Migas clears personal best at Milrose Games

Photo: Paul Migas in action Saturday at the Armory (John Nepolitan /DyeStat.com Credit)

By Michael Newman

Paul Migas of Lake Zurich traveled east this weekend to New York City to compete in the 115th edition of the Milrose Games at the Nike Track Field Center at the Armory. Migas found the Armory runways to his liking as he finished fourth overall with a personal best of a 16-1 clearance.

The junior took only seven attempts in his competition on Saturday. He was on fire in this meet clearing 14-5.25, 15-1, and 15-7 on his first attempt. He also cleared his personal best of 16-1 on his first attempt and was tied for the lead after that height. He did miss on all three attempts at 16-6.75 to end his day. Migas is top ranked athlete in Illinois after this weekend. He is currently tied for #13 nationally.

One of the biggest performances within Illinois came Friday night at the Normal West Invitational inside the Shirk Center. Freshman Isaiah Whittaker of Bloomington Central Catholic cleared a personal best of 15-6 to win the Pole Vault in his first high school competition. Whittaker is currently the second rated freshman in the nation in the event.

His past results make this performance on Friday not so big of a surprise. He competed at the Texas Elite PV Expo at the end of December and cleared a then personal best of 15-4.25. He won in eighth grade the IESA State title clearing 15-0. His best in seventh grade was 13-0. The best is yet to come for this up and coming athlete.

Elsewhere in this non-scored meet, East St. Louis-Senior had some good performances winning three events. Demarlynn Taylor ran 8.23 o win the 60m Hurdles ahead of Cahokia’s Keshawn Lyons (8.35) and Grant Tode of Chatham-Glenwood (8.40). The Flyers won two of the three relay events running 1:33.80 to win the 4x200m Relay and 3:32.82 in winning the 4x400m Relay.

The field events were on fire in this meet besides Whittaker’s performance. Alex Sohn of Normal Community achieved an indoor personal best of 60-6.5 to win the Shot Put. Chase Crawford of Cahokia (57-8.5) and David Russell of Illinois Valley Central (54-8.75) finished second and third. Chris Taylor also of Normal Community cleared 6-6.75 to win the High Jump.

Daniel Lacy of Champaign Centennial ran 7.01 to win the 60 Meter Dash after running 6.96 in his preliminary heat. Sam Atkinson of Mt. Zion ran 2:00.43 to win the 800 Meter Run by over two seconds. His teammate Julian Baker ran 4:33.23 to win the 1600 Meter Run by more than 14 seconds. Both runners were part of Mt. Zion’s quartet that ran 8:32.24 to win the 4x800m Relay.

Highlights from some of the other meets this weekend

The meets picked up on the second weekend of the IHSA season where teams were competing in smaller meets.

Minooka, Neuqua Valley, and Plainfield South collided Saturday morning at Plainfield South in a hand-timed meet. The 1600 Meter Run was high powered with eight runners under 4:30 in this race. Camyn Viger (4:23.9) and Ethan Reynoso (4:24.6) of Plainfield South finished 1-2 in this race followed by Zachary Balzer of Minooka (4:25.0) and Zac Close of Neuqua Valley (4:25.9). Plainfield South’s BJ Sorg (4:26.5), Gavin Borger (4:27.5), and Jack Wright (4:29.2) were next with Robert Glenn of Neuqua Valley placing eighth (4:29.5). Andrew Undesser of Minooka and Nick Pennington of Neuqua Valley cleared 13-11.25 in the Pole Vault.

Huntley Girls Invitational #1 – Rylee Lydon of Prairie Ridge had a good opening meet winning three individual events. She cleared 5-6.25 in winning the High Jump. She ran 25.67 to win the 200 Meter Dash. Her best performance came in the Long Jump where she jumped a personal best 19-7 to win the event finishing ahead of defending state champion Alexandria Johnson of Huntley who jumped 18-11.5.

Rachel Soukup of Prairie Ridge ran a strong distance double in this meet. She lapped the field in running an indoor personal best of 10:52.19 to win by more than a minute. Breanna Burak of Huntley ran 5:06.06 to win the 1600 Meter Run ahead of Soukup (5:10.46) and Brittney Burak (5:15.00). Bella Domier of Grayslake Central dominated the 800 Meter Run winning with a 2:21.83 time.

Proviso West Valentine Relays – Highland Park won two of the three events on the Boys division of this co-ed meet. The Giants anchored by Nate Wehner ran 8:20.21 to win the 4x800m Relay to edge second-place DeKalb (8:21.06) and Payton Prep (8:25.96). Highland Park also ran 3:37.50 to win the 4x400m Relay ahead of Proviso West (3:37.89) and Lyons Township (3:39.94). Proviso West was the other team winner in the Boys Meet running 1:34.32 to win the 4x200m Relay to win by over two seconds ahead of Mt. Carmel (1:36.93).

Bolingbrook was an easy winner in the Girls 4x200m Relay with a 1:48.66 time and winning by almost four seconds ahead of Proviso West (1:52.48) and West Chicago (1:52.74). Homewood-Flossmoor destroyed the field in the 4x400m Relay running 4:12.18 and winning by 11 seconds ahead of Bolingbrook (4:23.65) and Lane Tech (4:26.30). Taft ran 10:33.16 to win the 4x800m Relay.

Benet Academy Early Bird at Gately Park – The top performance in this Sunday meet came from St. Ignatius Prep’s Annika Swan. The freshman ran under 5-minutes for the first time in the 1600 Meter Run. Her time of 4:59.15 was 16 seconds faster than second-place Colette Kinsella of Nazareth Academy (5:15.96). Swan was also part of St. Ignatius Prep’s team that ran 9:42.26 to win the 4x800m Relay. Last year three-time state champion Emmi Scales of St. Viator started her season on a high note running 8.56 to win the 60 Meter Hurdles to win by over two seconds. Scales came back to run 25.59 to win the 200 Meter Dash by over a second.