By Michael Newman, ILXCTF.com

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I was going through my notes after the conclusion of the meet this past weekend and there were so many things that I did not get to include in post-meet publications.

Let’s take a look back at the field events in each of the three classifications.

High Jump

There is not much to say about 3A Girls. It is Jelena Rowe of Bloom Township and then the rest of the pack. Rowe has such a nice comfort level at this point at the higher heights. I believe she is going to go higher outdoors especially with the amount of clearance she had on her 6-1 jump. “You were right on with your description of that jump as you can see she is 2-3 inches above the bar but her left trail leg is drawing up underneath it and will nudge it ever-so lightly before going over,” said one of her coaches Jay Wesley. “She should go 6'4 outdoors. I always tell Jelena that you are not a "REAL" high jumper until you jump your height!”

I really cannot draw any conclusions about the 3A Boys High Jump. We had three athletes clear 6-6 in Saturday’s competition. Wheeling’s Lawrence Knish is one of the hot jumpers in the state clearing 6-7 last week at the Mid-Suburban League Championships and then the win on Saturday. Batavia’s Jay Hunt was the indoor list leader at 6-9 and he was not at the meet. You also did not have defending 3A state champion Camron Donatlan of West Aurora who was not at the meet. He spent most of indoor season on his school’s basketball team. His only meet was a 6-2 clearance to finish third at the Upstate Conference Meet. He will be someone to watch once again over the next two months.

We saw the future of the Girls High Jump in both the 1A and 2A meets. Diamonasia Taylor of Urbana cleared 5-7 in middle school last year. The freshman had been stuck on 5-6 this indoor season until Saturday when she cleared 5-8 to win the 2A meet. DaeLin Switzer of St. Teresa won the 1A State title last year clearing 5-6. She cleared 5-7 twice indoors but only needed 5-5 to win Friday night in the 1A meet. Both athletes are dominating their divisions right now. I could see them at 5-10 sometime during the outdoor season.

The 1A Boys High Jump is loaded this year as was demonstrated at Friday’s 1A Meet. Jace Norman of Illini West cleared a personal best of 6-8 to win the meet as Pana’s Adam Miller finished second also clearing a personal best which is now 6-6. The event is deep with Nick Schultz of Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley leading a group of athletes that have already cleared 6-6 his season.

Horizontal Jumps

We did not mention Marmion Academy’s Seth Groom in the High Jump because we wanted to include him here. Groom had a fantastic meet winning three individual field events. He said afterwards he was expecting the win in the Triple Jump but the other two. The Long Jump win was a little controversial. Lanphier’s Dearis Herron appeared to take the lead on his final jump but the pit was raked before the electronic device could read the measurement. Herron was allowed to jump again but it was not as far as the previous jump. Herron finished fourth overall as Groom won (21-8.50) by a little more than an inch ahead of LaSalle-Peru’s Damarie Martin. It will be interesting outdoors. Remember, list leader Nyrell Sullivan of Sterling, who is close to 23-feet, fouled out in this meet.

Groom looked to be the favorite in the Triple Jump coming into the meet. He responded with a 46-7.75 indoor personal best winning he 2A Triple Jump by more than three feet. He again will have the advantage outdoors. His win in the High Jump was a surprise to him. He improved his personal best by three inches up to 6-6. The event is still up for grabs. Groom had the advantage at this meet but that could change dramatically outdoors. There are so many athletes between 6-4 and 6-6 right now.

Jaimie Robinson of Homewood-Flossmoor demonstrated her dominance in the 3A jumps with wins in both the Long Jump and Triple Jump. She said after the meet she just came down to have fun and just compete. That changed a little after she jumped a meet and personal record of 19-11 in the Long Jump. The event did not have Bloom Township’s Hannah Morris in the event as she was recovering from a hip-flexor injury that occurred the week before at the Gene Armer Invitational. I will be fun to watch the two athletes push each other way past 20-feet outdoors. Robinson is the queen of the 3A Triple Jump and that should say the same outdoors. Her 41-4.5 jump was the seventh time that she went 40-feet or farther indoors. She won the Triple Jump by four feet in this meet.

We did not see Imani Carothers of Brooks College Prep in the Triple Jump in this meet or any indoor meet the past two years. Her coach wants her to work on her technique in the Long Jump in competitions under roof. She did win the Long Jump (19-5.25) but Erika Furbeck of Geneseo and Serena Bolden of Springfield Southeast were within six inches in this meet. We also do have the mystery if Cahokia’s Mariya Hudson competes in this event. She jumped 18-9 outdoors last weekend at Edwardsville.

In the 1A Boys jumps, Jaylon Bester of Althoff Catholic was a last-minute entry at Top Times but did jump 22-1.50 for the win. Connor Artman of Illini West and Jordan Rowell of IC Catholic Prep finished second and third but were only separated by a quarter of an inch. Jason Duncan of St. Teresa unleashed a monster personal best of 45-9.25 to win the Triple Jump. I think he has more in his tank and could see a leap near 48-feet outdoors.

Ayo Abiona of Sandburg came out on top in the 3A Long Jump just missing 23-feet (22-10). Tony Rolfe of Chatham-Glenwood unleashed a two-foot personal best up to 48-6.25 in his win in the 3A Boys Triple Jump. He will turn on the heat on Lakes Community’s Cameron Ruiz outdoors in that event.

Pole Vault

It is hard not to imagine Zachery Bradford of Bloomington as the prohibitive favorite in the 3A Pole Vault. The junior has won this meet two years in a row with 16-6 his winning height. He came into the event at 15-feet in this meet just as other athletes were running out of attempts. His 17-2 attempts he missed but were all good efforts. That height is coming soon for him. If there is anyone that could get Luke Winder’s state record, it will be Bradford. He has two years to do that.

Lauren Seaver of Normal University has the same command in the 3A Girls Pole Vault. In the four meets that she competed in this indoor season, Seaver was over 12-feet in all of those meets with her 12-4 clearance at the Reno Pole Vault Summit being her best. Alyssa Morello of Lake Zurich and Seaver’s teammate Katie Reeves finished second and third clearing 11-6.

It showed in the 2A Girls Pole Vault that Aliyah Welter of Monticello and Josephine Held of Mt. Zion are the class of Class 2A. The two juniors both cleared 12-3 with Welter winning on fewer misses. It is hard to see anyone getting close two them even though third-place finisher Cora Uidi of Woodstock was only six inches lower.

The Boys’ side of the 2A vault was crazy with freshman Tyler Carrel of Urbana cleared a 14-3 personal best to win the competition. Josh Getz of Peoria Notre Dame had cleared 14-6 this indoor season. He did not clear his opening height in this meet.

Defending champion Curtis Gordon of Vandalia was not in the 1A Boys meet. He was in attendance for the meet but a hamstring injury slowed him down this indoor season. He did witness a good competition where Andrew Glynn of Staunton cleared a personal best of 14-9 to win the event as Williamsville sophomore Cameron Witts cleared 14-3 to finish second. Maddie Kelly of Bloomington Central Catholic had a great Friday night achieving a personal best of 11-9 to win the 1A Girls Pole Vault.

Shot Put

Where do we start here? When the meet was over Saturday night, there were four athletes ranked in the national indoor leaderboard top eight. Two Boys athletes were among the top ten nationally in the event.

Kathleen Young of Warrensburg-Latham had been sick earlier in the week. It showed as her first round throw of 48-9 was the best of the 1A competition. She ended her indoor season with a 52-4 best (US #2). Latavia Maines of Centralia had a 49-3 indoor best at Charleston (US #3). She was stuck on 46 foot puts during Saturday’s 2A meet, but unleashed a 48-9 final round put to win the event. The 3A Girls Shot Put was exciting to say the least. Courtney Morgan achieved a personal best in winning with a 48-8 put (US #4). Ellie Weltha of Bloomington had a big meet finishing second but upping her personal best to 47-7.75 (US #8).

It was a surprise in the 3A Boys competition when entering the fifth round, Justin Braskett of Machesney Park Harlem had the lead with a personal best of 58-5.25. Lockport Township’s John Meyer was close behind. Braskett was having a great day improving from a 53-11.25 best the week before at Byron. Meyer stepped up in a big way with a 60-3 effort in the fifth round to take the lead and the win. Meyer had an off day nearly four feet behind his 64-4 best. On an “off-day”, he was still the best in the competition. It should be fun to watch him compete against Edwardsville’s AJ Epenesa in two weeks at Belleville West. Meyer ends his indoor season ranked fifth nationally.

Sam Sikon of Carbondale wanted the indoor meet record but came close. He broke the 2A meet record in the third round with a 62-8.5 put. He fouled on his remaining attempts. Two of his fouls were close to 60-feet but he stepped out of the ring. I know most everyone would love to have those “fouled” attempts measured as their own. Sikon is that good that he can do that. It is the level of perfection that he searches for every time he steps into the ring. When he gets that perfection, he could find himself past 66-feet.

The top six finishers in the 1A Boys Shot Put achieved either seasonal bests or personal bests Friday night. Andy Bird of Hamilton/Warsaw had a 54-7 put to win the event. The top five finishers were all within two feet of each other making the outdoor season interesting.