By Mike Clark
CHARLESTON — Samuel Assefa, Quinn Anderson and Amilo Rajandram know each other pretty well by now.
The trio have been battling each other in cross country and track for a while, and all three wound up on the podium in the same event at the IHSA state meet on May 30 at Eastern Illinois University’s O’Brien Field.
Lane’s Assefa finished fourth in the Class 3A 3,200 meters with a time of 9 minutes, 9.83 seconds. Young’s Rajandram was sixth at 9:12.97 and Lane’s Anderson took eighth at 9:13.24.
“That’s just great,” Assefa said. “People that I see on runs every day — we’re out here making a statement for Chicago and it’s just a great feeling.”
Assefa had been aiming for a faster time on what was a sunny and hot day.
“I wanted to break nine (minutes),” he said. “I didn’t get to do it at Palatine (running (9:00.37), I was so close.
“So I was just like, if I’m gonna get it, I gotta go get it. And it didn’t work out, but I was just happy to be here.”
So was Rajandram.
“I would say that I was a bit surprised that the final time was slower than I expected,” he said. “But I’m happy with the place. But it felt hard with the heat.”
Like Assefa, Rajandram was glad to see three city runners on the awards stand.
“We always talk about having a Chicago representation,” Rajandram said.
Young also had a medalist in the 3A 300 hurdles, as Bryce Blythe finished eighth in 38.81.
In 2A, Bryce Kidd won a pair of medals for Simeon. The sophomore ran a personal-best 48.90 to finish fourth in the 400, and he teamed with Jalon Washington, Lenell Modeliste and Alexander Westbrook to take eighth in the 4×400 relay with a season-best 3:22.12.
Kidd has come a long way since running a 53-second 400 in his only race at that distance last year.
“That improvement came from all my coaches, all the hard work and dedication we put into this sport,” Kidd said.
He is glad to help put Simeon track on the map. The Wolverines hadn’t won a medal at state since 2015 and had just three in program history before this year.
“Yeah, nobody knew about us,” he said. “They always say our name wrong: it’s Sim-ee-on instead of Sim-ee-in.
“We’re (working) to get that straight.”
Photos courtesy of the IHSA
Class 2 A 4×4 relay
Class 2A – 400m
Class 3A – 300m hurdles
Class 3A – 3200
