IHSA Boys State Track & Field Championships - Class 2A Preliminary Session Highlights

By Michael Newman [email protected]

Charleston, Ill – Pre-meet favorites Kankakee and East St. Louis-Senior are ready for a showdown for Saturday’s 2A Finals. Both teams had good days in Friday morning preliminary session at O’Brien Field.

Kankakee had a near perfect day qualifying 10 to the finals. East. Louis-Senior is still within reach of the Kays qualifying eight to the finals. Cahokia also with eight qualifiers, Mt. Zion with eight qualifiers, and Mt. Vernon, Marion, and Limestone all had six to the finals and also in the mix for a trophy.

The athlete with the biggest day is Kankakee’s Jayon Morrow who will be in three individual finals. Morrow started the day running the second leg in the 4x100m Relay for the Kays. Kankakee ran the fastest time of the day winning their heat (42.26) with the prelims fastest time. Troy Triad set a school record (42.44) in winning their heat. Peoria Richwoods (42.89) was the other heat winner.

Keegan Fogarty of Princeton will lead a close field in the 100 Meter Dash. Fogarty ran 10.83 to win the first heat by two hundredths of a second ahead of Kenneth Buchanon of East St. Louis-Senior (10.85). Brandon Waller of Marian Catholic won his heat (10.88) with Aneefy Ford of Streator finishing second (11.00). Morrow qualified in Heat running 10.89 for the win. Chris Nelson of Herrin had a great day qualifying in two individual events and two relays. The freshman ran 11.02 to win Heat #2 edging Skylar Giles of Peoria Richwoods (11.03) and Dawson Feyen of Galena (11.07).

Morrow and Jackson Gilbert of Urbana lead the field in the 400 Meter Dash. Morrow ran 48.58 to win the first heat taking the lead in the final 100-meters finishing ahead of Reece Dusek of Limestone (49.67) and Bryson Wilson of Marion ( 49.75). Gilbert followed by running 48.85 to win Heat 2. Five runners qualified in the final heat as Evan Rainville of Payton Prep 49.66 for the win ahead of Patrick Hilby of Aurora Central Catholic (49.68).

Morrow and EJ Nwagwu of St. Rita, who also qualified in the 400, were only separated by one hundredth of a second. Morrow ran a prelim leading 21.8 to win Heat 1. Nwagwu was next running 21.86 to win Heat 2. Christian Keyhea of Mt. Zion was the other heat winner running 21.91 to win Heat 3. All nine qualifiers are only separated by .27 of a second.

DeWayne Johnson of Pontiac was the top 2A qualifier in the 110 Meter Hurdles. Johnson ran 14.60 to win Heat #3. Jason Huang of Benet Academy (14.70) and Alec Sledge of Mt. Vernon (14.92) were the other heat winners.

Matthew Marcum of Rock Falls caught Demarlynn Taylor of East St. Louis-Senior just before the line to win Heat 2 of the 300 Meter Hurdles. Marcum had the leading prelim time of 39.73 to edge Taylor by one hundredth of a second. It was also close in Heat 3 as Townsend Barton of Carterville ran 40.37 to edge Cahokia’s Keshawn Lyons of Cahokia also by one hundredth of a second. Jackson Taylor of Decatur Eisenhower (41.08) won the opening heat.

Garrett Slack had a good prelim day helping Lincoln win their heat of the 4x800m Relay and then having the fastest qualifying time in the 800m Run. Slack brought his team from third to first in Heat 2 with a 1:55.69 anchor leg to give Lincoln the win (8:07.44) ahead of Sycamore (8:08.93). Payton Prep had the fastest 4x8 prelim time running 8:05.07 for the win in a close Heat 1. Mahomet-Seymour (8:06.19), Marion (8:07.47), and Civic Memorial (8:09.80) followed.

Slack came back almost 45 minutes in the second heat of the 800 Meter Run and seemed to cruise to the win. His time of 1:54.82 was more than two seconds ahead of Sam Atkinson of Mt. Zion (1:56.92). Patrick Hilby took the lead with 100 meters left in Heat 1 and then held off Gavin Genisio of Benton for the win in 1:56.25. Genisio ran 1:56.73 to finish second.

Genisio also qualified in the 1600 Meter Run. He moved away from the field in the final lap to run 4:21.65 to win Heat 1 ahead of St. Viator’s Michael Schumacher (4:23.50).

The second heat seemed like a shakeout run the day before a big race. That is the case for both Drew Rogers of Herscher and Wilson Georges of Limestone. Georges controlled the race from the start passing the first 800-meters in 2:14. Rogers was content to go along for the ride. Both runners closed in 61 seconds with Georges having the edge (4:20.24) just ahead of Rogers (4:20.69). Brenden Heitzig of Lincoln finished third (4:23.06).

Kankakee ran the fastest time to win the third heat of the 4x200m Relay in 1:28.79. Herrin (1:29.64) and East St. Louis-Senior (1:29.45) were the other heat winners.

Richmond-Burton won the final heat in 3:22.96 to lead all qualifiers in the 4x400m Relay. Kaneland (3:25.67) and Kankakee (3:25.80) were the other heat winners.

Jacob Morrison of Sterling leads all qualifiers after the preliminaries of the Long Jump. Morrison’s third round jump of 22-9.75 is more than a foot ahead of second-place Sam Morse of Limestone (21-6.75).

Nicholas Deloach of Cahokia jumped 44-10.75 to lead after the prelims of the Triple Jump. Deshawn Parker of St. Laurence (44-2.75) and Koen Derry of Galesburg (44-0.50 are Deloach’s closest competitors.

Deloach and Parker are a part of 14 finalist field in the High Jump. Drew Rogers of Paris was one of nine athletes to clear 6-2.

JehChys Brown of Centralia took the lead in the first round of the Shot Put with a 57-8.50 best. David Russell of Illinois Valley Central (56-3.75) and Caleb Smith of Salem (54-10.7) remain Brown’s closest competition. Russell leads after the Discus prelims with a 166-3 throw. Brown (164-6) and Ashton Noble of Roxana (164-1) are currently second and third.