Gators take large bite at Special Olympics Illinois Summer Games | 22nd Century Media
By Derek Wolff, Assistant Editor – June 13, 2016
Published in The Lake Forest Leader, The Glencoe Anchor, The Highland Park Landmark, The Northbrook Tower, The Glenview Lantern, The Wilmette Beacon and The Winnketa Current.
Not even temperatures hovering in the mid-to-upper 90s could slow down the NSSRA Gators during the Special Olympics Illinois Summer Games at Illinois State University from June 10-12.
The club, based out of Northbrook and comprised of athletes from park districts of Deerfield, Glencoe, Glenview, Highland Park, Highwood, Kenilworth, Lake Bluff, Lake Forest, Northbrook, Northfield, Riverwoods, Wilmette and Winnetka turned in a tremendous performance at the Games, amassing a total of 36 medals while competing in bocce, powerlifting, swimming and track and field events.
The Gators sent 20 athletes to the Games who racked up 12 gold, 14 silver and 10 bronze medals across a variety of events and were headlined by especially strong performances from its track and field and powerlifting squads, which comprised the majority of the team’s members.
“It was a great group, first off and we had a ton of fun with top quality competition,” said Mark Schultz, NSSRA’s recreation specialist for athletics and fitness. “Special Olympics does a great job of setting up their events.”
In addition to the three days of competition, the athletes participated in an opening ceremony complete with a torch run and attended a dance before getting down to business, where the Gators enjoyed a tremendous amount of success.
“We had a ton of fun outside the competition,” Schultz said. “As far as competition goes, to my recollection in the four years that we’ve been down there it’s probably the most medals we’ve ever brought home. A lot of that had to deal with our powerlifters who competed in a lot of events.”
Mundelein’s Kathleen Millar led the way for the Gators by dominating the powerlifting events, winning four gold medals in a clean sweep of her events in the squat, bench press, deadlift and combination squat, deadlift and bench. On the men’s side, Highland Park’s Miguel Lara earned four medals as well, taking gold in the combination squat, bench and deadlift, silver in the squat and bronze in both the bench press and deadlift.
Highland Park’s Randy Huffmaster took silver in the deadlift as well as the combination bench and deadlift, while fellow Highland Park resident Bill Fisher took bronze in the bench press and silver in the deadlift.
Despite the extremely warm temperatures, the track and field team enjoyed major triumphs in a variety of events, overcoming both the heat and the competition.
“That was another obstacle that the athletes did awesome with,” Schultz said. “Issues with the heat could have been a potential problem, but they powered through it and I didn’t hear anyone complain the whole weekend about the heat, they were just having such a great time and going out there to compete.”
Winnetka’s Sam Green won gold in the 3,000 meter run, overcoming a friend and fellow competitor who had his number in the event in previous years.
“He just ran a really great race (Sunday) morning so that was a fun surprise and a good way to kind of end (the competition),” Schultz said.
Lake Bluff’s Pamela Smith-Bergsrud took gold in the softball throw and was part of the silver medalist Gators 400 meter relay team, an event NSSRA dominated, with its two teams taking both silver and bronze.
Highwood’s Dianna Mann and Highland Park’s Sam Mitchell and Jackie Richardson joined Smith-Bergsrud to capture the silver in the event, while Green, Deerfield’s Mikey Hull and Glenview’s Thomas Jachtorowycz and Luke Toussaint captured the bronze. Toussaint also captured medals in the 50 meter run and mini javelin.
In the pool, Glenview’s Michael Young took gold in the 50 meter backstroke, while Highland Park’s Ali Shapiro took a valiant fifth place in the 25 meter backstroke.
While the results largely favored the Gators, the experience alone of the competition and the surrounding atmosphere made it a memorable time, Schultz said.
“It was a lot of fun. It was a great group this year, great group of athletes, great group of people and we had a blast and put in a lot of hard work.”