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Class 3A Storylines to Follow at the 2023 Illinois Top Times Championships

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Illinois Top Times   Mar 23rd 2023, 1:06pm
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Class 3A Storylines to Follow at the 2023 Illinois Top Times Championships

 

By Michael Newman

 

It could be the short sprints that could steal the show in the Class 3A and final session of the Illinois Top Times Championships inside the Shirk Center beginning Saturday afternoon. That is where the bulk of the talent is within this 3A meet.

 

Watch the webcast of Illinois Top Times on RunnerSpace +PLUS

 

The bulk of all-state athletes in Class 3A graduated after last May’s state meet. It leaves a door left ajar waiting for athletes to step into the spotlight.

 

One of those athletes will be Daniel Lacy of Champaign Centennial. Lacy was all-state last May in the 400 Meter Dash finishing fifth. Lacy missed all of his junior indoor season of track and did not run in this meet. He comes into Saturday with the possibility of winning two of the sprint races.

 

Lacy’s biggest roadblock could come in the 60 Meter Dash at the beginning of the meet. Lacy enters this meet with the top Class 3A time of 6.89 run last week at the Gene Armer Invitational. His chief competition comes from Danny Eloe of Naperville North, the only all-state athlete back from last year’s 100 Meter Dash finals. Eloe has the fastest time in the state in the 55 Meter Dash when he ran 6.43 to beat Joshua Duncan’s meet record at York three weeks ago. Billy Bailey Jr. of Joliet West has been the biggest upcoming athlete in the sprints having run 6.46 for 55-meters last week in his Southwest Prairie Conference win. Bailey also has a 6.97 best for 60-meters. Those three athletes are the only athletes at that distance that are seeded under seven seconds.

 

The 200 Meter Dash should be the event where Lacy dominates. He comes into the meet with  the second fastest time in the state at this distance (21.88) and the top seed time in this event by almost seven tenths of a second. Austin Rowswell of Lincoln-Way West, Bailey, and Sidney Morris of Kenwood all have times under 22.7 and could threaten for the win. Darnell Williams of Proviso West and Edward Clark of Crete-Monee could move into the top three from the third section.

 

Lacy will not be in the 400 Meter Dash. Neither will all-state runner Josh Pugh of Yorkville who will not be in this meet. Sydney Morris has a great weekend at the Chicago Public League Championships last Saturday that included winning the 400 Meter Dash with the fastest Class 3A time (49.98). There is no one within a second of him entered in this meet. Henry Kennedy of Dundee-Crown along with Austin Rowswell are the closest runners to Morris.

 

Miles Granjean of Evanston Township will be the athlete to watch for in the 60 Meter Hurdles. Granjean has been unbeatable this indoor season having Class 3A best of 7.49 in the 55 Meter Hurdles and 8.14 in the 60 Meter Hurdles. Jonathan Tegel of Crystal Lake Central has the next best seed time at 8.27. Matthew Thomas of Danville and Grant Tode of Chatham-Glenwood have the next 60 times at 8.40.

 

There will be plenty of action going on in the final section of the meet. Here are some of the events and athletes to keep an eye on.

 

Exciting 400 highlight strong Girls Sprint fields

The fields in the 3A Girls sprints and hurdle events are strong and could highlight the Class 3A session of the meet. The best of the four races could come from the 400 Meter Dash. Angela Alozie of Homewood-Flossmoor started her season in January running a 3A best time of 56.73 at the Arkansas HS Invitational. Alozie is coming off a big meet last Saturday winning three races at the Southwest Suburban Conference including running 56.85 for 400-meters. Abrielle Artley of Evanston Township finished second last year at state in the 300 Meter Hurdles and anchored the Wildkits to a state championship in the 4x400m Relay. Artley last weekend at the D117 Girls Last Chance Meet ran an indoor personal best of 56.90 to win the 400 Meter Dash. The two are the only runners under 58 seconds in this event. It could be an exciting finish with Alozie and Artley pushing each other to a time under 56 seconds.

 

Artley will also run in the 60 Meter Hurdles where she has the seventh fastest time in Class 3A. Lining up next to her in the first preliminary heat will be the athlete that finished ahead of her in the 300 Hurdles at state, Ana-Liese Torian of Homewood-Flossmoor. Torian is the big favorite in this event having run an IL #2 8.47 last Saturday at the Southwest Suburban Conference. Emmi Scales will run in the 2A meet in the morning and should set the meet record in the event. Torian could better that record in the afternoon. Daisha Brunson of Conant could be someone to watch for. The freshman ran the fastest time in Class 3A in the 55 Meter Hurdles (8.34) in winning in Naperville last week.

 

It could be the showdown between Asia Thomas of Kenwood and Katelyn Lehnen of Chatham-Glenwood that could be the scene stealer in the sprints. Lehnen, who won the 200 Meter Dash at state last year as a freshman, has been on fire this indoor season. She’s run against the best in the last month. She missed making the finals at the New Balance Nationals Indoor two weeks ago by one spot. She still ran 7.45 in her semi final heat, the fastest time in the state. Thomas is close timewise to Lehnen running 7.48 twice during the season. The last came at the beginning of February at Gately Park. Thomas ran 7.58 to win the Chicago City Championships last Saturday.

 

An advantage for Lehnen in the 200 Meter Dash is that she is in Lane 3 with Angela Alozie on the outside in Lane 4 in the final section of the event. Both runners should be the favorites in the event. Lehnen ran 24.14 in Boston two weeks ago. Alozie comes in with a 25.27 best run in Arkansas in January. Brunson could be the surprise in the final section having run 25.29 this season.

 

Sohn will continue to soar in the Shot Put

What a week Alex Sohn of Normal Community had between March 11 to March 18 competing in four meets. It must be strange that he had not competed since last Saturday at the University of Armory. The energy he will have this Saturday could put him into another stratosphere.

 

Sohn achieved three personal bests during the week in the Shot Put. He earned All-American status by achieving his first personal best of 61-10.25 to finish fourth at the New Balance Nationals Indoor. Two days later, he came to the Shirk Center to have a 63-4.75 put to win the event and achieve the second personal best. He was back in the same ring two days later to have a 62-5.25 mark for the win. Last Saturday in Champaign, he improved his personal best by almost three inches for a personal best of 63-7.5 for the win. The mark is currently the best in the state. He is currently ranked fourth in the nation.

 

Sohn will be pushed farther on Saturday especially with the quality of this field. Javaris Ambrose of Thornton is having a great indoor season having gone past 60-feet four times. He had a 60-11 put to earn All-American status by finishing second at the Nike Indoor Nationals. On Tuesday in his home ring, Ambrose achieved a 62-10 personal best (US #8). Tyler Michelini of Lake Park will be in the mix for the win. He achieved a personal best last week at the DuKane Conference Meet of 62-3 (US #9).

 

It could be the most exciting field event of the weekend.

 

Schager goes for the double in the Girls Distance Events

The start to state championships for Glenbard North’s Grace Schager started in this meet last year when she won the 3200 Meter Run.

 

Look what she did after that race. She earned a state title in this event last May. She won a state title at Detweiller Park last fall, then a month later finishing fifth at the Nike Cross Nationals.

 

Schager doubled last week easily winning the 800 and 1600 last Saturday at the DuKane Conference Championships. This week another double in this meet running the 3200 Meter Run and the 1600 Meter Run. Schager ran a solo 10:19.23 at Batavia at the end of February that is still the top time of the state and still ranked #13 nationally after all the national meets.

 

Schager has the fastest time in this field by 27 seconds. Rachel Soukup of Prairie Ridge ran 10:46.94 last week at Lakes and could be Schager’s chief competition. Audra Soderlind of Oswego, Sarah Fischer of Hinsdale Central, Brittney Burak of Huntley, and Veronica Znajda of Prospect have times between 10:56 to 10:59 and could challenge for top three finishes.

 

Schager is ranked #3 in Class 3A in the 1600 Meter Run with her 4:53.58 time she ran in winning at Batavia Distance Madness. Soukup ran 4:54.01 in that race and will be in this race on the double. Annika Swan of St. Ignatius Prep has a 4:56.18 best. This will be her only race along with Anna Harden of Hersey. With Schager and Soukup doubling, it could be one of these runners that could leave Bloomington with the win.

 

National Champion Allison Ince will not be competing in this meet leaving the 800 Meter Run wide-open. Bella Domier of Grayslake Central slipped by Catie McCabe of Hinsdale Central in the final straight to win the event. Both runners are back to race again with both the top seeds in the second section. McCabe ran 2:13.90 to win at the WSC-Silver Championship last Friday. She is three seconds ahead of Domier’s seasonal best of 2:16.94 that was run last Saturday at Lakes. Keep an eye on the first section of this event. Meg Peterson of Prospect has an open seed time of 2:22.28. The freshman ran a 2:15 split on the Knights relay that ran 9:04. Keep an eye on Peterson in the first section.

 

Prospect is the top seed in the 4x800m Relay but will keep their top runners in individual events. They still could be the favorite in the race and could be challenged by Plainfield North and Loyola Academy. Hinsdale Central will be entered but will not have Sarah Skora and McCabe in the lineup unless they make a change before Saturday.

 

New stars on the horizon in the Boys Distance races

Some of the top distance runners in the state will not be in attendance in this meet like Dan Watcke, Aden Bandukwala, and the rest of Hinsdale Central, Plainfield South, and most of the WSC-Silver teams.

 

It just means that we will see some new faces in top places.

 

Fremd enters this meet as the top seeded team in the 4x800m Relay after running 8:07.54 in winning the MSL Meet at North Central last Saturday. We could see Theodore Cunningham anchoring in this meet. He did not last week. Plainfield North and Bolingbrook are the only other teams in the field that have times under 8:10. Whitney Young, Chatham-Glenwood, and Waubonsie Valley have run under 8:16. All three teams could contend for a top three finish.

 

Landon Gillespie of Kenwood ran his best race of the season in running 1:54.46 to win the 800 Meter Run at the Chicago Public League Championships. Caleb Levy of Warren Township is a returning all-state runner in this event finishing fourth last May in Charleston. Levy already has a 1:55.25 to his credit run two weeks ago at North Central College. Riley Newport of DeKalb and Trey Sato of Grayslake Central both have times under 1:57 indoors. I would not count either of these runners in this race.

 

It is hard to determine how the 3200 Meter Run will play out. Oliver Burns of Plainfield North is coming off a strong race in the Southwest Prairie Conference Meet finishing second with a 9:22.21 time. Ben Crane of New Trier has a 9:25.20 best in winning at Batavia Distance Madness. Tommy Nitz of Huntley has a 9:28.79 best and Mitch Garcia of St. Charles East has a 9:31.47 best. Both Nitz and Garcia  ran that at Batavia. All three of these runners should be among the front runners in this race. It could take a time under 9:20 to win this race.

 

Theodore Cunningham could be a part of the Fremd 4x8 earlier in this meet. The senior comes into this meet in the 1600 Meter Run  as the favorite having run 4:20.51 two weeks ago at Burlington Central. Owen Forberg of Richards could be the runner to watch. He was all-state last May in Charleston. He has run 4:20.09 for the 1 Mile Run in January. Don’t count him out in this race. Jacob Barraza of DeKalb, Brandon Lawson of Rockford Guilford, and Vijay Krishnamoorthi of Conant have all been running hot this indoor season. Any of those three runners could come away with the win in this race.

 

Huntley’s Johnson sisters have the jump on the rest of the competition

The scenario in the Girls horizontal jumps is similar to what we saw in last year’s Top Times meet. Alexandria Johnson comes into this meet ranked seventh in the nation in the Long Jump. She has the top mark in the state jumping 20-0.5 at the beginning of March at Lakes. She has close to a foot margin ahead of the rest of the competition in the event with Zawadi Brown of Neuqua Valley, Elissa Perkins of Plainfield East, and Dominique Johnson of Huntley all with jumps past 18-6. Alexandria is the defending champion in this event. Her sister Dominique finished fourth overall last year.

 

The top three finishers from last year’s meet in the Triple Jump are all back. Dominque jumped 40-9.25 and was 2.5 inches ahead of her sister Alexandria. Perkins finished third last year.

 

We could see another 1-2 finish by the Johnson sisters. Both have jumped the same distance, 40-2.25, in different meets this season and lead the state. The two are among the top 15 in the nation. They will be the favorites in the event. The two Huntley athletes are almost a foot ahead of the rest of the field led by Perkins and Jahnel Bowman of Plainfield South.

 

Brody Squires of Waubonsie Valley has been one of the hottest athletes in the Boys Long Jump establishing personal bests in his last two meets. His best came last week at the University of Illinois when he jumped 23-2.75 at the DuPage Valley Conference last Friday. He is currently ranked second in the state and should be the favorite in this event. He is half a foot ahead of the rest of the field led by Deandre Kelly of Thornwood and Ryan Schafer of Glenbrook South.

 

The top three athletes in Class 3A in the Triple Jump will all be competing in this meet. Malik Allen of Edwardsville had success on this runway last week jumping a state leading 45-10. Enoch Appiah-Kubi of Loyola Academy won the Catholic League championship last Saturday with a 45-8.75 jump. Kaiden Miller of Grayslake Central is three inches behind the Loyola junior. Any of these three athletes could come away with the ITT title in this event.

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