Illinois High School Track & Field Weekend Highlights - April 10, 2022

Photo: Minooka after winning Saturday at Belleville West (Nick Lundin Photo)

By Michael Newman [email protected]

You know it is the beginning of the outdoor track and field season in Illinois when meets get cancelled because of weather. You can also see that when athletes either head south to the St. Louis area and to California to get some races in.

A number of meets were canceled on Saturday. There were some great performances that took place for Illinois athletes. You can read about the Illinois runners at the Arcadia Invitational. You can also read about some highlights of some of the other Illinois meets in the recaps below.

Belleville West Boys Invitational

The top boys teams in the state headed to the St. Louis area for warm and windy conditions at Belleville West in the 35 team meet. 3A Boys favorite Minooka came away with the team win (88 points) ahead of Edwardsville (68 points), East St. Louis-Senior (60 points), Plainfield North (58 points), and Metea Valley (52 points). 27 teams scored.

We will be talking a lot about Metea Valley’s Jalen Johnson over the next couple of months heading into next months state meet. Johnson came away with three wins out of the four events that he competed at in this meet. Johnson’s first race in the 110-Meter Hurdles resulted in a close third-place finish with winds over the allowable 2.0 m/s (+3.9). The top three finishers were within a tenth of a second of each other. Gabe Czako of Lockport edged Alec Sledge of Mt. Vernon 14.42-14.46 for the race win with Johnson running 14.52 for third. Demarlynn Taylor of East St. Louis-Senior ran 14.81 to finish fourth.

Johnson came back 20 minutes later to run 10.75 (+2.9) to win the 100 Meter Dash with Dylan Gramley of Plainfield North (10.82) and Taji Mathis Akinremi of Homewood-Flossmoor (10.86) finishing second and third. Six runners in that race finished under 11-seconds. The Metea Valley senior’s second win came when he ran 39.09 to win the 300-Meter Hurdles ahead of Czako (39.24) and Taylor (39.89). Johnson’s third win came against the wind as he ran 22.10 (-2.4) to win the 200 Meter Dash just two hundredths of a second ahead of Minooka’s Tyler Colwell (22.12).

Ryan Watts of Edwardsville also had a great day that included two wins with a meet record. He was named the meet’s most outstanding athlete when he broke Garett Sweatt’s 10-year-old record running 9:00.17 to win the 3200 Meter Run by 28 seconds. The time is even more impressive especially considering the wind that effected performances in this meet. Dylan Ybarra of O’Fallon led the pack behind Watts running 9:28.39 to finish second. The top six finishers were all under 9:31.

Watts came back in a dramatic 1600 Meter Run. Watts ran 4:20.98 to edge Minooka’s Zach Balzer (4:21.11) to win the race. Minooka’s Emerson Fayman ran 1:58.59 to win the 800 Meter Run.

Konrad Sacha of South Elgin had a huge race running a state leading 48.98 to win the 400 Meter Dash. Plainfield North ran 3:28.21 to edge East St. Louis-Senior (3:28.32) to win the 4x400m Relay. Minooka ran 1:29.55 to win the 4x200m Relay by over a second ahead of Andrew (1:30.69).

Downers Grove South Girls Invitational

Cold conditions at this meet did not scare back these athletes that competed in this meet. Grace Schager of Glenbard North set a new meet and school record running 10:50.42 to win the 3200 Meter Run. Sophia McNerney of Downers Grove South, in her first race back from an injury, ran 11:02.26 to finish second. Schager was also involved in a close 1600 Meter Run. Hinsdale Central swept the first two places as Catie McCabe ran 5:12.59 to win ahead of teammate Sarah Fischer (5:13.75), Schager (5:14.68), and Lyons Township’s Catherine Sommerfeld (5:14.99).

Na’Kiyah Robertson of Downers Grove South had a put of 38-3.75 to win the Shot Put ahead of Illinois Top Times Champion Courtney Clabough of Yorkville (37-10). Clabough came back to throw 121-1.25 to win the Discus.

Prospect Mike Stokes Relays

The Girls Relays meet at this track was cancelled Friday due to rain/snow and cold temperatures. Saturday’s meet at Prospect did take place but with major modifications to the schedule sized down to only five events. Dominik Balenda of Prospect had the performance of this “mini-meet” with a 49.27 time to win the 400 Meter Dash. 35 runners ran under five-minutes in the 1600 Meter Run. Joey Furlong of Barrington ran 4:24.95 to win the event ahead of teammate Zach Daniel (4:27.66) and Hersey’s Liam Naughton (4:27.70). Clayton Kamp of Prospect was a double winner in the Shot Put (53-10.75) and the Discus (142-5.5).

Thomas McBride Spartan Invitational at Springfield Southeast

This Girls meet put up great performances as it usually does. Ana-Liese Torian of Homewood-Flossmoor competed in her first meet of the season and came away with two wins. The state champion in the 100 Hurdles stayed away from that event in this meet running 12.73 to win the 100 Meter Dash just ahead of Kenwood’s Jaliyah Shepherd (12.76) and Sydney Weaver (12.95). Torian came back to run 26.10 to win the 200 Meter Dash finishing ahead of teammate Angela Alozie (26.31). Asia Thomas of Kenwood ran the state’s fastest time of 57.63 to win the 400 Meter Dash finishing ahead of Alozie (59.51).

Caroline Schoen of Homewood-Flossmoor destroyed the field in the 3200 Meter Run. Her time of 11:03.85 was over two minutes ahead of the rest of the field. Kenwood won three relays with the win in the 4x100m Relay (50.07), the 4x200m Relay (1:44.39), and the 4x400m Relay (4:09.12). Desire Poole of East St. Louis-Senior was a double winner in the Shot Put (35-3.5) and the Discus (113-2.25). Lillianna Ifft of Bloomington cleared 11-11.75 in winning the Pole Vault

ALAH Invitational

Alyssa Williams of Tuscola had a great meet winning three individual events. Williams jumped 16-10.75 to win the Long Jump. On the track, she ran 12.76 to win the 100 Meter Dash and 26.18 to win the 200 Meter Dash. Teammate Lia Patterson won two events. The freshman ran 15.55 to win the 100 Meter Hurdles. She came back to run the fastest time in the state (45.27) to win the 300 Meter Hurdles.

Max Allen of Arthur-Lovington won three events in the Boys Meet. Allen won the 100 Meter Dash (11.37), 200 Meter Dash (22.68), and the 400 Meter Dash (51.91). Beau Edwards of Arcola ran 1:59.75 to win the 800 Meter Run. He finished second in the 400 Meter Dash (52.51) behind Allen.

Jadon Robertson of Cowden-Herrick had a huge meet winning four events. He jumped 21-1.5 to win the Long Jump, cleared 6-6 to win the High Jump. And won both the 110 High Hurdles (14.90) and 40.14 for his first time running and winning the 300 Meter Hurdles. His teammate Daniel Lucas also had a huge day winning two events. He had a personal best of 60-2.75 to win the Shot Put. He came back to throw 163-8.5 to win the Discus.

Metamora Co-Ed Invitational

The Girls distance events were great in this meet. Delaney Fitzgerald of Normal University ran 10:59.29 to win the 3200 Meter Run ahead of Eureka’s Anna Perry (11:33.61). Zoe Carter of U-High won two events running 2:28.82 to win the 800 Meter Run and 5:21.47 to win the 1600 Meter Run ahead of Fitzgerald (5:23.53) and Perry (5:24.54).

Alex Sohn of Normal Community picked up wins in the Shot Put (58-11) and the Discus (151-5.25). His teammate Charles Cruse cleared 15-5 to win the Pole Vault.

Other highlights

Kyla Harris of Metea Valley and Ashley Oliver of Hoffman Estates both ran 12.64 in the 100 Meter Dash at Metea Valley Saturday. Harris won the race after review of the finish photo. Oliver came back to run 58.41 to win the 400 Meter Dash and 25.83 to win the 200 Meter Dash. Maeve Kelly of New Trier had a state reading mark of 40-10.25 to win the Shot Put.

Elena Rybak of Father McGivney ran a state leading 5:01.05 to easily win the 1600 Meter Run at East Alton-Wood River.

We saw what Jalen Johnson did at Belleville West. Earlier in the week, he ran state leading times in winning the 110 High Hurdles (14.33) and the 300 Meter Hurdles (39.05) at an open meet Tuesday at Plainfield North. Kyle Clabough of Yorkville opened his season in this meet with a 59-3 mark to win the Shot Put and a 157-9 throw in winning the Discus. Plainfield North edged Andrew 42.59 to 42.64 in the 4x100m Relay recording the top two times in the state in that event.