Above – Katelynne Hart of Glenbard West on her way to win the 1600 Meter Run at the Downers Grove South Invitational (Laura Duffy Photo)

By Michael Newman, ILXCF.com Editor

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I always receive comments after the Belleville West Boys Invitational is completed. One of the biggest is: “That meet is amazing”. Well, it is. It starts with the way the meet is organized by Belleville West Boys Coach Patton Seagraves. It is a five plus hour meet with more than 30 teams involved. In some meets, you would be at the meet site for more than eight hours. This meet clicks rolling from one event to the next.

Don’t be concerned if your top athlete is in a “slower” section of an event. There are no slower sections. In the sections proceeding the concluding section of an event, you would see some amazing times that would-be event winners in any other meet contested on that day. The conditions were windy pushing some fast sprint times even faster.

I have made the four plus hour trip to the St. Louis Metro area for the past six years to see this meet. My recommendation to some coaches who are thinking of bringing their team down to the meet from the Chicago area is to do it. The investment that you make at the beginning of the outdoor season will pay off in the end a Charleston at the end of May.

Conditions were windy across the state like they usually are in this first full outdoor weekend of the year. Here are some of the top highlights from this past weekend. You can also read about the great competition last Saturday at Belleville West.

Downers Grove South Girls Invitational

Some of the top distance talent in the state met up hoping for some fast times. The winds slowed some of the events down bu there still were some great performances. The top even could have been the 1600 Meter Run where Glenbard West freshman Katelynne Hart dipped under five minutes for the first time outdoors when she ran a meet record 4:58.55 (IL #1) to win the race by almost seven seconds ahead of Hinsdale Central’s Reilly Revord (5:05.07, IL #2). Hart also anchored Glenbard West’s winning 3200 Meter Relay. The team of Hart, Lindsey Payne, Marika Tammaru, and Janie Nabholz ran a state leading 9:35.17 to win by 16 seconds ahead of WSC-Silver Rival Lyons Township (9:51.85, IL #3).

Claire Hamilton of Naperville North ran 2:19.66 (IL #4) to win the 800 Meter Run ahead of Hinsdale Central’s Grace McCabe (2:21.06, IL #7). Downers Grove South’s Nicole Muccianti was a double winner running 12.73 to win the 100 Meer Dash and then 26.13 to win the 200 Meter Dash. She was also a part of Downers Grove South’s winning 400 Meter Relay (50.80).

Arcadia Invitational (CA)

Some of the top Illinois Boys Teams headed west to run against some of the nation’s best. You might feel down after seeing that Danny Kilrea of Lyons Township finished 26^th in the 3200 Meter Run Invitational. The thing was that he ran 9:00.87 to achieve that! Cooper Teare of St. Joseph Notre Dame continued his great 2017 season running 8:41.86 for the win. Nine runners ran under 8:50 in that epic race. You should give credit to Kilrea for running his race. He went through the first 1600-meters in 4:30 and maintained that pace the rest of the way.

Seven of the top ten Illinois 3200 Meter Run performances came from races at Arcadia. Brayden Hamblen of Rock Falls ran 9:11.99 followed by Jake McEneaney of Neuqua Valley who ran 9:16.64. McEneaney ran 9:11.06 two weeks before at the Raleigh Relays at North Carolina State. Sean O’Connell of Hinsdale Central ran 9:20.06 to win his section of the distance. State Cross Country champions Neuqua Valley had three other runners under 9:25 with Jackson Jett (9:22.83), Ryan Kennedy (9:23.08), and Scott Anderson (9:24.99). Jeremy Adams of Jones Prep also made the top-ten list running 9:30.74.

Arthur Santoto of Jones College Prep ran 1:54.86 (IL #2) in one of the sections of the 800 Meter Run closely followed by Neuqua Valley’s Isaiah Robinson (1:55.85, IL #5). Vince Zona of Lyons Township ran a good race staying at his pace for most of the race then kicking in for a 4:16.34 (IL #1) time to finish sixth in the Invitational Boys 1 Mile Run.

Lyons Township and Neuqua Valley ran the top two times in the state in the 3200 Meter Relay but in different sections. Neuqua Valley, with Matt Milostan, Ryan Kennedy, Tyler Bombacino, and Josh Mollway as their quartet, ran 8:02.47 to finish second in the seeded section. Mollway brought Neuqua Valley from sixth o second in the final 800-meters with his 1:57.9 split. Lyons Township ran 8:02.12 to finish 17^th in the Invitational section with Charles Harders, Alex Lynch, Daniel Palmer, and Andrew Tarasuk part of their quartet. Imagine how fast they would be with Vince Zona or Danny Kilrea a part of it. Nevertheless, this team has the fastest ime in the state with the potential to dip under 7:50 by the end of the month.

With American Fork blazing to a new national record (16:41.30) to win the 6400 Meter Relay, the webcast did not show what was going on behind the Utah team. Neuqua Valley ran 17:37.22 to finish fourth overall with Jake McEneaney (4:21.8), Tyler Bombacino (4:29.2), Scott Anderson (4:22.8), and Josh Mollway (4:23.8) part of the team. Jones College Prep, with Arturo Santoro, Zach Benes, Daniel Garcia-Rico, and Eric Wong, ran 18:09.20 in the seeded section of that relay to finish seventh.

Thomas McBride Invitational @ Springfield Southeast

Some of the top sprint times in the state occurred in this Girls meet due to the tailwind that helped. Nevertheless, we should see some of these athletes in the blocks at State Finals Saturday next month.

Three runners went under 12 seconds in the 100 Meter Dash with a 3.0 wind (m/s) at their back. Tina Martin of Decatur Eisenhower led the way with her 11.70 win followed by Octavia Cato of McCluer South-Berkely MO (11.82) and Danville’s Ameia Wilson (11.86). Wilson came back to run 24.49 (3.2 m/s) to win the 200 Meter Dash ahead of Bloomington’s Kylie Welch (24.95). Earlier in the meet, Welch ran 56.33 to win the 400 Meter Dash by almost by a full second ahead of Martin (57.22).

Taura Foreman of Evanston ran the state’s fastest time in the 100 Meter Hurdles as she ran 14.38 (2.3 m/s) ahead of East St. Louis-Senior’s Rokelle Stanley (14.47) and Springfield Southeast’s Dontavia Howard (14.86). Stanley came back to run 44.48 to win the 300 Hurdles almost two seconds ahead of Foreman (46.19). Stanley also cleared 5-2 to win the High Jump.

Evanston Township’s Enyaeva Michelin was a double winner running the state’s fastest time in the 800 Meter Run (2:17.83) and then coming back to run 5:06.97 to win the 1600 Meter Run ahead of Danville’s Shanice Garbutt (5:08.73).

Homewood-Flossmoor Girls Invitational

It was close in the team competition as Lincoln-Way East scored 125.75 points to finish ahead of Edwardsville (123 points), Downers Grove North (118.125 points), and Rock Island (117.25 points).  Homewood-Flossmoor’s Jaimie Robinson had a big meet winning three individual events. She dominated the Triple Jump jumping 40-8 (IL #1) to win by more than four feet ahead of Rich Central’s Jayla Campbell (36-1.5). Robinson headed to the track where she ran 12.46 to win the 100 Meter Dash and 25.64 to win the 200 Meter Dash.

Laura LaDere of Lincoln-Way East had a personal best of 44-0 (IL #4) to win the Shot Put. It was the same for Bolingbrook’s Claire Young as she cleared 5-8 to win the High Jump.

Jennifer Kearns Invitational @ Huntley

Jelena Rowe of Bloom Township started off her outdoor season clearing 5-10 (IL #1) to win the High Jump. She is currently tied for second nationally with that clearance. She has the best jump in the nation both indoors and outdoors when she cleared 6-1 at the Illinois Top Times Championships on March 25.

Metamora Co-Ed Invitational

Myles Aldridge of Normal University had a big day in the horizontal jumps. He jumped 45-3.75 to win the Triple Jump, then came back to jump 22-9.5 to win the Long Jump ahead of the 21-5.5 jump by Chatham-Glenwood’s Tony Rolfe (21-5.5). Rolfe on the track ran 10.93 to win the 100 Meter Dash.

Jake Gillum of Metamora was a double winner running 2:04.04 to win the 800 Meter Run. He came back to run 4:27.21 to win the 1600 Meter Run. Jack Franklin of Normal University won the 3200 Meter Run (9:41.78) ahead of Metamora freshman Adam Gilbreah-Glaub (9:44.70).

Lauren Seaver of Normal University started her outdoor campaign by jumping 11-6 to win the Pole Vault.

Best Four Invitational at Wheaton North

The High Jump was one of the top events in this Boys meet. Erik Stubner of Wheaton-Warrenville South and Ethan Larson of Glenbard West both cleared 6-5 with Stubner winning in fewer misses. Tom Ansiel of Wheaton-Warrenville South battled some tough cross winds to clear 15-1 to win the Pole Vault. Less than a second separated the top three runners in the 800 Meter Run. Joey Simon of Wheaton North ran 1:58.00 to take the win ahead of Wheaton-Warrenville South’s Kyle Thompson (1:58.34) and Naperville Central’s Thomas Shilgalis (1:58.63).

Gebhardt-Worley Invitational @ Oregon

Deion McShane of Freeport was a double winner running 14.82 to win the 110-Meter-High Hurdles and then 39.71 to win the 300 Meter Hurdles.