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ILXCTF Illinois Distance Digest - January 27, 2023

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ILXCTF - Mike Newman   Jan 27th 2023, 2:14pm
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6 - Watcke’s last Illinois dance before heading west

 

By Michael Newman

 

It showed in the through the glasses that Daniel Watcke wore and into his eyes that he was driven heading into his senior season. The end of the junior season did not turn out the way he wanted to with one expectation.

 

Watcke did not get his second straight state title in the 800 Meter Run being passed by Brett Wasick towards the end of that state final giving him the runner-up spot. The same thing happened in the 4x400m Relay at the end of the meet where again he finished second.

 

Watcke along with his teammates headed to Oregon to run at Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon for the Nike Outdoor Nationals. It was a success for the quartet as they ran 7:32.14 to claim the national championship. The time broke the Donald Sage led York team’s 22 year-old Illinois state record putting themselves on top of the Illinois Distance mountain.

 

Watcke just missed making the US U-20 national team by finishing third in the 800 Meter Run on the same Oregon track.

 

Hinsdale Central had a memorable cross-country season that ended up last fall season missing a state championship by one point behind Plainfield South in the muck and mud of Detweiller Park. The Red Devils rebounded eight days later by winning the NXR Midwest Regional. They followed that up in December at Nike Cross Nationals back in Oregon by finishing eighth in the team standings. They were the first of three Illinois teams to finish.

 

Watcke learned a lot from those state races last May that will pay off in a big way when he gets to that moment again in Charleston. There is an all-time state record set by Sean Torpy almost six years in the two lap race that is within his reach. Watcke I am sure has those individual goals that he would like to accomplish. It will be the team goals that he has that may be more important in his final high school season.

 

The individual goals that Watcke has will drive Hinsdale Central up in the rankings by the time they get to the state meet. He will have help especially with the meteoritic rise from Aden Bandukwala in the last calendar year.

 

The junior last fall had a good season heading into the state meet with no better than a fourth-place finish in any of his races. It changed dramatically in the final mile in the mud at Detweiller Park when he took the lead and held off Oak Park’s Liam Newhart to capture an unexpected Class 3A State Individual title. Bandukwala was asked after the race if he expected to be interviewed as a state champion at that time. His repose was timeless. “No, I was expected to be interviewed next year.” Perhaps he will be next November.

 

Those words showed that like Watcke, he was driven to achieve the goals that he had in his mind and realize those dreams at that point of time. Bandukwala played a huge role in their final two meets as the top runner for the team including finishing 26th at NXN while Watcke was just two places behind him.

 

Watcke enters this track season with the top returning time in the 800 Meter Run and second fastest 1600 / 1 Mile time in the state. It will be interesting to see how low his times drop in his junior season. There was more of a focus with him on relays last season. He anchored the Red Devils at state to a second-place finish in the 4x800m Relay. He was the team’s second runner on the team’s 4x400m Relay that also finished second.

 

Bandukwala only ran 51.50 in the open 400 and 2:03.05 in the open 800 during April. When he got to crunch time, Bandukwala was dropping splits in the 400 to under 509 seconds. His split in the Nike Outdoor Nationals was 15:52.29 for 800-meters. He did run at Magis Miles a week after state passing 1600-meters in 4:23.62 on his way to running 4:25.26 for the 1 Mile Run.

 

Bandukwala’s confidence in the last year have grown and we should see some staggering performances from him over the next few months. “Bunny,” along with Watcke and a good distance group behind these two including Michael Skora, Grant Miller, and Jessie Gamboa, will have something to say in the Illinois Distance scene in the 2023 Outdoor track season.

 

Which runner steps into the 3A Distance spotlight in 2023?

We talked about Aden Bandukwala and Daniel Watcke and the impact that they could have in the upcoming 2023 track season especially after what they did last fall. The spotlight will definitely shine on them during the next couple of months.

 

The door is so wide-open in the three Class 3A distance events in this season. 2022 was a senior dominated year in those three events and the number of all-state runners coming back is lower than usual.

 

The 800 Meter Run has four all-state runners back from that 2022 3A State Meet.

 

The 1600 Meter Run was the race to watch last year at state with the first nine runners finishing within 3.27 seconds of each other. Ethan Summer missed all-state by just two hundredths of a second. Imagine running 4:14 and not all-state. 2022 was such a good year for that event. Just two all-state athletes are back.

 

The 3200 Meter Run has tumbleweed blowing across the event heading into this spring waiting for someone to step up. The top 10 finishers from last year have graduated. Dylan Ybarra of O’Fallon was the Section 1 winner in last year’s state meet and the top returning runner from that state race.

 

There were a number of athletes that emerged during last fall’s cross country season. The one runner that made the biggest step up was Liam Newhart of Oak Park-River Forest who ended his cross country season winning his regional and sectional races before finishing second within 31 hundredth of a second of Aden Bandukwala.

 

Newhart’s success continued in the post season just missing qualifying for the two national meets. He finished ninth at the NXR Midwest Regionals and then twelfth two weeks later at the CHAMPS Midwest Regional. His times should drop this spring. Newhart did not qualify for the state meet in 2022 but should do so this season. He ran personal bests of 4:25.08 for 1600-meters and 9:32.23 for 3200-meters during last track season.

 

With two runners back that were all-state in 2022 in the 1600 Meter Run, it could be just as an exciting season as it was last spring. There are 13 runners that are back that ran under 4:20 for that distance.

 

Owen Forberg of HL Richards is one of the all-state runners back. He ran 4:12.73 to finish seventh in the finals missing the state title by more than a second. He was all-state last fall in Class 2A at Detweiller Park finishing 20th overall. Forberg has started off this season on a strong note running 8:47.38 for 3000-meters and 4:20.-09 for the 1 Mile Run the past two weeks in Chicago.

 

Hunter Whitney of Lane Tech has a great track season finishing eighth just behind Forberg at state. His post season was successful first running 9:07.07 at the Music City Track Carnival and then two weeks later with a double of 9:12.90 for the 2 Mile Run and 4:18.51 for the 1 Mile Run. Injuries hit him hard last fall where he did not race since September. Hopefully, he will be back at full strength in May.

 

Another runner that has been hit with the injury bug has been Joliet West junior Marcellus Mines who did make the finals last year in the 1600 Meter Run. His hamstring tightened up in the final 200-meters of the finals where he finished 11th. A back injury slowed him down last fall where he missed the majority of the season. Mines did run the state series races making it Detweiller Park. He was second after the first mile of the state race before his back stiffened up forcing himself out of the race before 2-miles. He has the talent to do some fantastic things. It is keeping him healthy that will be something to watch for from Mines during this season.

 

Riley Newport of DeKalb ran with a chip on his shoulder last fall after missing the finals of last year’s state 1600 Meter Run by one spot and 45 hundredths of a second. He did bounce back after state with some good post season races including running 4:11.77 in the championship mile race at the Nike Outdoor Nationals to finish eighth overall. Newport comes back with the fastest mile/1600 Meter Run and second fastest in the 3200 Meter Run. Newport won eight of ten cross country races last fall finishing second at the First to the Finish Invitational and at the end of the year seventh in the 3A State Meet.

 

The one runner that has started off strongly this winter has been Camyn Viger from Plainfield South. Viger was the top runner for the Cougars last fall as they won their first state championship. He finished 11th in that race. He also was the top runner helping Plainfield South qualifying for the NXN Ike Cross Nationals where they finished 13th. His drive from last fall has continued to this season with some great races. Viger has one of the top 10 national times in the 800 Meter Run running 1:54.57 in a meet in Chicago on January 15. The junior followed that up last week on the same track running 4:18.63 in the 1 Mile Run to finish fourth. His versatility is amazing where he could race in any of the three distances and help his team in the 4x8.

 

Class 3A Notes / Thoughts

The 3200 Meter Run is the mystery event not only in the distances, but also among the 12 individual events in Class 3A.

 

There are 10 runners that are back that have run under 9:30 last year. Hunter Whitney and Riley Newport are the only two runners that went under 9:20 in 2022. We mentioned Dylan Ybarra earlier. The O’Fallon junior is taking the next step up after he finished 21st in the 3A State Meet.

 

There are a number of runners that ran great last fall that could step up in this distance. Oliver Burns of Plainfield North finished fifth last fall at Detweiller Park. His races at the end of last fall shows he is ready to climb to the next level. Burns ran 9:23.80 in his junior year with hopes of considerably dropping that personal best. Zac Close of Neuqua Valley ran 9:25.95 as a sophomore last year and had a bigger break through last fall finishing 15th at state.

 

The 800 Meter Run has a ton of intrigue entering this year with four all-state runners back. Caleb Levy of Warren is more than three seconds behind Daniel Watcke after last year. Levy ran under 1:55 twice including the finals where he finished third. Michael Polizzi of Taft has showed he is ready for the next level after already running 1:21 for 600-meters last Saturday. Polizzi finished sixth in the finals and ran a personal best of 1:54.95 two weeks after the state meet. He is a runner to keep an eye on this spring.

 

Theodore Cunningham of Fremd ran a great race after state cross winning one of the open races at the NXR Midwest Regional. He started this season last Saturday running 4:22.08 for the 1 Mile Run. Cunningham ran 1:56.79 to finish ninth in the 3A finals. He had a 1600 Meter Run best of 4:20.85 at the end of last year at Magis Miles. His times should look to be drop even more as this season progresses.

 

Zachary Balzer of Minooka is a runner that will take the next step up in 2023. He got stuck in that tactical heat in the 1600 Meter Run at state where he ran 4:19.63 and failed to qualify. He was impressive a month before state last year running 4:19.42 at Sandburg on a Thursday evening, then came back the next night at Prospect to run a personal best of 4:17.07 to win that race. He did run 1:57.37 for 800-meters and 9:25.64 for 3200-meters. Whatever distance he chooses, Balzer should have a banner senior season.

 

Luke Noren of Naperville Central was part of his team’s all-state quartet in the 4x800m Relay last year. He could be dangerous in the middle distance events having run 4:14.90 for 1600-meters and 1:56.53 for 800-meters in 2022. One runners to keep your eye on in the 800 Meter Run is Aidan Hill of York. He transitioned last year from the Pole Vault into the distance events and in one year dropped his personal best to 1:57.33 at his conference meet. He was part of York’s 4x800m Relay team that was all-state finishing. Hill qualified for the state cross country meet last fall. He did run a 4:20 1600 time trial the week of the state meet. That strength from last fall should pay dividends for him this spring.

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