Illinois High School Track & Field Weekend Highlights - May 31, 2021

 

 Photo: Naperville North Boys' Team after winning the DuPage County Meet

 

By Michael Newman

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We could have said that it was the calm before the storm as we head into the next few weeks of the Illinois State Series. We could also say that it was the storm within the storms that hit most of Illinois on Thursday and Friday that slowed performances down.

 

Some Boys teams have gone through their conference meets and will look to rest up or tune-up over the next week. The rest of the Boys teams will go through conference meets the rest of this week. For Girls teams starting this Wednesday, their journey to Charleston begins.

 

Let’s look at some of the action from the past weekend. You can read about most of the Girls Conference meets on the link below.

 

ILLINOIS HS GIRLS CONFERENCE MEET HIGHLIGHTS

 

Kane County Meet @ Batavia

 

The 102nd edition of this meet was to take place on Friday. Meet officials moved it back to Saturday afternoon where the conditions were better and of course drier. Host Batavia won the team title with 119 points. St. Charles North with  94 points and Kaneland with 89 points finished second and third.

 

Jalen Buckley led Batavia with a pair of wins in the horizontal jumps. The junior had a 21’ 11.75” mark to win the Long Jump. He came back to jump 43’ 6.75” in winning the Triple Jump. Kaneland had a pair of wins in the field events. Ted Allen cleared 15’ 2.25” to win the Pole Vault ahead of teammate Aiden Gatz and Sebastian Waz of Dundee-Crown who both cleared 14’ 8”. Kaneland’s Porter Conroy cleared a personal best of 6’ 6.75” (IL #6) to win the High Jump.

 

Jamarion Stubbs of Elgin Larkin was the only athlete to win two events on the track in this meet. Stubbs ran 16.17 to win the 110 High Hurdles finishing ahead of Kaneland’s Porter who ran 16.31. Stubbs came back to run 40.88 to win the 30 Meter Hurdles with Allen pacing second (41.23).

 

It was a pair of solo wins for the St. Charles East duo of Micah Wilson and Luke Schildmeyer in the distance races. Wilson was by himself in running 9:17.86 to win the 3200 Meter Run with Ben Calusinski of Geneva a distant second (9:48.74). The same held true for Schildmeyer in the 160 Meter Run as he led from the start on his way to winning in a personal best of 4:16.52 (IL #13). Yusuf Baig of Burlington Central (4:29.33) and Mathew Olech of Harvest Christian Academy (4:30.78) finished second in third. Tim Archibald of Geneva held off Olech in the 800 Meter Run. Archibald’s winning time of 1:56.23 was just three tenths of a second ahead of Olech’s 1:56.53 personal best.

 

St. Charles North dipped under 43 seconds as they ran 42.94 to win the 4x100m Relay with Batavia in second (43.96). Batavia came back to run 1:32.65 to win the 4x200m Relay. Kaneland ran 1:33.50 to finish second. Batavia also captured top honors in the 4x400m Relay running a winning time of 3:27.95. West Aurora captured the 4x800m Relay (8:16.07) as Kaneland (8:17.39), St. Charles East (8:18.32), and St. Charles North (8:18.47) all within two seconds of the win.

 

The Shelby Open

 

Unkind conditions at this Friday meet did not stop Drew Rogers of Herscher and his pair of wins against strong fields in the 3200 Meter Run and 1600 Meter Run. Rogers used his kick in the final 400-meters to grab the win in the 3200 Meter Run (9:15.60) holding off Taylorville’s Chris Cherry (9:18.92) who finished second. There was a talented field behind these two led by Gavin Genisio of Benton in third (9:22.48), Miles Sheppard of Hamilton (COOP) in fourth (9:24.87), Justin Mumford of Trenton-Wesclin in fifth (9:28.31), and Layton Hall of Arthur-Lovington in sixth (9:33.39).

 

The 1600 Meter Run was tactical coming down to the final 400 of this race to decide the winner. Rogers again had the kick to win in 4:23.43. Cherry again was second (4:24.76) followed by Stephen Barreto of Rolling Meadows in third (4:26.19). Ryder James of Paxton-Buckley-Loda ran 4:27.41 to finish fourth with Genisio placing fifth (4:30.45). Eli Mojonnier of Bismarck-Henning ran 4:30.52 to finish sixth.

 

DuPage County Meet at Naperville Central

 

Cooler than normal weather affected some performances as teams tuned up for the upcoming conference week then state series. Neuqua Valley tuned up winning two of the four varsity relays. The quartet of Austin Burke, Nick Rohlwing, Nico Dovalovsky, and Max Mitchell ran 7:56.92 to easily win the 4x800m Relay finishing ahead of Naperville Central (8:07.59) and Naperville North (8:14.42). Kevin Saju, Nathan Howard, Rohlwing, and Aleksandras Majus helped the Wildcats win the 4x400m Relay less than a second ahead of Wheaton North (3:29.85). Naperville North ran 43.70 to in the 4x100m Relay by just three hundredths of a second ahead of Wheaton North (43.73).

 

Wheaton North’s Ryan Schreiner ran a personal best of 50.70 to win the 400 Meter Dash by more than a second. Tommy Paltzer of Naperville North in the 800 Meter Run (2:00.23), Chase Burrell of Naperville North in the 1600 Meter Run (4:29.72), and Michael Atkins of Wheaton-Warrenville South in the 3200 Meter Run, were the meet’s distance winners.

 

Jalen Johnson of Metea Valley ran a personal best of 14.70 to win the 110 High Hurdles. Zachary Marsico of Wheaton-Warrenville South had a personal best of 50’ 4.25” to win the Shot Put. Kyle Varga of Lake Park cleared 14’ 0” for the win and a new personal best.

 

Chicago Public League Boys Championships

 

Lane Tech was dominant in this meet winning 9 of the 18 scored events and scoring 159 points to win the Chicago City Championship. Taft scored 94.5 points to finish second ahead of Jones Prep and their 54 points.

 

Juan Manaog paced Lane Tech with his three individual event sprint wins. His first actual race was in the 4x100m Relay where he was part of the quartet that ran 44.23 for the win. He then ran 11.36 (into a -3.6 m/s headwind) to win the 100 Meter Dash. The senior then ran 51.06 to in the 400 Meter Dash ahead of teammate Jaylin Jones (51.99). The headwind was just as strong in the 200 Meter Dash but Manaog prevailed with his fourth win of the day (23.33) ahead of John Green of Agricultural Science.

 

Andy Niser of Jones Prep ran 9:36.42 to win the 3200 Meter Run by 23 seconds ahead of teammate Luke Benes. It was closer in the 1600 Meter Run but Niser ran 4:29.35 for the win with Kevin Gee of Mather close running 4:29.59 to finish second. Lucas Guidone of Taft ran 2:01.57 to win the 800 Meter Run with his teammate Michael Polizzi at 2:02.67 in second.

 

Lane Tech was also pushed by a double win in the weight events from Stevan Kamatovic. The senior achieved two personal bests with a 44’ 7.5” mark to win the Shot Put and a 127’ 6” throw to win the Discus. Travon Phillips of Uplift was a double winner clearing 5’ 8” to win the High Jump and a 20’ 6.75” best in winning the Long Jump.

 

Memorial Day Invitational at St. Rita

 

Kalil Johnson of Evanston had the performance of the meet running a state leading 14.10 to win the 110 High Hurdles. Johnson came back to run 39.27 (IL #5) to win the 300 Meter Hurdles to win by two seconds. Proviso West’s Isaiah Guider was the Boys Meet only other double winner running 11.34 to win the 100 Meter Dash with a 28 m/s tailwind and 22.76 to win the 200 Meter Dash.

 

The top Girls performance in this meet was Evanston’s 1:45.58 win in the 4x200m Relay.

 

Bill Jackson Invitational at Lockport

 

Tylar Mack of TF South picked up a double win in this ABC Style meet. Mack ran 10.90 to win the 100 Meter Dash and 21.91 (IL #5) to win the 200 Meter Dash. Gabe Czako of Lockport also had a great meet first running 14.66 to win the 110 High Hurdles and then a personal best 38.83 (IL #2) to win the 300 Meter Hurdles. Huntley’s Evan Gronewold went under 50 seconds for the first time running 49.94 (IL #7) to win the 400 Meter Dash.

 

Other Meet Highlights

 

Aidan Laughery of Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley ran a state leading 10.58 in the 100 Meter Dash in a small quad meet at Heyworth last Monday. Isaiah Chatman, also of Gibson City-Melvin Sibley, had a good meet running 14.77 (IL #9) in the 110 High Hurdles and 39.02 (IL #3) in the 300 Meter Hurdles. Preston Sumner of Carterville ran 10.83 (IL #6 tie) to win the 100 Meter Dash at the Carterville Invitational on Thursday.

 

Charlie Nolan of Normal West ran 22.15 (IL #8) in the 200 Meter Dash at the Bloomington Gld Invitational on May 27. Brandon Charleston of Bloomington ran 10.78 (IL #4 tie) in the 100 Meter Dash in the same meet. Kevyere Mack of Peoria Richwoods ran 14.63 (IL #5) to win the 110 High Hurdles.

 

The McLean County Meet produced some great top 10 state performances. Aden Sears of Eureka ran 49.15 (IL #3) to win the 400 Meter Dash ahead of teammate Micah Senior (49.34), IL #4). Senior jumped 21’ 9” to win the Long Jump with Sears jumping 20’ 0.25” to finish second.

 

Jackson Grant of Carbondale improved her personal best at Friday’s Collinsville Invitational in the Shot Put. He had a put of 56’ 9.5” (IL #4) to win the event. Luke Hatten of Lebanon had a 55’ 11.25” mark (IL #9) to finish second overall.

 

CJ Shoaf of Mahomet-Seymour improved his year state best in the High Jump clearing 7’ 0” to win at the U-High Invite #2 at Urbana. Teegan Davis of Princeton cleared 6’ 8.25” (IL #2) for the win  Saturday at Metamora.

 

Tori Thomas of Alleman did it again in a dual meet at Rock Island clearing an all-time state best of 13’ 9.25” in the Pole Vault. She is currently ranked #7 nationally.