MONDAY MORNING FINISH LINE

April 19, 2021

By Michael Newman

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Two months from now, we will be entering the final day of the track season in Charleston for the Boys Class 3A State Meet. Time will fly but we will have fun with actual meets.

There was not that much action in the first week of the season. Once the football season ends this coming weekend, meets will pick up at high speed. The performances will pick up. Athletes were getting used to racing again with some not even competing on an outdoor track in almost two years.

There are restrictions set forth by some conferences not allowing their schools to compete in out of conference meets. The IHSA / IDPH have said that it is acceptable for schools to travel to meets. In some instances, we are seeing schools in out of conference meets.

There have been things that we love seeing again. Athletes running back and forth across the infield cheering on their teammates during the mile relay. That kind of enthusiasm was missed in 2020. On the other hand, we’ve seen pictures of athletes lining the straightaway cheering on the runners. Some of them were not wearing masks. This is not over yet. Follow the rules and wear your mask.

There was one instance last week where a meet was delayed starting by 45 minutes because the host school on their home track was unsure where the starting line was for the 100 Meter Dash running in the normal direction that race would be run. My question is why are you hosting a meet? You have forgotten in a year where to start a race…on your HOME TRACK?

I am sure we will see some more strange events happening this spring. We hope that it is fewer than more.

TOP PERFORMANCES

There were not a ton of eye-popping performances in the past week. Weather did play an effect. Weather will come into play early this week when we are supposed to have snow. By the weekend, good weather will be on its way. I promise.

Coaches have come up with novel approaches to start the season. We saw that on April 15 at Prospect’s Distance Night where we saw some top performances in three distance events. Luis Vazquez of Hersey ran 9:30.2 in winning the 3200 Meter Run. Andrew Brockmeier of Northside Prep ran 4:33.4 to win the 1600 Meter Run. Jack Dechoudens of Prospect ran an early season #1 state time of 2:01.1 in winning the 800 Meter Run.

On the Girls side of that meet, Prospect swept the first three places in the 1600 Meter Run all finishing within a second of each other. Cameron Kalaway led the way with a 5:10.4 time followed by teammates Hailey Erickson and Audrey Ginsberg who both ran 5:10.9. Sophomore Mackenzie Ginder of Hersey in her first outdoor high school race ran 2:25.8 to win the 800 Meter Run.

The Kays Track and Field Invitational, held last Saturday in Kankakee, brought out some fantastic performances. Kalil Johnson of Evanston ran an IL #1 14.24 in winning the 110 Meter Hurdles. He came back to run an IL #2 40.07 in winning the 300 Meter Hurdles. Quaevon Autman of Kankakee also achieved a noteworthy double running 10.97 in winning the 100 Meter Dash and 22.86 in winning the 200 Meter Dash.

Colton Naffziger of Normal University was the first Illinois athlete clearing 15’ 0” or higher in the Pole Vault when he cleared 4.57m to win the event.

Megan Garrett of Charleston ran a state leading 2:21.63 in winning the 800 Meter Run. Evanston’s Girls quartet ran 1:45.51 in winning the 800 Meter Relay.

Tori Thomas of Rock Island Alleman started her outdoor season in style by clearing 3.97m (13’ 0.25”) in winning the Pole Vault at the Geneseo Quad Meet on April 14.

Julia Reglewski of Grayslake Central will be an athlete to keep an eye on in the weight events this spring. This senior had a 41.90m (137’ 5”) throw in the Discus and 44’5” in the Shot Put winning both events at the Lake Zurich Friday Night Fight on April 16. Brooke Johnston of Lake Zurich ran 5:12.12 in winning the 1600 Meter Run.

Victoria Spagnola of West Aurora put in some strong season opening times in a home triangular meet on April 17. Spagnola ran 14.85 in winning the 100 Meter Hurdles and then came back to run 45.31 in her win in the 300 Meter Hurdles.

Triad High School in Troy had a unique way to start the season running a Distance Carnival Meet with distance events that we normally do not see on the Illinois Distance Schedule in meets. Grace Meyer of Highland ran 11:38.90 to win the 3000 Meter Run. Julia Loeb, also of Highland, ran 5:16.84 to win the 1500 Meter Run. Olivia Phillips of DuQuoin ran 3:12.55 to win the 1000 Meter Run by 12 seconds. Sydney  Hartoin of Triad won the 600 Meter Run (1:44.88).

We saw the emergence of what freshman Gavin Genisio of Benton could do on the indoor track. He started out his outdoor season by running 8:50.03 to win the 3000 Meter Run by 12 seconds ahead of fellow freshman Dylon Nalley of Marion (9:02.94). Genisio’s teammate Reece Johnson ran 1:29.00 to win the 600 Meter Run finishing just ahead of Eriq Chavez of Mascoutah (1:29.81).

Alex Partlow of Carbondale ran the equivalent of a 4:25 mile when he ran 4:07.77 to win the 1500 Meter Run.

Malcom Bevans of St. Ignatius Prep started his season in a good way in the horizontal jumps’ events in a Quintangular Meet held at Palatine High School. Bevans jumped 6.73m (22’ 1”) to win the Long Jump. The senior came back to jump 14.52m (47’ 7.75”) in winning the Triple Jump.

Alex Sohn of Normal Community stepped into the spotlight at a dual meet at Metamora on April 17. His put of 17.59m (57’ 8.5”) in the state’s best performance so far in the Shot Put. Barry Evans of Mascoutah had a state leading throw of 50.65m (166’ 2”).

Miles Sheppard of Hamilton-Warsaw had three impressive performances this week in distance events. The junior ran a solo 9:31.2 for the 3200 Meter Run at a meet at Rushville-Industry on April 13. He came back two days later to run 4:31.07 in the 1600 Meter Run and 9:37.58 in the 3200 Meter Run at the Cansippi Relays in Missouri.

State Meet Thoughts

I’ve had over three weeks to think about how this state meet will work. The more thought that was put into the subject, the more I liked it.

The thinking that I have is that the prelims for the state meet are the sectional meets that ae held the week before. The sectional meets will not be like in other years where you just must finish in the top two to qualify for the trip to Charleston. Since the state meet will not have preliminary races before the final races. Each event is contested by sections. You could run a slow time in sectionals. You could win the state title by running the fastest time of your section of the event. It will put more suspense on each event watching to see if the winner of the final section has the fastest or best performance overall. Then again, how can you hold a state meet in this pandemic year? You can’t stay in Charleston for three days.

As a writer, it brings more stories of the process of an event. You can have two Pole Vault pits to move that event faster. Do you have two high jump pits? Otherwise, how long will it take to complete that event?

It will also take a ton of thought by coaches on how they are going to set up your relays for state. The sectional meets will be tough trying to qualify for state let’s say in distance events in a shorter time frame. Once we get to state, we could see some dynamic distance performances. Remember, we are going to have a same similar schedule as we would have in a normal State Final Saturday with time differences. Sprint times could go through the roof. Relay events will have that suspense of you have to be perfect in that one time.

The strategy? Great coaches will find their way to setting up their lineup to get close in winning a state team championship.

It is going to be fun to watch. Remember, the IHSA said that this season will be a one time shot. Let’s take advantage of the uniqueness of this year in Charleston this June. It will make up for what we went through in 2020.