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ILXCTF Illinois Distance Digest - January 25, 2023

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ILXCTF - Mike Newman   Jan 25th 2023, 2:46pm
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4 - Teel could be looking for more than one state championship in May

 

By Michael Newman

 

It was not that Isaac Teel of Pinckneyville was greedy heading into last year’s IHSA Class 1A State Meet last May. He just had set goals that he knew that he could achieve. He was frustrated at the end of the meet in Charleston that he had finished fifth at the beginning of the meet in the 3200 Meter Run. His character showed in the 1600 Meter Run where he pulled away to claim the Class 1A State championship at that distance.

 

His junior year on the track could be even better than what he experienced as a sophomore. Teel showed that potential last fall during the cross-country season when he won 10 of the 12 races that he competed in. His only “non-first-place” finishes came when he finished second behind Benton’s Gavin Genisio first at the Benton Sectional meet and the following week finishing second at Detweiller Park.

 

He will race a number of times this track season against Genisio. When it comes to the state series meets, Genisio and his Benton teammates will be competing in Class 2A.

 

Teel’s performances dropped at the end of last season dropping from neat 10 minutes in the 3200 Meter Run to the 9:34.85 he ran at state. He ran under 4:20 twice last year in the 1600 Meter Run with his state time of 4:17.59 the best. Those times should drop this spring. Just how much faster is yet to be determined. I will wait in great anticipation on how low Teel will go.

 

1A Double Runners

The one benefit in running a state meet in Class 1A is that extra day runners have off between their prelim day on Thursday and then the finals on Saturday. It gives the athlete to recover and prepare themselves for the pressure that lies ahead of them.

 

There are a number of special runners in Class 1A this spring to keep an eye on. One of them is Daniel Winkelman of Harvest Christian Academy in the outer limits of the western suburbs outside of Chicago.

 

I like to reach out to head coaches before the start of the fall cross country season to get some ideas of what their coach thinks about their team. I reached out to Harvest Christian Academy Coach Steven Bland before the start of the 2020 season. There was a sophomore that he had high expectations for. “Look out for Daniel (who was a sophomore at the time). I know what he has been doing,” Bland said. “He is talented and extremely focused.”

 

Those traits have showed for Winkelman throughout his high school career. He was all-state three times in cross country including ShaZam Club in 2020 when he finished 12th as a sophomore. He finished fourth as a junior and fifth last fall.

 

He has been all-state five times in track heading into his final season including twice in 2021 when helping Harvest Christian Academy to win the Class 1A State team title.

 

His state meet last May had people talking when leaving Charleston at the conclusion of the meet with the three races he ran in. He had run those same three races in the prelims two days before that. It would have taken effect on some runners’ legs.

 

It did not seem to effect Winkelman. He brought his team back from fifth on the anchor leg with a 1:54.97 split to third overall at the finish. He bounced back in the open 800 Meter Run where he ran a personal best of 1:56.12 to finish second. His final race of the day was the most amazing as he ran 4:19.32 to finish second behind Teel.

 

What will be in store for Winkelman in the final months of his high school career. Most likely, it will be something spectacular.

 

The one runner that to most has flown under the radar has been Tommy Murray of Riverdale High School in Port Byron. He again should be a difference maker in the Class 1A distance events. Murray has been the face of the Rams Distance group for the past four years leading his team first to area prominence to now state where they brought home a trophy finishing second at Detweiller Park.

 

Murray was all-state twice finishing ninth in 2021 and third just a second behind Teel last fall. He has been all state three times in track heading into this spring including finishing seventh in the 3200 Meter Run as a sophomore in 2021.

 

Murray, like Teel and Winkelman, had a good state track meet last May. He dropped his personal best by 20 seconds by running 9:31.76 to finish fourth overall in the 3200 Meter Run. He ran a personal best of 4:19.79 to the Thursday prelims of the 1600 Meter Run. He came back to run 4:21.98 to finish third in the finals.

 

Murray’s success this past fall should lead to some big things for him in his final high school track season.

 

Akili Parekh of Latin School in Chicago has showed great progression in his final two years of high school running which should show even more as we enter this track season.

 

Parekh, who will attend the University of Michigan this fall, is one that I would not count out among these talented group of Class 1A runners. He was the team’s second runner finishing tenth overall when Latin School won the 1A team title in 2021. He was the Romans’ top runner finishing fourth overall as Latin finished third last November.

 

Parekh has been all-state twice in the Class 1A 3200 Meter Run. He finished seventh as a sophomore in 2021. Her ran 9:40.16 to finish seventh last year. This was after he ran 4:22.16 in the prelims two days before. Parekh finished tenth in the 1600 Meter Run.

 

He ran under 9:30 three times last fall including running 9:18.99 at the Music City Carnival on June 5. His prelim time in Charleston was his personal best. His times should drop considerably this spring.

 

The combination of these three runners along with Teel makes the distance events in Class 1A interesting in 2023.

 

Class 1A Notes / Thoughts

There are four runners that are back from last year’s 800 Meter Run. There will be a new state champion in the event with the 2022 champion Eli Mojonnier having graduated. Daniel Winkelman has been mentioned above and should be a runner to watch at this distance if he chooses to compete in it.

 

Julian Aske of Beacon Academy and Ryan Hendrickson of St. Thomas More were the two big surprises in last year’s state final. Aske was not expected to compete at the beginning of last season due to a knee injury. The junior got healthy at the right time with a 1:57.95 race at Distance Night in Palatine evidence that he was ready for a state challenge.

 

He proved that at the end of May in Charleston running 1:55.99 in the prelims, a two second personal best, and then 1:54.53 in the finals to finish second just two tenths of a second behind for the win. A double could be a possibility for Aske if he is healthy and hungry for the 800 / 400 double. Aske did run a personal best of 50.67 last season.

 

Ryan Hendrickson has a good family history in running in the state meet with his sisters Fran and Marguerite earning 10 all-state honors from 2014 to 2019. As a warmup for his 800 finals race last May, Hendrickson drove in two runs for St. Thomas More’s Baseball team in their sectional game. He rushed to just make the finals where he finished fourth with a 1:55.01 time missing the win by less than a second.

 

His race in the finals was only the third time that he had raced at that distance. If he decides to run more meets this spring and it does not conflict with baseball, Hendrickson could end up winning a state championship. His talent is untapped in this sport.

 

Tyler Bickerman of Rushville-Industry finished eighth and Landis Musser of Riverdale finished twelfth in last year’s finals. Both runners return in 2023. Musser could be a runner to watch especially after finishing eleventh in last fall’s Class 1A State Cross Country Meet.

 

We already mentioned the key runners that are back in the 3200 Meter Run. Weston Forward of Rockford Christian is the only runner back from last year’s finals that ran under 10-minutes in that race (9:44.44) finishing eighth.

 

Bryson Grant of Iroquois West will be a key runner to watch for in either the 3200 Meter Run or the 1600 Meter Run. There are only four finalists back in the 1600 Meter Run with Grant one of them finishing fourth with a 4:23.34 time. It might be the 1600 that he focuses on. He has only run the 3200 Meter Run once in the 2022 indoor season. His cross-country season was great winning 10 races of the 14 that he raced in. Grant finished off last fall by finishing eighth in the 1A State Meet at Detweiller Park.

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