Experimenting Evanston Still Tips Bloom

Robert Simmons loses. Stop the presses?

No. It's just another indication top-ranked Evanston is onlywarming up.

For Evanston coach Willie May, this is the time of the seasonwhere if his team is at full strength, he has everybody in the rightposition and they're hitting on all cylinders, he's in big trouble.

So consider it a good sign for the Wildkits that even with someexperimentation, with Sekou Smith scratching on three of his fourtriple jumps and Simmons not running the 100 and finishing second inthe 200, they still won the Bloom Invitational Saturday.

Smith won the triple jump with his only official jump, DarylRichardson ran on three winning relays and Zack Roadhouse won the1,600 and anchored the winning 3,200 relay as Evanston beat Bloom66-62.

"Why run your best stuff now?," May said. "I've never beenoverly concerned with winning invitationals. I'm looking fordevelopment. Everybody has a chance to make the state team until thefirst week in May. I try to give as many kids as possible a shot."

May liked what he saw from Richardson, a career-long triplejumper who is becoming a sprinter. He ran on the Wildkits' winning400 (43.8), 800 (1:30.39) and 1,600 (3:27.56) relays.

"He showed a lot today," May said. "We told him we were goingto have to go to him (on the relays, to replace a runner who did notcome out) and he has accepted the challenge. I'm thrilled with hisdedication and work habits."

Bloom junior Antonio Francis was the top individual competitor.He won the 100 (11.13) and beat Simmons (22.05) to win the 200(21.91).

"It's a big win. It gives me a lot of confidence," saidFrancis, who qualified for the semifinals in the 200 at the statemeet last year. "I know who he is. I know he can run. I justthought if I could hang with him until the 50 mark, I'll have achance. Once I hit the straightaway I knew I was OK."

Simmons, who was fifth in the 100 and sixth in the 200 at thestate meet last year, was running the 200 for the first time thisseason.

"Regardless, it bothers me that I lost," he said. "But it givesme something to work for. I felt I ran pretty well. But I didn'tsee him (coming up) and I didn't have time to come back."

Matt Klima led Oak Park (42 points) to third place.