LHS Senior Heads To Track And Field State Finals For Third Time

LEMONT, IL — Lemont High School senior David Lehenbauer will be in familiar territory as he competes in the final weekend of the track and field season for the third and final time in his high school career. The school said Lehenbauer finished as the runner-up in the high jump at the IHSA Downers Grove North Sectional on May 17 to earn a berth to the 2019 IHSA Class 3A Boys’ Track and Field State Finals, which will be contested on Friday, May 24, and Saturday, May 25, at O’Brien Stadium on the campus of Eastern Illinois University in Charleston.

Lehenbauer is just the second in program history to earn at least three trips to the state finals.

Lehenbauer cleared the 6’03.00” mark, which matched the top effort at the IHSA Downers Grove North Sectional, the school said. The top two finishers in each of the state’s Class 3A Sectionals advance to the state finals, as do any athletes whose efforts in the preliminaries equal or surpass the designated qualifying marks.

Lehenbauer reached the final round in each of his first two state finals appearances in 2017 and 2018. As a junior in 2018, he cleared the 6’05.00” mark and placed 10th, just missing a medal, LHS said.

He established a new school record in the high jump earlier this season when he cleared the 6’08.00” mark at the Lemont Indoor Invitational. He also won at the Class 3A Illinois Top Times event by clearing the 6’07.00” mark, and was the South Suburban Conference-Blue Division title winner after clearing the 6’06.00” mark.

Lemont’s boys’ track and field program, which is coached by Dennis Kennedy, has earned 16 state medals in its history, the school said. Boys’ track and field is the 11th Lemont High School sport to be represented in IHSA State Finals competition this year.