A look back at the 2022 Illinois Top Times Championships - Field Events

 

 

Matt Cless of Evanston clearing 6-7.5 to win the 3A Boys High Jump (Tony Holler Photo Credit)

 

By Michael Newman [email protected]

 

 

Here is a look at the field events that took place last Friday and Saturday at Illinois Top Times held at the Shirk Center on the campus of Illinois Wesleyan University.

 

 

High Jump

 

There were great competitions in all three Boys competitions of this event. Matt Cless of Evanston Township was the athlete to enter the 3A event. He cleared 6-3.5 and 6-5.25 on his first attempt. Jonovan Findley of Normal West put the pressure on clearing 65.25 on his third attempt and then 6-6.75 on his opening attempt at that height. It took Cless three attempts to clear that height. Cless turned the table clearing 6-7.5 on his second attempt. Findley did not clear that height giving Cless the title.

 

The highest clearance of the two day meet came in the 2A Boys meet. Teegan Davis of Princeton was nearly perfect winning the event with no misses ahead of the competition before he got to 6-9.5. He cleared that height on his second attempt for a state clearing height Dylan Bazzell of Prairie Central cleared 6-5.5 to finish second.

 

Jadon Robertson of Cowden-Herrick is the defending champion in the 1A High Jump outdoors. His first of three wins at this meet when he cleared 6-6 on his first attempt. All five heights that he cleared on first attempts. Beau Edwards of Arcola cleared 6-4.75 to finish second.

 

Rylee Lydon of Prairie Ridge set herself up for a great outdoor season after clearing a state leading 5-8 to easily win the 3A meet clearing five heights on her first attempt. Four athletes cleared 5-2.5 behind Lydon. Eveline Reno of Thornton finished second on fewer misses.

 

The pressure was on Molly Grohmann of Waterloo in the 2A Girls High Jump when she cleared 5-3.5 on her second attempt. Brianna Dixon of Rantoul was clean with no misses. That changed when Dixon cleared 5-4.5 on her third attempt as Grohmann cleared that height on her second try. The Waterloo secured the 2A win clearing 5-5.75 again on her second attempt.

 

The surprise in this two day event was the win from Mia Range of Father McGivney. The freshman came into the event with a 5-2 best clearance. Range cleared 5-3.5 on her third attempt to keep her in the competition. Brooke Probst of Indian Creek had a best of 5-2.25 to finish second. Probst passed at the 5-3.5 height but missed the next three attempts at 5-6.5.

 

Pole Vault

 

Charles Cruse of Normal Community closed the 3A competition clearing a state leading 16-1 on his second attempt. He took only eight attempts during his series of tries clearing four of them. Tim Gale of Schaumburg was the only other athlete to go over 15-feet clearing 15-5 to finish second.

 

Tessani Foster of Plainfield Central continued to shine in her first year of competing in the Pole Vault. Foster and Jaydon Knoop of Lincoln-Way East both cleared 12-1.75 with Foster winning on fewer misses. Paulina Lucer of Lake Park finished third (11-9.75) ahead of Lilianna Ifft of Bloomington (11.5.75).

 

Colin Beers of Marion cleared a personal best of 15-1 to win the 2A Boys Pole Vault with Tanner Koontz of Mt. Vernon (14-9.25) and Kyle Hensley of Mt. Zion (14-5.25) finishing second and third. Natalie Papes of Providence Catholic cleared a personal best of 11-11.75 to win the 2A Girls Pole Vault. Sydnee Scott of Normal University cleared 11-7.75 to finish second.

 

Ridge Willard of Bloomington Central Catholic cleared 14-7.5 on his second attempt to win the 1A Boys title ahead of Jeffrey Sharp of Auburn in second and Griffin Kimbrel of Pana finishing third both clearing 13-5.5. Livia Binder of Maroa-Forsyth cleared a personal best of 12-0 to win the 1A Girls Pole Vault. Karlie Stauder of Okaw Valley and Brynlee Keeran of Salt Fork both cleared 11-7.75 to finish second and third.

 

Shot Put

 

It was a family affair in the 3A Shot Put. It stared in the Girls competition as Courtney Clabough had a huge personal best of 39-9.5 to win the event. The Yorkville freshman took the lead in the first round and never gave it up. Her fifth round personal best sealed the win. Olivia Whatley of Evanston Township had a 39-3.75 best to finish second. Emily Sykes of Granite City 37-10.25 best on her final attempt to move up and to finish third.

 

Then it was Kyle Clabough’s turn to step into the ring. The Yorkville senior is the defending outdoor champion in this event and would look for a win here. Clabough had two fouls in his six attempts. Clabough led all the way with three of his four fair attempts all past 60-feet. His final attempt at 61-6.75 secured his win. Alex Sohn of Normal Community briefly had the lead in the second round with a 57-4.5 mark before Clabough followed with a 60-10.5 heave. Sohn also has his best in the sixth round at 59-7.75 to secure his second -place spot.

 

Elijah Pflipsen of Kaneland took the lead in the second round of the 2A Shot Put with a 53-2.25 best. The mark held the lead for the following four rounds to give him the 2A title. Caleb Smith of Salem was the most consistent in this field with five attempts over 52-feet including his 52-10.75 best in the final round to get him a second-place finish.

 

Claire Allen of Sandwich had the lead in the first three rounds of the 2A Girls Shot Put before Maryiah Menicucci of Marion had a 38-07.50 mark in the fourth round to take the lead. Allen fouled after that and had to regain her first three rounds attempts in her mind to retake the lead. Allen followed to retake the lead with a 38-9.75 mark. Menicucci did not improve on her final attempt. Allen finished the competition improving on her final attempt of 39-1 to give her the win. Menicucci’s best gave her second.

 

Daniel Lucas of Cowden-Herrick has his mind set to help his team win back to back state championships. Lucas should be a force in both outdoor events. He was in command in the 1A Meet on Friday with a 52-1.25 mark on his first attempt to take the lead. Lucas bettered that mark with a 55-5 in the fifth round to secure his win. Blake Orwig of Stark County had a 51-10 best on his final put to move him form fourth into second ahead of Grant Milbrath of Pecatonica (51-5.75).

 

Olivia Campbell earned All-American honors in the Weight Throw two weeks ago at the New Balance Nationals Indoors finishing second. The Pittsfield senior moved her concentration over to the Shot Put ring. Campbell, who finished fourth in this event last June in Charleston, has bigger goals on her mind in her senior season. Campbell took the lead in the first round with a 37-9.25, retook the lead with a 39-7.25 mark in the second which held up for the win. Jenae Bothe of Oregon took that lead in the second round with a series best of 38-11.50. She could not better that instead holding onto second. Kayla Braun of Sparta had a 38-6.25 on her final put to capture third.

 

Long Jump

 

The 3A Girls horizontal jumps competitions would come down to which Johnson from Huntley would gather the win. This competition belonged to Alexandria Johnson. Her first jump of 19-4.25 slammed the door on the competition missing her personal best by an inch. That jump gave her the win. She only took four attempts in this meet. They were the top four distances of all the competition. Denise Hernandez of Naperville North had a huge competition jumping 18-3.75 to finish second. Rylee Lydon of Prairie Ridge had a big meet that started with her third-place finish here (18-3.25) to finish third. Dominique Johnson of Huntley would save her best for the Triple Jump with a 17-9.50 to finish fourth.

 

It was close in the 2A jumps Saturday morning. Kylie Gormann of Centralia had the lead after jumping 17-9 in the second round. Na’Kyrah Cooks of Kankakee jumped a best 17-8 in the fourth round to put the pressure on Gormann. Neither athletes improved on the final two rounds to give Gormann the title. Brenna Uppleger of Harvard jumped 17-2.75 to finish third.

 

Everyone’s eyes were on Tuscola’s Alyssa Williams who is the defending outdoor champion in this event. It was Nakeita Kessling of Henry-Senachwine who stole the show. The senior never let go of the lead jumping 17-1.5 in the opening round. All of her jumps were past 17-feet including a personal best of 18-3.25 to win the 1A title.

 

Williams did not have her best meet in this event. She had no fouls but most of her jumps were off the board by almost a foot including her final attempt of 17-10.25 that gave her second overall. Williams said afterwards that she needed to work on her steps before she gets to state. We know that she will. Anna Bruno only took four jumps with a 17-7 best in the third round to give her third.

 

Toriano Tate had a monster jump over 23-feet two weeks ago at North Central College. The DeKalb senior was looking for more of the same in this meet. That did not come to fruition for Tate with only two fair jumps out of five attempts .He passed on his final round. Tate’s first round jump of 22-6.25 was enough to give him the 3A Boys win ahead of Jake Mackowiak of Lincoln-Way Central (22-5) and Desmond Horton of Lake Park (22-1.75).

 

Bryson Wilson of Marion earlier in the day in the 2A Long Jump jumped 21-9.50 in his first round attempt. He fouled in three of his next five attempts. It was still enough to win the meet title. Jerome Cranford of Peoria Manual jumped past 21-feet in this meet. His best of 21-1.5 in the fourth round secured him second with Tim Maidment of Woodstock jumping 20-11.25 to finish third.

 

Jadon Robertson of Cowden-Herrick won hi second event of the day on this runway. The senior only took three jumps. His 21-6.75 effort in the second round was enough to give him the title. Alex Giradin of Liberty jumped a personal best of 21-2 to finish second. Braxton Froeliger of Erie jumped 21-1.25 in his final attempt to move him from fourth to a third-place overall finish.

 

Triple Jump

 

Now it was Dominique Johnson’s turn to rule the runway. The freshman from Huntley had never faced her older sister Alexandria. Now she would get another chance to get a first.

 

It took only one jump to accomplish that. Dominique did that jumping 40-9.50 to take the lead and the win in the first round after her sister jumped 40-4.25 on her opening attempt. Dominique passed on her other five attempts getting her mind set on relays that she would compete in. Alexandria Johnson took four jumps. Her 40-7 jump in the fourth round secured second-place. All three of her fair jumps went past 40-feet. Elissa Perkins of Plainfield East jumped 38-7 to finish third. Huntley’s third jumper Melissa Aninagyei-Bonsu had a 37-10.5 best to finish fourth. The two Johnson sister ended their indoor season ranked in the top 10 in the country. Dominique Johnson has the best freshman mark indoors nationally in this event.

 

Karli Mann of Herrin had an opening round jump of 36-9.75 that gave her the lead for good. Mann won the event ahead of Kennedy Ross of Lindblom (35-10.5) and Larissa Sager of Peoria Richwoods (35-4.50) in third.

 

The 1A Triple Jump became close in the later rounds. Anna Lopez of St. Bede took the lead with her 35-4.75 personal best opening jump. Brynlee Keeran of Salt Fork made it close jumping 35-3.75 just an inch behind on her fifth attempt. Neither jumper improved in the final round giving Lopez the win. Grace Alongi of DuQuoin jumped 33-9.50 to finish third.

 

Desmond Horton of Lake Park has been the state leader since the beginning of the year. He came into the 3A Boys Triple Jump as the big favorite. He did not have his best series of jumps fouling on four of the six attempts. He did get a big one off in the third round of 46-6 to catapult him into the lead. That attempt held to give him the win. Jalen Buckley of Batavia finished second (45-10.75) ahead of Edwardsville’s Jordan Brooks (44-3.25).

 

DeShawn Parker of St. Laurence had the lead from the beginning 43-2.50 in the first round. He improved on that jumping 43-6 in the fifth round to claim the 2A win. Nicholas DeLoach of Cahokia only had three fair jumps. His 42-11.75 in the second round gave him second overall. James Kaunas of Johnsburg had a 42-6 best to place him third.

 

Jake Sarver of Warrensburg-Latham was another athlete that did not save his best for last. His opening jump of 42-6.25 gave him the lead. His third jump of 44-5.25 gave him the win ahead of Adam Santana of Rockford Christian (43-3) and William Leighty of Riverdale (41-6).