Neuqua Valley edges Minooka for 3A team title in final event drama

 

 

Battle sweeps the sprints; Hurdles races all for Johnson; Wilson, Watcke, and Myers claim distance titles

 

 

By Michael Newman

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Charleston, Ill. – It was a tale of two sections for Minooka and Neuqua Valley as they approached the end of the IHSA 3A Boys State Meet. The race for team title was jumbled all meet but was becoming a little clearer. Glenbrook South had a great meet and had 28 points in fifth place. Edwardsville was willed to 30 points by three wonderful wins by Brandon Battle. Normal West used their strength in the field events to score 33 points and was tied for the lead.

 

All three of the teams were out of options with a quartet in the 4x400m Relay. Only Minooka and Neuqua Valley were still at the table with one more card yet to play. Both schools had teams in the relay that usually ends up a meet.

 

Both teams had their moments in this meet. There was some misfortunate that both had during those 18 events yet here they were.

 

Neuqua Valley was counting on big points from Max Mitchell in the 400 Meter Dash. Mitchell lost his shoe 250 meters into the race. Mitchell found a way to finish ninth in the events. Minooka had their misfortune as well with one of the race favorites in the 100 Meter Dash Tyler Colwell false starting in the final section of the event leaving the team with no points from that race.

 

The two teams were in separate sections of this event. Minooka would run first in the second section of the 4x400m Relay. Then it was Neuqua Valley’s turn to chase the time that Minooka had set.

 

Weather did not play a part in the meet unlike the other two meets that were held at O’Brien Field this week. The emotional and physical exhaustion of the moment showed in each team’s eyes.

 

Minooka stayed in contention on strong first two legs from Adrien Manning and Vincent Van Eck. Emerson Fayman ran a 50.99 third leg to stay within the lead set by Loyola Academy and trying to hold off York who was right on their shoulder.

 

Malik Armstrong brought the baton home for the Indians with a 50.08 anchor leg finishing second overall in 3:23.97 behind the time of Loyola Academy (3:23.42) and a second ahead of York’s third-place finish (3:24.91). Minooka had run 3:27.39 to win their sectional race. They ran more than three seconds faster when the moment counted. Their fate in this event was out of their hands. Minooka now had to wait to see if Neuqua Valley could better that time.

 

The lineup for Neuqua Valley would change one more time before they left the check in tent onto the track. Mitchell had not run for his team in their sectional race. He was with his teammates in the tent waiting to go after finishing fifth in the 200 Meter Dash. The other change they had in their quartet was the addition of Alexander Majus to the lineup and removing Nicolas Dovalovsky after he had just run a great 1600 Meter Run but had nothing left to give for his team even though he wanted to be in there.

 

Majus got Neuqua Valley into a good position before handing the baton off to Kevin Saju. The senior was just a JV runner on the cross-country team. The coaching staff saw promise in this young man in the sprints. Here he was keeping his team in contact within the lead in sixth place less than a second behind second-place Chatham-Glenwood. Kevin Howard had given everything he had in the third leg but dropped two spots to ninth place. More importantly, they were almost a second behind the pace that Minooka had set.

 

Mitchell took the baton and took of in pursuit of the pack ahead of him. This was his fourth race of the day for the junior. He was not the most imposing runner on the track standing five feet next to nothing. Mitchell did have the heart and guts to do what he needed to do. His split was an amazing 48.54 seconds. It was the third fastest split of all the runners in the event. He crossed the line in total exhaustion finishing sixth overall in that section.

 

All eyes turned to the scoreboard at the north end of the stadium waiting for the times to pop up. Neuqua Valley’s time of 3:23.45 showed and the team in the stands went crazy knowing that they had run faster the time of Minooka had set.

 

Three points for seventh place overall and 36 points for the Wildcats. Minooka earned one point moving them out of the tie with Normal West and into second.

 

The quartet from Neuqua Valley was collapsed on the side of the check-in tent exhausted not knowing if they had won. Confusing announcements from the PA made matters worse. The Neuqua Valley team and coaches knew. They had already evacuated the stands and headed to where their heroes would exit the track.

 

The foursome was told they had run a faster than Minooka. They had won the state championship. Tears came out of the eyes of Kevin Saju. He was one of the heartbeats of this Neuqua Valley team. He just sat there with uncontrollable tears of joy streaming down his face.

 

The four runners finally got the energy to get up and leave the field where they were met by their teammates and family. The load was so loud you could hear it west of the Mississippi River.

 

The 2020-2021 school year needed a finish this meet, this season. Neuqua Valley and Minooka produced that forever moment.

 

That was just a fraction of went on in an exciting final day of the IHSA track season. There was more.

 

Battle’s sweep

 

Edwardsville’s Brandon Battle had a long day ahead of him with three chances to win three championships in the sprint events. The 100 Meter Dash might be the toughest of his three events with so much talent n the final section. He had drawn Lane 1 for the final section. The senior was lucky to have that position being that he had the ninth fastest time coming out of the Bloomington Sectional. He would have runners in the middle of the track such as Javerius McGuinn of Wauconda, Tyler Colwell of Minooka, and Marshall Ellis of Homewood-Flossmoor that he would need to race against. Then again, Battle had not lost a race in any distance that he competed in this season. In his mind, that was not going to change on this Saturday.

 

The race was called after the gun went off. Colwell had false started and was out of the race. Battle needed to refocus as he settled back into his blocks.

 

McGuinn was one of the race favorites that had gotten out of the blocks quickly this season. He did just that. Ellis was next to him in Lane 6. Both were duking it out for the win with 40-meters left.

 

Everyone had forgotten about Battle on the far inside. He was a little bit behind in the beginning but found his stride half-way through. The Edwardsville senior hit the line at the exact same time as Ellis and McGuinn did. Well, not exactly. The scoreboard showed differently. Battle and McGuinn were given the same time of 10.61 with Battle’s name popping up on the scoreboard first. Ellis was an eyelash behind in third (10.63). Deshawn Willis of Oak Park-River Forest ran his best race of the year to win the first section and finishing fourth overall (10.66).

 

Battle saw the scoreboard that he had won, he in a moderate spring went back to get ready for the 400 Meter Dash. The actual difference in time between the two runners was separated by only two thousandths of a second (10.604 – 10.606).

 

Brandon Battle was the big favorite in his best event the 400 Meter Dash. He had the fastest sectional time by almost three seconds. It was felt he was a given to win this race. In this meet, nothing is guaranteed as we saw what happened with Max Mitchell who had the third fastest sectional time.

 

Battle will be attending Eastern Illinois University this fall. He showed the comfort of running on what would be his home track.

 

He had made up the stagger in the first 200-meters. Now, it was how fast he could turn the final half of this race. Battle came towards the finish line as the crowd on the home straightway grew louder and louder. He approached the finish line and looked to the left at the running clock set up by the finish line and saw he was close to the 46.24 meet record. He hesitated for a milli-second to look.

 

His time was a personal best of 46.48 just faster than what he had run in his sectional win. He did not have the state meet record, but he did win his second state championship of the day.

 

He looked at his teammates and coaches in the stands with a smile on his face. He held up his hand signifying he was “that close”. He did not have the record, but he did have two of the three fastest times ever run by an Illinois High School runner in this distance on consecutive meets.

 

“I was going after the state record. But a win is a win,” Battle said after the meet. “I looked over the clock and saw “44”. I thought I’m right there. I gotta go. If I stayed focused, I would have gotten it (the record).”

 

Evan Gronewold of Huntley (49.01) and Niko Schultz of Plainfield South (49.12) finished second and third. Section 2 winner Austin Cabanban of Loyola Academy ran 49.2 to finish fourth.

 

The victory lap for Battle of sorts after his 400 Meter Dash win came in the 200 Meter Dash. Battle again got off to a great start and race a strong curve where had the lead. The only runner close was Tyler Colwell who had a determined look in his stride after what happened to him in the 100 Meter Dash. Battle crossed the line holding up three fingers on both hands. He completed the triple with a 21.65 time run into a 1.5 m/s headwind. Colwell was the only other runner in the event under 22 seconds in finishing second (21.97). Reece Young of Wheaton-Warrenville South won his section with a 22.24 time to place him third overall. McGuinn (22.26) and Mitchell (22.32) finished fourth and fifth.

 

“Unfinished business has been my motto all year. I came here twice my sophomore year and did not get the job done,” Battle added. “All the work I have done. I am so happy with what I have accomplished.”

 

Two hurdle wins for Johnson

 

Kalil Johnson of Evanston Township had put some fast state leading times in his first meet of the year at Kankakee. He did the work during the season to get himself into the favorite’s role after strong races at the Glenbrook South Sectional last week. It was a role that he wore quite well when he got into the blocks for the 110 High Hurdles on Saturday.

 

He would have stiff competition in both of his races as Jalen Johnson of Metea Valley and Gabe Czako of Lockport Township were also running fast at the right time.

 

The final section of the 110 High Hurdles was a 12-round prize fight taking place over an under 15 second time frame. All three runners got off to great starts as they have done all season. By the fifth hurdle, Czako and Evanston’s Johnson were slight ahead of Metea Valley’s Johnson.  Kalil Johnson and Czako crossed the final hurdle at the same time.

 

Johnson’s sprinter to the line was just a tad faster than that of Czako. Both ran personal bests with Johnson winning (14.01) and Czako a close second (14.10). Jalen Johnson held on to third (14.50) just ahead of Deerfield’s Max Wilhelm (14.52). Waubonsie Valley’s Sean Kirkwood placed fifth (14.92) from Lane 8.

 

Kalil Johnson’s win in the 300 Meter Hurdles was just as strong with the same two principal runners Czako and J Johnson were there to push him.

 

Kalil has the right technique and right form that gets him ahead of the rest in the longer distance hurdle race. He had the lead entering the final three hurdles. He clipped the final hurdle. He surged off that to the finish line with his second state championship in 38.08. Czako’s charge came too late as he finished second (38.42) completing a tremendous season. Jalen finished third (38.57). The junior will be the runner to watch at this discipline in the state in 2022. Nathan Shapiro of Glenbrook South completed a great junior season by finishing fourth (39.17). He also placed seventh in the Long Jump moving to the spot after fouling on his first three attempts.

 

The Distance Races

 

Who doesn’t love a great distance race with the top talent in the state toeing the starting line at one meet? The fans at O’Brien Field were treated to four electrifying races in conditions cooler than the previous five days of this two week meet.

 

The 3A Boys 4x800m Relay is always the staple race of this meet. There were no prelims in 2021 meaning we would see the best of racing just after 2 PM Saturday afternoon.

 

The two-section event was set up by a great run from Naperville Central in Section 1 of this event. Hersey and Naperville Central were basically dead even. Arthur Graham for Central ran an electrifying 1:54.51 anchor leg to give his team the win (7:57.40) putting pressure on the teams in the second section. Hersey finished second in that section (8:03.59) and 10th overall.

 

The top four teams from sectionals all played a role in the front early in Section 2. Neuqua Valley and Minooka were valuing a win to start their march to a team championship. Traditional powers York and Sandburg were looking for another state championship to put on their mantel.

 

The first leg of the race was a typical first state meet leg with the lead changing again and again and again. Adam Shaw first gave Minooka the lead. It was then York’s Sam Ayers made the charge to give his team the lead ahead of Minooka, O’ Fallon, Glenbard West, and Neuqua Valley at the first exchange.

 

Minooka secured their lead with Zach Balzer and Emerson Fayman giving the team a two second lead and the end of the third leg with Sandburg now in the mix with York and Neuqua within a second of Sandburg.

 

Minooka was three seconds of Neuqua Valley when Vincent Van Eck got the baton  It was perhaps three seconds too close to Neuqua Valley’s Nicolas Dovalovsky. Sandburg had Brock Rice anchoring. York had Colin Hill. Dovalovsky moved through the pack on the first lap to get closer to Van Eck. The final lap was a battle for the lead with Van Eck not allowing Dovalovsky to pass him. That was until the final 100-meters when Dovalovsky took over. The senior ran a 1:52.32 to give the Wildcats the win in 7:49.00. Minooka was a close second (7:49.43) followed by Sandburg (7:50.29) and York (7:52.65). Joaquel Thorpe got the baton in seventh when he got the baton for Lyons Township. He ran a 1:54.97 split to get his team into fifth. Naperville Central’s time in the first section was rewarded with a sixth-place finish.

 

There was no favorite in the 3200 Meter Run before the race started. There was no runner that wanted to push the pace for the first 1600 of the race in the second section. That race was slower than the pace that was set in Section 1 when Geordan Patrylak of Edwardsville was leading at 4:44.4. Micah Wilson of St. Charles East was reluctant to have the lead but there he was in the front passing in 4:45.9 with Luke Wiley of Warren and Stephen Barreto of Rolling Meadows part of a 12-runner pack within two seconds of each other.

 

The pace needed to get going in the second half of the race. It did on lap five as Wilson pushed a 68 second circuit with Wiley and Barretto close. Spencer Werner of Loyola Academy then took over deciding that this pace needed more of a boost as he continued to push the 68 second pace on Lap 6. Wilson decided enough was enough as he took the lead to go with two laps remaining.

 

Wilson closed in a final 800-meters of 2:07 with a final lap of 61 seconds to claim his first state championship in 9:11.71. Wiley was in chase of Wilson in those final two laps and found his way in finishing second (9:14.92) with Werner third (9:16.65). The top three finishers in this race are all juniors.

 

New Trier’s Charlie Siebert moved from ninth with two laps to go to finish fourth (9:17.67) ahead of Geneva’s Ben Calusinski (9:19.37).

 

Daniel Watcke of Hinsdale Central said that he learned at an early age about championship racing while watching his older sister Emma, now at the University of Wisconsin, run in state meets while they lived in Ohio. Emma won the Ohio D3 State Meet in the 1600 Meter Run as a freshman and a sophomore. He learned what the difference was for racing for time and racing for championships. His race in Saturday’s 800 Meter Run was about the championship. He had run 1:52 at Palatine in May. This state race showed how high his running IQ is.

 

“We don’t really tell Daniel what to do,” his Hinsdale Central coach Noah Lawrence said. “He just goes out there and runs.”

 

Watcke was just going for the ride as he said afterwards in the first 400 of the race finding himself in position to strike in fourth. Logan Veloz of East Moline had the lead but only at 59.7 seconds. Some frosh/soph races during the year go out at that pace. Watcke was cool to that knowing what he wanted to do.

 

Ryan Maseman of Plainfield North took to the lead with Watcke close in hand. The two runners continued to ramp up the pace to breakneck speed as the two runners entered the final curve. Also in the picture was Josh Delgado of Grant who had showed during the season on what a championship winning sprint looked like.

 

Watcke put the hammer down with 150 meters left finding a pace just a half a second faster than what Maseman and Delgado had. Delgado passed Maseman with 70 meters left aiming for the Hinsdale sophomore. Watcke glanced to the right sensing that Delgado was coming. Watcke found one more speed to hold onto the lead and the championship in 1:54.24. It was not his fastest time of the year, but this race was not about times.

 

Delgado (1:54.68) and Maseman (1:54.78) were under 1:55 finishing second and third.

 

The top four runners in Section 1 of this event were the next four placers. Ryan Schreiner of Wheaton North had quietly improved during the season. The reward for that silence was a fifth-place finish and a win in the section at 1:55.73. Brian Hiltebrand of Glenbrook South (1:55.99), Tim Archibald of Geneva (1:56.12), and Isai Morales of Hampshire (1:56.17) were the next overall finishers from that first section.

 

I do not know what to call what Jacob Myers of Lake Zurich did at the end of the 1600 Meter Run. Call it the “slither”, call it the “creep through”, or call it the move that is illegal in half the states in the union. The bandit move that this soft-spoken senior made to take the lead will be talked about for years to come.

 

All the Section 2 runners were together with Griffin Pasha of Warren leading at the end of the first lap at 64 seconds even. During the second lap, Luke Schildmeyer of St. Charles East took the lead not wanting the pace to slow down. He has the strength and that kick that wins big races. Nicolas Dovalovsky was not going to let the lead get far away from him. Marcellus Mines of Joliet West and Myers were right there as the leaders passed in 2:09.

 

The pace intensity level cranked up even more in the third lap. Schildmeyer and Dovalovsky were the instigators of that. Tommy Paltzer of Naperville North joined the fun in the front with Pasha and Myers waiting for that moment.

 

It the pace could not go any faster in the final lap, it did as Schildmeyer and Dovalovsky took the pace up another level. Meanwhile, Myers found his way up with two just waiting to go with a lion stalking its prey.

 

Then it happened the final 100-meters of the race. Dovalovsky was on the outside, Schildmeyer was on the inside. Suddenly a small gap appeared. When opportunity knocks, take that opportunity and Myers did just that putting himself with the momentum and the lead and the win.

 

Myers closed in a swift 58.3 second final lap to run his personal best of 4:10.63 to win. Schildmeyer’s time of 4:12.10 was also a personal best for second. Dovalovsky ran under 4:14 for the third time this year (4:13.28) to finish third. Spencer Werner had a remarkable double moving from eighth on the final lap to run a 59.4 closer to finish fourth (4:13.60). Teammates Pasha (4:15.62) and Wiley (4:16.82) finished fifth and sixth. Mines, just a freshman, finished seventh (4:16.92).

 

The Relays

 

Minooka bounced back after their second-place finish in the 4x8 to command the 4x100m Relay running 42.01 for the championship win. Three hundredths of a second separated the next three teams with Oak Park-River Forest and Normal West both at 42.30 finishing second and third. St. Charles North (42.33) and Neuqua Valley (42.43 were fourth and fifth. Homewood-Flossmoor, despite exchange problems, still finished sixth (42.68).

 

Batavia has won the 4x200m Relay before in the state meet and knows how to get from the start and the finish successfully. The Bulldogs demonstrated that again on Saturday running 1:27.80 for the state win. Homewood-Flossmoor rebounded form their 4x1 race to finish second (1:28.06) ahead of Minooka (1:28.92). Oak Park-River Forest (1:29.14) and Neuqua Valley (1:29.51) finished fourth and fifth.

 

We talked about what was going on between Minooka and Neuqua Valley in the 4x400m Relay at the beginning of this recap. It was just as exciting at the front of the final section. Isa Hitchens, Aden Bandukwala, and Piyush Mekla did what they needed to do to have Hinsdale Central in the lead before they got the baton to their anchor Daniel Watcke. It became closer in the front as Batavia’s third runner Jonah Fallon cut the gap as he handed it off to Batavia’s anchor Anthony Bradley.

 

Watcke got the Red Devils off to a big lead entering the final 100 meters of the meet. Bradley closed getting closer to the lead. It was that Watcke’s mojo was just that much stronger on this day. Watcke closed in 48.34 to get his school it’s first relay championship in 3:19.48. Batavia was close finishing second (3:20.04).

 

Plainfield South (3:22.58) and Lane Tech (3:22.69) finished third and fourth. Grayslake Central finished fifth (3:22.99) ahead of Section 2 winner Loyola Academy (3:23.42) in sixth.

 

Field Event Highlights

 

The Pole Vault quickly narrowed down the competition Saturday afternoon as there were only two athletes left after Liam McGill of Bloomington and Victor Rodriguez of BC Morton were the only athletes to clear 14-8. The two athletes exchanged height clearances over the next four heights. McGill won the state championship clearing 15-9.75. Rodriguez had a great meet clearing a personal best of 15-7 to finish second.

 

It was all Moline’s Rob Pulliam in the High Jump. Pulliam closed the door on the title when he was the only athlete to clear 6-7 to win the competition. He had the bar moved to 6-9 where he cleared the bar successfully on his third attempt. Charlie Nolan of Normal West and Matt Cless of Evanston both cleared 6-6. Nolan finished second missing on fewer attempts.

 

Kyle Clabough of Yorkville completed his undefeated season with a win in the Shot Put. He had the lead in the first round with a 57-11 put. After fouling on his second attempt, Clabough had a 61-6.75 best to win the state title on his third attempt. Hunter Mauch of Vernon Hills moved from fourth to second in the final round with a 57-11.75 best. Paolo Gennarelli of St. Charles North had a 57-7.75 best to finish third.

 

Ryan Faut of Glenbrook South had a second-round throw of 178-11 that held as the best throw of the competition to give him the state championship. Hunter Matuch had a final throw of 177-2 his best to finish second. Marist’s Joshua Harris threw 160-01 to finish third.

 

One of the big surprises in this meet came in the Long Jump. Samson Shakuru of Rock Island was ranked 23rd out of 26 athletes that had qualified from the sectional meets. That ranking changed dramatically in the finals on Saturday. His third-round jump of 22-11.75 was good enough to capture a state championship for the Rocks. Jake Mackowiak of Lincoln-Way Central fouled on two of his first three jumps. His fourth jump of 22-11.25 missed the lead by one half inch but gave him second place overall. Malcom Bevans of St. Ignatius Prep jumped 22-6.50 to finish third.

 

There were no surprises in the Triple Jump. Leslie Fisher of Normal West jumped 48-1.75 in his second attempt in winning the state championship ahead of Desmond Horton of Lake Park who jumped 47-8 in the first round. Bevans again finished third in this horizontal jumps event to match his third place in the Long Jump. His longest jump was 45-11.75 coming in the third round.