Things to Watch For at 2021 IHSA Boys Sectional Meets

By Michael Newman

[email protected]

We head to the Boys Sectional Meets that begin on Wednesday. Here are things that I found interesting in some of the sectional meets that will take place from June 9 through June 11. There is more emphasis on the distance events and entries that are noteworthy.

Class 3A

The Huntley Sectional is not a distance heavy meet. Josh Delgado of Grant Community is the top seed in the 800 Meter Run by four seconds. Karson Hollander of Crystal Lake Central and Will Gelon of Prairie Ridge with the only times under 10-minutes in the 3200 Meter Run. It should be an interesting race between the two Crystal Lake rivals. Gelon will be the top seed in the 1600 Meter Run.

Two of the top teams in the state, Homewood-Flossmoor and Minooka, face off at the Homewood-Flossmoor Sectional Wednesday in what should be a great meet. Tyler Colwell of Minooka, Tylar Mack of TF South, and Marshall Ellis will race against each other in the 100 Meter Dash and 200 Meter Dash. Both Ellis and Colwell are on their team’s relay cards in the 4x100m Relay and 4x200m Relay. Vincent Van Eck and Adam Shaw of Minooka are the top seeds in the 800 Meter Run. Four runners at 2:00 or under are in that race. Marcellus Mines of Joliet West is the top seed in the 1600 Meter Run followed by Zachary Balzer of Minooka. No other runners in the field have run faster than 4:40. Lincoln-Way Central’s Caden Simone and Jay Parker at 9:31 are the top seeds in the 3200 Meter Run. Nolan Rogers of Lincoln-Way East is the only other runner under 10 minutes. Minooka, at 7:52.56, is the fastest seed by 33 seconds in the 4x800m Relay.

Oak Park-River Forest will be the team to watch for in Wednesday’s Lane Tech Sectional. Lucas Guidone of Taft and Matt Cull of Maine South are the top 2 seeds in the 800 Meter Run. The 1600 Meter Run is sneaky fast with four runners under 4:24. Kevin Gee of Mather is the top seed at 4:21.89. Matt Coyle of Maine South and Andy Niser of Jones Prep are seeded under the 3200 Meter Run qualifying standards. Coyle has a seasonal best at 9:25.10. Oak Park-River Forest is the top seed in the 4x1, 4x2, and 4x8 relays. Lane Tech at 3:27.16 is just ahead of OPRF at 3:28.24 in the 4x4.

Thursday’s Bloomington Sectional will show what Edwardsville is thinking for next week’s 3A State Finals. Their star sprinter Brandon Battle is the top seed in the 100 Meter Dash, 200 Meter Dash, and 400 Meter Dash. The senior is on the relay card for the 4x100m Relay, not the 4x400m Relay. Five runners have times under two minutes in the 800 Meter Run led by Byron Jones of Belleville East and Alex Tillock of O’Fallon. Geordan Patrylak of Edwardsville is the top seed in the 3200 Meter Run by 20 seconds ahead of the rest of the field. Patrylak is seeded third in the 1600 Meter Run behind teammate Ryan Luitjohan and Washington’s Jackson Ward. O’Fallon, Edwardsville, and Chatham-Glenwood are the top three seeds in the 4x800m Relay.

Jacob Myers of Lake Zurich along with Warren’s Griffin Pasha and Luke Wiley are all under 4:20 and the top seeds in the 1600 Meter Run at the Grayslake Central Sectional. Wiley is the top seed in the 3200 Meter Run. His nearest competition is 41 seconds behind him. Pasha should be the anchor for Warren in  the 4x800m Relay who is seeded third behind Libertyville and Grayslake Central. Javerius McGuinn of Wauconda and Palatine’s freshman Dominik Ball are the top two seeds in both the 100 Meter Dash and 200 Meter Dash. Ball will run on his team’s 4x100m Relay and the compete in the Long Jump.

Four runners at 4:22 or faster are entered in the 1600 Meter Run at the Glenbrook South Sectional on Thursday. Stephen Barretto of Rolling Meadows, Jason Polydoris of Highland Park, Luis Vazquez of Hersey, and Andrew Flynn of New Trier are those four runners. Six runners are under the 9:29.30 qualifying standard in the 3200 Meter Run. That race is loaded led by Nick Falk of New Trier, Spencer Werner of Loyola Academy, and Barretto all have seed times under 9:20.

Thursday’s Batavia Sectional Meet will have some great distance races. Ben Calusinski of Geneva and Micah Wilson of St. Charles East are the top two seeds in the 3200 Meter Run along with Joey Furlong of Barrington and Ryan Mansour of Batavia. Wilson and his teammate Luke Schildmeyer are the top seeds in what should be a loaded 1600 Meter Run. Batavia’s Quintin Lowe, Riley Newport of DeKalb, Calusinski, and Jack FitzPatrick of Barrington all have seed times under 4:24. Barrington and St. Charles East are under 8:00 and the top seeds in the 4x800m Relay. Schildmeyer is on the St. Charles East relay card. Wilson is not. Jonah Fallon and Anthony Bradley of Batavia are the top two seeds in the 400 Meter Dash. Joshua Duncan is the top seed in the 100 and 200. St. Charles North and Batavia lead all entries in the 4x100m Relay.

One of the top overall sectionals in the state as well as the top distance meets is at the Naperville North Sectional on Thursday. Lyons Township ran the fastest time in the state last week and lead the field with Neuqua Valley and Sandburg both under 8 minutes. Hinsdale Central is at 8:02. Neuqua Valley’s Nicolas Dovalovsky and Hinsdale Central’s Daniel Watcke are both on their team’s relay cards. No information if either of them will run that relay in this meet. The 3200 Meter Run has nine runners in the field that have run faster than 9:35. That is close to the 9:29.30 standard. Three runners are under that standard led by Owen Hays of Lyons Township. Daniel Watcke is the top seed in the 800 Meter Run followed by Jocqael Thorpe of Lyons Township and Brett Wasick of Bolingbrook. Watcke is also entered in the 1600 Meter Run behind Dovalovsky’s top seed of 4:13. Whether that entry is a safety net if Watcke does not qualify in the 800 we will find out at race time. There are five runners under 4:20 and nine runners under 4:25 in this sectional race. Max Mitchell of Neuqua Valley is the top seed in both the 200 Meter Dash and 400 Meter Dash. He also is on his team’s relay cards in the 4x1, 4x2, and 4x4. The hurdle races should be fantastic as Gabe Czako of Lockport and Jalen Jackson of Metea Valley face off in both of those races.

The Rock Island Sectional on Thursday has Austin Popplewell of Yorkville the top seed in the 3200 Meter Run with six total athletes in this field having run under 10 minutes. Ivan Westcott of Yorkville and Nick Henz of Oswego East are the top seeds in the 1600 Meter Run with Popplewell third. Niko Schultz of Plainfield South is the top seed in the 400 Meter Dash. Schultz is also entered in the 800 Meter Run seeded behind Ryan Maseman of Plainfield North. Plainfield North, Moline, and Waubonsie Valley are the top three teams in the 4x100m Relay. Sean Kirkwood and Alex Wiley of Waubonsie Valley are the top two seeds in the 110 High Hurdles with Moline’s Saiheed Jah close to a tenth of a second behind. Kirkwood is the top seed in the 300 Meter Hurdles.

The final 3A meet is the Hoffman Estates Sectional held on Friday. York and Glenbard West are the top two seeds in the 4x800m Relay. The next team, Conant, is 20 seconds behind the first two teams. Colin Hill and Mickey Vreeland of York along with Pierce Cousins of Glenbard West have run under 4:23 for the 1600 Meter Run. There is a gap of 14 seconds between these three runners and the rest of the field. Cousins will also run on Glenbard West’s 4x800m Relay quartet. Michael Atkins of Wheaton-Warrenville South along with York’s Ethan Summer and Jeff Luka are the top three seeds in the 3200 Meter Run. Sean Hopkins is in the 100 Meter Dash, 200 Meter Dash, and the two horizontal jumps. Wheaton North, York, and Wheaton-Warrenville South are all within three tenths of a second of each other in the 4x100m Relay.

Class 2A

The Class 2A Sectional Meets are spread out over Wednesday and Thursday. The Richmond-Burton Sectional held on Wednesday. We could have three qualifiers in the 3200 Meter Run with the qualifying time of 9:53.65. Peter Walsdorf of Marian Central Catholic is the big favorite in that race with D’Artagnon Beaver of Rockford Christian and Luke Chaffin of Marengo most likely challenging for the second spot. Michael Schumacher of St. Viator and Beaver are the top seeds in the 1600 Meter Run. Zach Secor of Marengo and Ethan Walsh of Rockford Christian have run under 4:40. Walsdorf is also in the field doubling back and could win this race. Schumacher will be part of the team’s top seeded 4x800m Relay team with Marengo and Rockford Christian next. Stephen Thomas of Rockford Christian is the top seed in the 800 Meter Run. Rockford Christian is the top seed in the 4x1, 4x2, and 4x4 and should win all three relays.

Mascoutah and East St. Louis-Senior will be the teams to watch at the Mascoutah Sectional. Devonte Ford of East St. Louis-Senior is the top seed in the 110 High Hurdles, 300 Meter Hurdles, and the 200 Meter Dash. Ford should also be a part of their 4x400m Relay that have a 3:27 seed time two seconds ahead of Mascoutah. East St. Louis-Senior is the top seed in the 4x100m Relay. Mascoutah is the top seed in the 4x200m Relay. Marion is the other team to watch for in these two relays. Alex Partlow of Carbondale and Gavin Genisio of Benton are the top two runners in the 3200 Meter Run. Both have run under 9:20. Tucker Poshard of Carbondale and Joe Schwartz of Waterloo are next two seeded runners. The four runners in the 3200 are the top four in the 1600 Meter Run with Genisio at 4:13.93 the top seed. Jordan Eddy of Mascoutah is the top runner heading into the 800 Meter Run.

The question is how fast Drew Rogers of Herscher will have to run in the 1600 Meter Run at the Herscher Sectional on Wednesday. Rogers and Ryder James of Paxton-Buckley-Loda have times under 4:25 with no other runners within 30 seconds of them. It will be the same situation in the 3200 Meter Run with Rogers and James leading the way. The name of the game for both juniors is to run times that will get them in the fast sections at state the following week. Quaevon Autman of Kankakee and Dalton Woods of Herscher have the top seed times in both the 100 Meter Dash and 200 Meter Dash.

The Lincoln Sectional will be held Thursday at Springfield’s Memorial Stadium. Easton Rosen of Highland will be the top seed in the 1600 Meter Run, Brenden Heitzig of Lincoln the top seed in the 3200 Meter Run, and Matt Herren of Rochester will be the top seed in the 800 Meter Run. Herren is also entered in the 1600 Meter Run. CJ Edison of Triad and Tierre Butler of Springfield Lanphier are among the top runners in the 100 Meter Dash.

The Rochelle Sectional on Thursday will feature Dixon’s Brock Dregenberg, with a 1:56.71 best, as the top seed in the 800 Meter Run. Donald Gramer of Sycamore and Martin Diaz of Plano have times under 2:01 and will be his closest competition. Drengenberg is scheduled to double back in the 1600 Meter Run with teammate Cadyn Grafton. Both have times under 4:20. Grafton is the top seed in the 3200 Meter Run. He has the fastest season time by 45 seconds in this event. Michael Marrs of Sandwich will be the sprinter to watch in this meet. He has the fastest times in this meet in both the 100 Meter Dash and 200 Meter Dash.

Burlington Central will look to get qualifiers down to Charleston from Thursday’s Glenbard South Sectional. Yusuf Baig of Burlington Central has the top seed time by over 30 seconds in the 3200 Meter Run. Grayden Rill of Fenwick and Baig have run under 4:30 and have the top two seasonal times in the 1600 Meter Run. Rill, Kamil Kotarski of Elmwood Park, and Tommy May of Montini have times under 2:01 in the 800 Meter Run and will be some of the runners to watch for. Burlington Central has the top times in the 4x800m Relay and 4x400m Relay and should advance both of those groups to Charleston.

Jalen Jones of Evergreen Park and Kaleb Brown of St. Rita are some of the sprinters to keep an eye on at the St. Rita Sectional. Jones and Brown are the top two seeds in the 100 Meter Dash. St. Rita has the top seed time in the 4x100m Relay in this meet. They should advance in that event as well as in the 4x200m Relay. Nicky Edwards-Levin of Chicago University should have an easy time qualifying in both the 800 Meter Run and 1600 Meter Run. Edwards has the fastest time in the 800 by 13 seconds and by 33 seconds in the 1600 Meter Run.

The Metamora Sectional on Thursday sets up to have some great distance races. Wilson Georges of Limestone is entered in both the 800 Meter Run and the 1600 Meter Run. Georges has the fastest time by 5 seconds ahead of Ben LaPrad of Macomb in the 800 Meter Run. Georges, at 4:19.09, has the fastest time in the 1600 Meter Run over a good field that includes Ian O’Laughlin of Metamora, Charlie Kistner of Olympia, and Joseph Scheele of Mahomet-Seymour. O’Laughlin and Kistner are the top two runners in the 3200 Meter Run. Morton, Olympia, and Mahomet-Seymour all have times under 8:20 setting up what should be a tight 4x800m Relay. We get to see Eureka’s great relay work in this meet. The Hornets have the fastest times in the 4x100m, 4x200m, and 4x400m. They should advance all to EIU. Aden Sears and Micah Senior will be doing some relay work in this meet. They could also look to run under 49 seconds in the 400 Meter Dash. CJ Shoaf of Mahomet-Seymour will look to qualify in four events having the top times in the 10 High Hurdles, and 300 Meter Hurdles. He should also win the High Jump where he has cleared 7-0 this season.

The 1600 Meter Run should be a great race at the Tolono Unity Sectional. Brooks Harlan of Centralia has the fastest time in this sectional (4:15.51) with Chris Cherry of Taylorville at 4:21.6. Cherry ran 9:17.56 a month ago in the 3200 Meter Run in Palatine. The senior has the fastest time heading into this race by 34 seconds. Harlan will run in the 800 Meter Run where he has the fastest time (1:59.78). Trey Mygatt of Mt. Vernon could be his chief competition. Kyle Burgoni of Tolono Unity will be the athlete to chase down in the sprints. The senior has the fastest times in the 100 Meter Dash and 200 Meter Dash.

Class 1A

The 14 Class 1A Sectionals are split up where a group of seven will compete on Wednesday with the other sectionals holding their meets on Friday. Isaac Stanford of Flora will look to qualify in the tree distance events at the Newton Sectional. Stanford has a time of 10:23.84 with Newton’s Nick Zwilling within a second of him. Stanford, at 2:02.0, has the fastest time in the 800 Meter Run by three seconds ahead of Brayden Cox of Neoga. One second separates Stanford, Zwilling, and Noah Tegeler of St. Anthony in the 1600 Meter Run. The qualifying time is 4:39.80. Stanford has the fastest time at 4:42.22.

The Chester Sectional should spotlight two of the top distance runners in Class 1A. Justin Mumford of Trenton-Wesclin has run 9:28.31 with the fastest time in the 3200 Meter Run. Tyler Guthrie of Father McGivney should be Mumford’s chief competition. Three runners are under 4:35 in the 1600 Meter Run led by Justin Mumford of Trenton-Wesclin. Jack Hiller of Althoff Catholic and Guthrie are 13 seconds behind Mumford, but both should qualify. Tommy Marron of Breese Mater Dei is under 2 minutes at 1:58.66 in the 800 Meter Run. He has the top time in the event by 10 seconds.

Ty Barbre of Carmi-White County has run 9:36.6 and has the top time in the 3200 Meter Run at the DuQuoin Sectional. Barbre also has the top time in the 1600 Meter Run at 4:24.7 and the fastest time by 17 seconds ahead of Pinckneyville freshman Isaac Teel. Seth Hamerski of Bluford Webber has a 2:02.34 best and the time in the 800 Meter Run.

The Seneca Sectional on Wednesday has Lucas Hoffman of Ottawa Marquette the top runner in the 1600 Meter Run (4:40.96) over three seconds ahead of Chase Provost of Kankakee McNamara.

Harvest Christian Academy will look to qualify multiple distance athletes in the Hope Academy Sectional. Matthew Olech and Daniel Winkelman of Harvest Christian Academy are the top two seeds in the 3200 Meter Run and should qualify. The 1A qualifying time is 10:12.64. Six runners are under that standard including Mac Kittrell of DePaul College Prep, Akili Parekh of Latin School, Max Elder of Northridge Prep, and Kieran Subra of Lycee Francais de Chicago. Three runners are under two minutes in the 800 Meter Run. Hayden Colclasure of Harvest Christian Academy leads the way followed closely by Andrew Brockmeier and Mark Masaka of Northridge Prep. We could have five runners qualify in the 1600 Meter Run. Olech leads with a 4:18.42 time followed by Ryan Hardiman of Latin School and Winkelman. Harvest Christian Academy has one of the top 1A times in the 4x800m Relay and could get close to 8:00 in this race.

The distances races should be great Wednesday night at the St. Joseph-Ogden Sectional. Henry Laufenberg of Urbana University has the top sectional time in the 3200 Meter Run. Eli Mojonnier of Bismarck-Henning has one of the top 1A times in the state at 1:56.44 for the 800 Meter Run. Brandon Mattsey of St. Joseph-Ogden figures to be his top competition. Mojonnier and Laufenberg are the top two runners in the 1600 Meter Run and will push each other to fast times. St. Joseph-Ogden and Bismarck-Henning have the fastest two times in the 4x800m Relay. Both Mattsey and Mojonnier should compete in their respective quartets.

Miles Sheppard of Warsaw will look to qualify in two distance events at the Rushville-Industry Sectional. Sheppard has 9:24.78 seed time in the 3200 Meter run some 32 seconds ahead of Cannen Wolf of Liberty. Sheppard and his teammate Noah Stout are good bets to qualify in the 1600 Meter Run. Sheppard’s best is 4:26.4. Isaac Jones of Astoria has run 1:58.0 in the 800 Meter Run and will be challenged by Tyler Bickerman of Rushville-Industry and Adam Bohm of Havana.

Heading to Friday and some top distance events, the Winnebago Sectional offers Aiden Ruiz of Dakota and Gage Fox of Rockford Lutheran in the 1600 Meter Run. Winnebago has the top times in the three sprint relays (4x1, 4x2, 4x4). They should qualify in all three events.

The Tuscola Sectional gives us some top distance races Friday evening. Arthur-Lovington should sweep the top two places in the 3200 Meter Run led by Layton Hall and Logan Beckmier. Ben Ross of Marshall is also a qualifying possibility. Hall will be the top runner in the 1600 Meter Run at 4:27.56 and 12 seconds ahead of the rest of the field. Phoenix Firnhaber of Shelbyville will be the favorite in the 800 Meter Run at 2:02 and some five seconds ahead of the rest of the pack.

Some good races should happen at the Erie Sectional. Four runners could qualify for state in the 3200 Meter Run. Jacob Behla of Sherrard and Tommy Murray of Riverdale have both run under 10 minutes for this event. Brock Loftus of Amboy and Briar Nevills of West Carroll could also qualify. Belha and Murray should also qualify in the 1600 Meter Run. Behla has a 4:29.40 season’s best.

Elmwood could qualify multiple runners in all three distance events at the Kewanee Wethersfield Sectional. Luke Hoffmann has run 9:48.6 in the 3200 Meter Run. Tyler Sheridan is 45 seconds behind his teammate. No other runner in this field has run faster than 11:00. Hoffmann and his teammate Thomas Harmon are the class of the field in the 1600 Meter Run. Harmon and his teammate Blake Rosenbohm are the top two runners in the 800 Meter Run.

Ernie Waterson and Kole Damkoehler of Bloomington Cornerstone are the top two runners in the 800 Meter Run at the Maroa-Forsyth Sectional. Waterson has a top seasonal time of 1:59.84 over 5 seconds ahead of his teammate. Noah Penry of Heyworth and Brock Richards of Maroa-Forsyth should advance in the 1600 Meter Run. Richards is almost half a minute ahead of the field in the 3200 Meter Run.

Three runners could advance in the 1600 Meter Run at the El-Paso Gridley Sectional led by the 4:26.6 seed time from Sebastian Meyer of El Paso-Gridley. Mason Stoeger of Minonk Fieldcrest and Nathan DeMarb of El Paso-Gridley should be close. Clayton Brown of Tremont and Asa Smith of El Paso-Gridley lead the field in the 800 Meter Run. El Paso-Gridley has run 8:10.75 in the 4x800m Relay. We will see how much faster they could run in Friday’s Sectional race.