BLOOMINGTON - A pair of familiar faces rose above the crowd in Saturday's Prep Top Times Indoor Classic, the climax of the under-roof track season.
Mitchell Erickson of Marian Catholic and Jenna Wexler of Lincoln-Way Central won their respective pole vault competitions in Illinois Wesleyan's Shirk Fieldhouse.
For Erickson, it was a follow-up to last year's IHSA outdoor state title, while Wexler repeated her performance in last year's Top Times meet, down to the inch.
Erickson outdueled Mick Viken of Rolling Meadows, the only person to whom he's lost this season, to capture the boys title, vaulting 16 feet, 8 inches on his first attempt. Viken had to settle for a best of 16-4.
While Erickson didn't advance his indoor personal best, catching the bar three times at 17-01/4, he was pleased with a solid showing after what he considered a sloppy start.
"The worst pressure was when I missed at 15 feet on my first attempt," Erickson said. "I didn't want to move back (to a lower height). So I moved up to 15-6 and made that, but it wasn't a good jump."
Other competitors quickly fell out, and it was down to Erickson and Viken. Both cleared 16 feet, Erickson doing so on his second try.
"It took me till 16 to finally get it dialed in," said Erickson, a senior headed to Oklahoma for college. He and Viken advanced to 16-8, which only Erickson cleared for a new indoor personal best.
Wexler repeated to win the girls pole vault with a vault of 12 feet, and she nearly grabbed the meet record. She nearly vaulted 12-7 on her second of three attempts after knocking out the rest of the field.
"I could feel it," Wexler said. "I got pulled up all the way (on the pole). My coach kept jamming in my head that I could jump that high. I was just having fun."
The senior had jumped 12 feet in this meet last year. The winning height wasn't breaking a personal barrier, but it got her the title for the second straight year.
"It means a lot," said Wexler, who heads into her final outdoor season before moving on to Northern Iowa.
On the track, Andrew's girls 3,200-meter relay team ran a blistering pace to score a victory with a time of 9 minutes, 32.34 seconds, while Lockport, led by Liz Phillips' strong finishing kick, took the other section of the relay at 9:36.86.
Brother Rice took the boys distance medley relay, coming from well back in the final three laps to score the victory over Evanston. Lincoln-Way East took the final race of the day, the boys 1,600 relay, the Griffins' time of 3:24.73 edging Thornwood by eight-hundredths of a second.
In individual races, Hillcrest's Jameson Wilson and Maurice Lyke finished 1-2 in the 55-meter hurdles, the sophomore edging the junior by one-hundredth of a second with his time of 7.73 seconds.
"I got him with the dip," Wilson said of his finish-line lean.
Wilson then placed third in the triple jump, behind winner Ty Kirk of Rolling Meadows and runner-up K.J. Franklin of Crete-Monee.
While that was occurring, De La Salle's Armand Rhone breezed to victory in the boys 400 with a time of 50.19.
In distance races, Nathan Troesser of Lincoln-Way East turned up the pace in the final mile to capture the boys 3,200 with a time of 9:11.02.
SICA South standouts Japheth Cato of Bloom Township and Franklin of Crete-Monee finished second and third, respectively, to Josh Kimberly of Rockton Hononegah in the long jump.
The best individual showing of the meet belonged to Palatine's Mat Smooty, whose 1:53.92 clocking in the boys 800 is the fastest indoor time in the nation this year.