MOOSEHEART, IL - At the end of the boys' basketball season, Mooseheart senior Stephen Pinto predicted that the Red Ramblers would qualify a track relay to the state meet this spring.

Pinto, along with Floyd Mays, Gabe Kendor and Mike Tovar, brought that dream to reality at the IHSA Class A Seneca Sectional last Friday, May 18. Mooseheart’s 4 x 200-meter relay team ran 1:32.96, finished second and qualified for the IHSA Class A State Track and Field Meet, which begins this coming Friday, May 25, on the campus of Eastern Illinois University in Charleston.

”It’s outstanding to have a relay go down,” Mooseheart boys' track coach Curt Schlinkmann said. “It’s been a goal for those guys, to go, all year. To go and achieve it is what you want to have.”

In addition, Tovar qualified for the state meet in the triple jump, with a 41-1¼ jump that placed second. That gives the Ramblers their largest contingent headed to the state meet in a very long time.

The quartet ran Mooseheart’s 400- and also 800-meter relays all year. The 400-meter relay finished third in the sectional but did not better the state’s qualifying standard.

“Every meet, they got a little faster and a little faster,” Schlinkmann said of the 800-meter relay team’s times. “They made it and that’s great.”

Mooseheart last had a qualifier for the state meet in 2004, according to www.IHSA.org. That year, Pierre Nealon finished sixth in the triple jump. The Ramblers Raj Garcia was a two-time qualifier in 2000-01, with his best finish a fifth-place in the 100 meters in 2000.

Fridays competition is preliminary in the two-day state meet. The finals are Saturday is when medals are awarded. The top 12 triple jumpers move to Saturday’s competition, as do the top nine relay teams.

“It’s going to be tough,” Schlinkmann said. “There are some really good teams there.”

Should the Ramblers relay make the state finals, Pinto, a senior and the valedictorian of Mooseheart High's 19-member Class of 2007, will miss Commencement, which takes place at 9 a.m. Saturday in the Mooseheart Fieldhouse.

“It’s really his (Pinto’s) decision as well as his guardian’s,” Schlinkmann. “I think Stephen’s decided he wants to run at the state meet if that’s what it comes down to.”

Of the other athletes, Tovar and Mays are juniors while Kendor is a sophomore. Every one of the quartet competed in other sports this year. All four played basketball while Pinto, Mays and Kendor played football.

The two-entry qualification for the state meet also caps a very successful athletic year at Mooseheart. The football team qualified for the Class 1A playoffs, the boys' basketball team advanced to the second round of the Class A playoffs for the first time in a generation, and the girls basketball team came within one victory of a .500 season.

Mooseheart has had three athletes claim four individual state track-and-field championships: Carl Ocker won the state title in the 440-yard dash in 1942. Ron Long was the mile-run champion in 1955, while Frank Ballinger won back-to-back mile titles in 1957-58. Ned Sergent is the only other Mooseheart track athlete to win a state medal, in addition to Garcia and Nealon. Sergent was third in the mile in 1954 and fifth in the mile in 1955.

Mooseheart Child City & School is a 1,000-acre community and school for children and teens in need of a secure home, located just south of Batavia, IL, between Illinois Route 31 and Randall Road.

Founded in 1913, Mooseheart is supported completely through private donations - the great majority of which come from the 1.1 million men and women of the Moose fraternal organization, in more than 1,900 Lodges and 1,600 Chapters located throughout the U.S., Canada, Great Britain and Bermuda. Moose International headquarters is located on the Mooseheart campus.

Since its founding, Mooseheart has operated a complete, accredited kindergarten-through-high-school academic program, plus art, music, vocational training and interscholastic sports. It is an extremely nurturing and student-tailored program, with an average student-teacher ratio of 12-1.

Mooseheart students who complete their studies with a 3.0 GPA or better (4.0=A) are eligible for up to five years of annually renewable scholarship funding, covering tuition, room and board in an amount comparable to that required for an in-state student at an Illinois public university.

Mooseheart is currently home to nearly 250 students, ranging in age from preschoolers to high school seniors. Applications for admission to Mooseheart are considered from any family whose children are, for whatever reason, lacking a stable home environment. Mooseheart boasts its own U.S. Post Office and a fully functioning branch of Fifth Third Bank.

In addition to Mooseheart, Moose International also supports Moosehaven, a 70-acre retirement community near Jacksonville, FL founded in 1922; and conducts more than $90 million worth of community service programs annually.

Founded in 1888, the Moose organization has long offered its members an opportunity to do good for others while celebrating life, with family, social, and sporting activities. For more information on the Moose organization, visit the websites at www.Mooseintl.org and www.Mooseheart.org or call 630-966-2229.