Illinois High School Track & Field - Highlights from the Weekend - April 10, 2023

By Michael Newman

The past weekend historically in Illinois is either hit or miss. Storms throughout the state forced the majority of the meets or invitationals to be cancelled in 2022. The story this past weekend was completely the opposite. Great spring weather welcomed athletes to put in some great performances.

Some Illinois athletes headed west to the two day Arcadia Invitational just outside of Los Angeles. You can read about their exploits in the Illinois Meet recap.

The leaderboards filled up quickly this weekend. There were a ton of smaller meets that embraced the calendar for the past weekend. Here are highlights of some of the meets that took place during this holiday weekend.

Norm Armstrong Invitational @ Belleville West – This was the grandaddy of all the Boys Meets as 39 schools competed at this Metro St. Louis Area school Friday afternoon. The sprint events took center stage in this high powered meet. The top five finishers in the 100 Meter Dash were separated by just a tenth of a second. Nathan Hippard of Mascoutah ran 10.80 (IL #2) to win the event by just one hundredth of a second ahead of Cael Hiser of Minooka (10.81, IL #3 tie). Olusoga Adeyiga of Homewood-Flossmoor (10.82, IL #5) , John Gore of Homewood-Flossmoor (10.89), and Samuel Drey of Minooka (10.89) finished third through fifth. The 200 Meter Dash was just as close as Hiser ran 21.94 (IL #2) for the win ahead of Donovan McIntosh from St. Mary’s MO (21.95). Adeyiga ran 22.01 to finish third just ahead of his teammate Robert Scott III (22.06).

Five schools ran 42.6 or faster in the 4x100m Relay. Homewood-Flossmoor dominated this event where the top three places gave us the top three times in the state while the top eight finishers are ranked now in the top 10. The Vikings ran a state leading 41.75 for the win ahead of Minooka (42.48) and East St. Louis-Senior (42.51). Homewood-Flossmoor ran a state leading time of 1:28.62 to win the 4x200m Relay finishing ahead of Madison (1:29.71, IL #3) and Troy Triad (1:29.99, IL #4). Close defined the finish of the 4x400m Relay with the top two times in the state coming from this final race. East St. Louis-Senior claimed the win (3:24.51) just ahead of Kenwood (3:24.66).

Demarlynn Taylor of East St. Louis-Senior claimed a double win in the hurdle races. Taylor ran a state leading 14.57 to win the 110 High Hurdles ahead of Keshawn Lyons of Cahokia (14.82, IL #4) and Darvell Smith of Minooka (15.04, IL #6). Taylor came back to run 39.34 (IL #3) to win the 300 Intermediate Hurdles with Clayton Lakatos of Edwardsville placing second (40.52) by more than a second.

Dylan Ybarra of O’Fallon pulled away to run 9:22.05 (IL #5) to win the 3200 Meter Run finishing ahead of Jason Copelin of Fort Zumwalt West MO (9:30.04) and Joe Schwartz of Waterloo (9:35.40). Zach Thoman of O’Fallon ran 1:56.28 (IL #2) to edge Landon Gillespie of Kenwood (1:56.54, IL #3) and Zachary Balzer of Minooka (1:56.79, IL #4) in the 800 Meter Run. Foster Shelbert of Naperville Central ran 4:23.75 (IL #7) to win the 1600 Meter Run. Marion ran 8:03.86 (IL #2) to win the 4x800m Relay ahead of O’Fallon (8:04.14, IL #3)and Chatham-Glenwood (8:04.61, IL #4).

Chase Crawford of Cahokia started where he left off indoors in the Shot Put. Crawford had a mark of 60-2 (IL #3) to win the event. Sophomore Parrish Hartley of Kenwood jumped 22-6 (IL #4) to win the Long Jump. Nicholas Deloach of Cahokia jumped a state leading 46-9.75 to win the Triple Jump finishing ahead of Aaron McIntyre of Homewood-Flossmoor (45-0.25, IL #4).

Prospect Girls Relays – This meet held on Thursday highlighted the depth of host Prospect as they dominated the majority of the relays in this meet that ended in temperatures near 40 degrees. Prospect scored 137 points to win the team title finishing ahead of Naperville Central (111 points) and Minooka (72 points) in this nine team meet. The most exciting finish came in the 1600 Meter Run as Hailey Erickson of Prospect led from the start running 5:04.81 to win the event just ahead of Jane Lynch of Loyola Academy (5:04.83), Meg Peterson of Prospect (5:05.82), and Liv Phillips of Naperville Central (5:06.54).

Petersen ran a 60.1 anchor leg to bring Prospect from behind to win the 800m Sprint Medley Relay (1:53.79) just ahead of Naperville Central (1:54.28). Prospect also picked up wins in the 4x100m Relay (50.26), the 4x200m Relay (1:46.86), the 4x800m Relay (9:54.53), and the 1600m Sprint Medley (4:11.04). Warren ran 4:07.92 to capture the win in the 4x400m Relay ahead of Minooka (4:12.60). Naperville Central came from behind with a strong leg by Phillips to win the Distance Medley Relay (12:31.30) ahead of Minooka (12:36.82)

Makena Coltoff of Loyola Academy took wins in both hurdle races. The senior ran 16.30 to edge Audrey Walch of Glenbrook South (16.33) and Katherine Lytle of Prospect (16.43) to win the 100 Meter Hurdles. Coltoff came back to run 48.36 to win the 300 Meter Hurdles with Walch running 48.86 to finish second. Kait McHale of Naperville Central opened her outdoor season clearing 12-3.25 (IL #2) to win the Pole Vault. Charlotte Denies of Prospect jumped 17-11.75 (IL #6) to win the Long Jump.

Boys #1’s and Other Boys Meet Highlights

York Boys Triangular – Aidan Hill of York pulled away in the final lap to run an IL #1 4:18.9 to win the 1600 Meter Run with Palatine’s Carter Hayes running 4:23.2 to finish second.

Carterville Boys Invitational – Chris Nelson of Herrin ran a state leading 10.70 to win the 100 Meter Dash. Teammate Kyrese Lukens ran 11.00 to finish second. Nelson came back to run 22.57 to win the 200 Meter Dash with Lukens running 22.65 to finish second. Nelson was part of Herrin’s 4x100m Relay that ran 43.93 for the win just ahead of Carbondale (43.95). Nelson’s third individual win came when he cleared 5-10 to win the High Jump.

Rantoul Invitational – Jackson Gilbert of Urbana had a big day with three wins and the state’s fastest time in one of his races. The defending 2A State champion in the 400m Dash stepped down starting with running on the Urbana quartet that ran 43.37 to win the 4x100m Relay. He came back to run 10.81 (IL #3 tie) to win the 100 Meter Dash. He saved his best race for last as he ran a state leading 21.63 to win the 200 Meter Dash. Matthew Thomas of Danville was a triple event winner in this meet. Thomas cleared 12-6 to win the Pole Vault, ran 15.26 to win the 110 High Hurdles, and ran 42.45 to win the 300 Intermediate Hurdles.

East Moline Kiwanis Invitational – Tommy Murray of Riverdale started his outdoor season in a spectacular fashion winning two distance races over a pair of strong fields. Murray started his day running 9:14.72 (IL #2) to win the 3200 Meter Run ahead of Dale Johnson of Sterling who ran 9:23.50 (IL #9) to finish second and Jack Wright of Plainfield South (9:32.72). Murray came back to run 4:20.75 (IL #3) to win the 1600 Meter Run ahead of Luke Knepp of Pleasant Valley IA (4:21.23), Gavin Borger of Plainfield South (4:24.58), and Johnson (4:25.83). The quartet of BJ Sorg, Dylan Maloney, Ethan Reynoso, and Camyn Viger ran a state leading 8:02.43 to lead Plainfield South to the win in the 4x800m Relay.

Gans-Zeedyk Invitational @ Niles West – Josh Meister of Oak Park-River Forest started his season clearing a state leading 15-8 to win the Pole Vault. Liam Newhart ran in the 1600 Meter Run but ran with his Huskies’ teammates in the open race. Newhart ran 4:20.01 (IL #2) to lead in that event ahead of teammates Nick Parrell (4:25.30), Daniel Johnson (4:28.95), and Michael Michelotti (4:31.23). Oak Park had 11 runners in all three levels that ran under 5-minutes in this meet. The Huskies also ran some strong relays with a 42.77 time to win the 4x100m Relay and 1:30.21 to win the 4x200m Relay.

Riverton Meet #1 (April 3) – Mason Kooi of Springfield Lutheran bounced back from his meet at Illinois Top Times. Kooi cleared a state leading 7-0 (US #4 tie) to win the High Jump. Kooi also jumped 22-0.25 in the Long Jump and 43-11 in the Triple Jump in the same meet.

Girls #1’s and Other Girls Meet Highlights

Thomas McBride Invitational @ Springfield Southeast – Asia Thomas of Kenwood ran the fastest time in the state (11.93) in winning the 100 Meter Dash ahead of Alexandria Johnson of Huntley (12.31, IL #4). Thomas also ran 24.76 to win the 200 Meter Dash almost two seconds ahead of Leah Smith of South Shore International (26.54). Johnson also had a big day in this meet jumping 18-6.75 (IL #2) to win the Long Jump. She came back to jump a state leading 39-2.5 to win the Triple Jump with her sister Dominique jumping 38-8.25 IL #2) to finish second. Alexandria Johnson anchored Huntley to a win in the 4x100m Relay (49.07, IL #2) with East St. Louis-Senior running 50.07 (IL #9) to finish second. Breanna Burak of Huntley ran 10:49.71 (IL #8) to win the 3200 Meter Run.

Downers Grove South Girls Invitational – Catie McCabe of Hinsdale Central ran 2:18.73 (IL #2) to win the 800 Meter Run by almost five seconds ahead of Carlin Hass of Glenbard West (2:23.27) and Catherine Sommerfeld of Lyons Township (2:24.00). Sarah Skora of Hinsdale Central ran 5:08.73 (IL #6) to win the 1600 Meter Run ahead of Sarah Fischer of Hinsdale Central (5:09.69, IL #9), Julie Piot of Naperville North (5:09.80), and Charlotte Lange of Lyons Township (5:10.13).

Girls Spartan Relays @ Glenbrook North – One of the top races featured some of the top distance runners from last fall’s State Cross Country Meet in the 1600 Meter Run. Juliet Frum of Glenbrook North ran 5:08.40 (IL #5) to win the race just ahead of Bria Bennis of York (5:09.32, IL #7), and Monika Urbaniak of Palatine (5:09.73, IL #10). It was reported before the meet that York all-state runner Brooke Berger found out she will miss the rest of the season due to a broken bone in her foot. Berger was part of York’s all-state team in the 4x800 along with earning all-state honors in the 800 Meter Run.

Gary Everett Girls Invitational @ Elgin – Rachel Soukup of Prairie Ridge ran an outdoor personal best of 10:36.52 (IL #4) to win the 3200 Meter Run by over 90 seconds. Rylee Lydon of Prairie Ridge jumped a state leading 18-8.5 to win the Long Jump. Lydon also ran 26.01 to win the 200 Meter Dash.

Triad Girls Invitational – Anna Barr of Normal University ran a state leading 14.86 on Friday to win the 100 Meter Hurdles in this meet. Kemora Hayes of Cahokia ran 15.36 to finish second (IL #5). Hayes came back to run a season’s best of 25.76 to win the 200 Meter Dash. Reese Mitchell of Normal University ran 12.53 to win the 100 Meter Dash ahead of Kayda Austin of Cahokia (12.67). Zoe Carter of Normal University ran 10:50.63 (IL #10) to win the 3200 Meter Run ahead of Hannah Meiser of Civic Memorial (11:35.91). Emily Nuttall of Edwardsville ran 5:12.88 to win the 1600 Meter Run with Carter running 5:22.06 to finish second.