A summer track meet of their own

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LISLE -- A pattern has developed in the four years of the Midwest Distance Gala, a track event for athletes previously without a summer showcase event.

Each year, the gala has gotten more exciting and increasingly competitive.

While California has the heralded Golden West Invitational (held last week) and the East Coast has its own events, the Midwest did not boast an equivalent exhibition until 2005.

"We noticed something was missing for high school kids in the Midwest," co-organizer Patrick Tomasiewicz said. "As a result, we decided to create this to kind of fill that void and it turned out pretty well for us."

This year's talent crop drew on resources as far away as Colorado and Utah. That athletes from such distant locales would pick this gala over others offers a glimpse into the challenging - and fulfilling - nature of the burgeoning meet.

"Last year, we broke almost all of the (previous) meet records," Tomasiewicz recalled. "We did the same type of thing again this year."

This year, the field broke six event records.

The inaugural gala took place June 11, 2005, at Vernon Hills High School.

York High School in Elmhurst hosted the second event and Elmhurst College the third.

This year, Benedictine University provided the perfect track backdrop on a comfortable Saturday evening for the fourth edition of the meet.

Local athletes taking part in the competition included recent Waubonsie Valley graduates Marc Presley and Sean Wiggan and Bryan Winek, who will be a senior this fall at Neuqua Valley.

Wiggan was fourth in the A section of the 800-meter run with a time of 1 minute, 52.96 seconds. Presley was seventh in the B section of the event in 1:58.41.

Winek crossed the finish line in 10th in the two-mile run in 10:14.34.

Running personal bests and competing hard were common themes.

"I just wanted to run with the pack," Wiggan said. "Try to stay up with everybody and give it my all at the finish line because that's where the race was won."

Presley said he wanted "to get a sub-two minute (time). (This event) gets a lot of good athletes together and lets us compete against everyone."

He'll attend Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville in the fall.

Winek had mixed feelings.

"After (school) track I took a week off and it took a lot out of me," he said. "I went in looking for a new PR but I just didn't have it today. It was a fun experience, though."