BY DEAN CRIDDLE Belleville News-Democrat

For the past three years, picturesque Detweiller Park in Peoria has been like a home away from home for Freeburg twin sisters Caitlin and Kristen Busch.

Beginning sometime next year, it will be home.

One of the top running duos in the state for the past four years, Kristen Busch and Caitlin Busch have given a verbal commitment to attend Bradley University in Peoria beginning in the 2012-13 season.

The choice of Bradley seems perfect for the Busch sisters in terms of Detweiller, which is the site of Bradley’s home course. Kristen Busch won the Class 1A state title there last year and also has a second-place and a fourth-place medal to her credit. Caitlin Busch has placed seventh, fourth and fourth at Detweiller the past three years.

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By Yashmin Patel

When John Carlos was young, he saw a white police officer hit an African-American man sleeping on the ground with his baton to wake him up.

“It put me into shock. [I wondered] why did that happened? Why didn’t he do that a different way?” said the 1968 Olympic Bronze track and
field medalist, who infamously raised his fist at the podium to salute the Black Power Movement.

Carlos knew something was wrong when his father first told him all people in the world are not treated equal.

“I started thinking something’s broken, something isn’t right,” he said to University students and faculty Friday in the Lucy Stone Hall auditorium on Livingston campus while sharing his experience growing up with racial inequalities.

Carlos realized to what extent people were treated differently when he watched a fire department destroy an African-American family’s home.

“Someone ran and called the fire department because they saw smoke coming out a window,” he said. “So the fire department comes … with their axes, and they’re throwing furniture out the window, they’re throwing clothes out the window.”

He was confused as to why the firemen were throwing things outside if there was no fire and nothing burning.

“It didn’t take me long to figure out what was going on. It made me understand right then at a very early age that if you’re not in the equation, nobody’s thinking about you,” he said.

As Carlos experienced discrimination growing up, he found himself fighting for equality through boycott demonstrations and protests.

“You can’t let people dictate to you and not use your brain, [but] you have to say I have a brain to determine what’s right or wrong,”he said.

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DECATUR – Angela Hawk, a six-time All-America track star from Argenta, is among five former Big Blue students who will be honored as the newest members of the Millikin Athletic Hall of Fame during ceremonies today.

An awards dinner will be at 6 p.m. in the Richards Treat University Center as part of Homecoming festivities.  The rest of the Hall of Fame class is Alison Davis Baker, Daniel Lloyd, Audrey Minott and Thomas Sur.

Hawk is one of the most decorated track and field athletes in Millikin history. The four-year letter winner also won four CCIW championships and still holds two CCIW records.  She capped her career by finishing second in the triple jump at the 2006 NCAA Division III outdoor championships.

Hawk won the triple jump even at more than 20 meets and broke Millikin’s record in the event six times. Her leap of 40-5½ is
the current Big Blue record.  At the NCAA outdoor championships, she placed seventh in 2004, sixth in 2003 and 2005 and second in 2006.

She also held the long jump record at 17-7½.
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Contact: Clark TeuscherNorth Central College men’s cross country and track & field alumnus Patrick Rizzo ’05 has been selected to represent Team USA next month in the Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Rizzo is one of two U.S. men selected to compete in the marathon in the Games, which take place Oct. 14-30. The men’s marathon will be contested on Sunday, Oct. 30, at 8:30 a.m.

“It’s a tremendous honor to be chosen for the Pan Am Games,” Rizzo said.  “I could never pass up an opportunity to represent my country.”

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“Jenny Simpson, are you going to the moon?”

Nope, that’s not it. This was a look of shock and awe, a willing suspension of disbelief, caught in a moment of hope and uncertainty.

“Jenny Simpson, did you just win the lottery?”

Sorry, try again. It was wide-eyed amazement, euphoria tied up under some thought that it might just be a dream.

“Jenny Simpson, you’re a world champion?”

That’s the scene. If ever the thrill of victory had a pinch-me freeze frame, there it was. And the response was absolutely appropriate: Simpson was just a rookie miler on the international circuit, competing in an event she was coaxed into by injury. She was the national runner-up in an event no U.S. athlete had won on the world stage in 28 years, crossing the line ahead of presumptive favorites at the World Championships in Daegu last month.

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Galen Rupp shattered the existing 10,000-meter American record while Walter Dix ran the second fastest 200m time in American history and four other American athletes secured Diamond League crowns at the Brussels Diamond League meet Friday.

Rupp’s third-place time of 26 minutes, 48.00 seconds crushed Chris Solinsky’s time of 26:59.60, which he ran in 2010. Rupp, a two-time USA champion in the event, previously held a personal best of 27:10.74.

In the final Diamond League meet of the season, Carmelita Jeter (100m), Morgan Uceny (1,500m), Dix (200m) and Danielle Carruthers (100m hurdles) all secured their names as Diamond League champions in their respective events. Each competed Friday with Jeter winning in a time of 10.78, Uceny winning in a world-leading time of 4:00.06, Dix placing second at 19.53 and Carruthers winning her race in a time of 12.65.

Reese Hoffa led a 1-2 American sweep in the shot put with a winning throw of 22.09 meters/72 feet, 5.75 inches while Christian Cantwell placed second at 22.07m/72-5. Both athletes recorded their best throws of the season.

Dix ran a big personal best in the 200m of 19.53 to finish second behind Jamaica’s Johan Blake, who crushed the field in a world-leading time of 19.26. Only Michael Johnson’s gold medal winning time of 19.32 at the 1996 Olympic Games is faster in American history.

It was also a 1-2-3-4 sweep by the Americans in the 100m hurdles with Yvette Lewis (12.77), Kellie Wells (12.77) and Nia Ali (12.79) all following Carruthers’ winning time.

For complete results check out www.diamondleague.com

NEW ORLEANS — Bloomington’s Adam Coulon, 13, pole vaulted a meet-record 14 feet, 2 inches to win the youth boys title at the AAU National Junior Olympics on Friday in New Orleans.

The old record of 13-8 was set in 2007 by Jonathon Juilfs of Eugene, Ore. Tanner Hull of Bloomington placed seventh (11-0) and Ben Elam of Downs ninth (10-6).

In the young women’s pole vault, Normal Community West High School graduate Taylor Kirby placed second at 12-6 while Central Catholic’s Sarah Bell was fifth (12-0). In the intermediate girls pole vault, Normal Community’s Brittany Hull took 17th (10-6).

NORMAL — The soft sell approach taken by Eastern Illinois University junior track athlete Reid Basting in recruiting his brother, Bryce, was hard to argue with.

The younger Basting, a Normal Community West High School star, will sign a national letter of intent Wednesday to continue his track and cross country careers with the Panthers.

“Reid actually didn’t influence it at all,” said Bryce Basting of his college decision. “He said, ‘go there because you want to, not because I’m there.’”

Reid Basting will be a senior 800-meter runner by the time Bryce brings his state-medal winning 800 talents to Charleston. Bryce holds the Normal West record of 1 minute, 54.94 seconds, a time he used to place seventh in last year’s Class 3A state meet.

Basting also finished 31st in last fall’s Class 3A state cross country meet, running 3 miles in 14:52, a time only nine men in Pantagraph area history have surpassed.

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