smashed into the top of the barrier as he was clearing it, causing him to nearly fall. As a result, the best the "Flash" could do was fifth. The winning time by Beatty of Proviso West, :14.8, bettered the old mark of Harris of Wheaton by .7 of a second.

Junior Ray Leonardson captured third place in the 100-yard dash, fourth in the 220, and anchored the second-place 880-yard relay team. With Leonardson on the squad were sophomore Dave Madison, Luzinski, and junior Chuck Weil. West finished about a yard in back of favored Glenbrook, who broke the conference record in, 1:33.4. The old mark, set by Maine West last year, was 1:33.7.

Sophomore Bob Wagner ran the fastest time in his life, garnering third place in the varsity mile run. Wagner covered the four laps in 4:40.9, four seconds in back of the winner, Bartel of Wheaton, who was clocked in record time of 4:36.7. An interesting fact is that Wagner also broke the old mark of 4:41.4. Senior Paul Eisenbacher tied for fifth in the 440-yard dash, running the distance in about 53 seconds.

Probably the all-round fastest race of the day was the 880-yard run. Warrior junior Vie Oakley placed fifth in the race in 2:01.5, just 2 1/2 seconds in back of the winner, Peterson of Proviso West.

Oakley teamed up with Madison, Eisenbaeher, and Wolf, to run the mile relay quartet to third place billing. The winning time, 3:29.2, broke the old Willowbrook mark of 3:30.6, set last season.