This was one of the best weekends Dion Ballentine will ever have in high school, but you wouldn’t know it by asking him.
“I felt horrible,” the Thornwood senior said after running a meet-record 47.8 seconds in the 400 meters Saturday at the Thornwood Invitational.
Of course it didn’t help having slept only a few hours after celebrating his coronation Friday night as “Prom King.” It also didn’t help that Ballentine is recovering from a groin injury that kept him out of the last three indoor meets and the first two outdoor meets for the Class AA state champions.
Ballentine limited himself to two events for the Thunderbirds, who won the meet with 174 points to 156 for second-place Evanston. He ran the third leg of the winning 4×100-meter relay that posted a time of 42.5 seconds with Marcus Lesley, Aikeem Waterford and Jeremy Johnson.
His 400 time is one of the fastest in the state this season and the relay time is believed to be the fastest in the state this year.
“I’m happy with that, after what’s been going on the past six weeks,” he said. “We couldn’t get [the injury] under control, but we figured out a way about a week and a half ago. Ever since then, I’ve been pain free. The warm weather helped a lot.”
Thornwood, with Lesley and Ballentine back from the state championship 4×100 relay, stands a good chance of repeating later this month.
Coach Gary Haupert is tinkering with his relays to find the right combination, and his 4×200 relay of Daverick Marcus, Aaron Mitchell, Orlando Williams and Steve Taylor won in 1:29.4.
The Thunderbirds’ 4×400 relay took second to Thornton with Deon Willis, DaWaun Wells, Josh Chatman and Taylor running 3:23.9, a second behind the Wildcats’ Mark Shaeer, James Radford, Brandon Tobias and David Davis. Lesley and Ballentine likely will run on one or both of those relays in the state meet.
Lesley also won the 110 hurdles, and sophomore Lesley Majors took first in the long jump.
Rich Central hurdler Tony Young set a meet record in the 300 intermediate hurdles of 37.7, one of the top times in the state.
