Illinois High School Track & Field Weekend Highlights - February 9, 2025

By Michael Newman

The start of the Illinois High School Track & Field season traditionally starts at the beginning of February with some smaller meets ending the indoor season at the end of March at the Illinois Top Times Championships on the campus of Illinois Wesleyan University. Two months later, the top athletes will meet again at Eastern Illinois University for the IHSA State Track & Field Championships with one weekend for the Girls and the following weekend for the Boys.

The track season may have started a little earlier in January with a few meets at Gately Park. With a mind-blowing performance, the start of the indoor season started on January 31 in the Circuit Meet of Chicago, Maybe it started with Mia Sirois of Barrington discovering what her potential is when she set the Detweiller Park course record and winning her second state title in her career and then finishing sixth at the Nike Cross Nationals. Sirois stayed with the front pack in the race passing through the first mile in 5:04, then ran a negative split to take the lead briefly with three laps to go. The sophomore ended up running 10:04.11 to finish second and the second fastest indoor time for the 2 Mile run this season.

We are going through a golden age of Girls Distance running in this state and across the country. It started with Judy Pendergast, followed with Katelynne Hart, and then Tatum David and Ali Ince. Now it is Sirois to take Illinois distance running to another level. Her 2 Mile Run time converts to 10:00.61 for the 3200 Meter Run which currently makes her the fifth fastest all time in this state. I use the word currently loosely because her time will continue to drop.

Sirois did not “peak” for the Circuit. She took a week over after Nike Cross Nationals and started her mileage back up mixed in with cross training. She is aware that Tatum David has run the fastest time in the 3200 Meter Run (8:48.94). David holds the IHSA State Meet record (9:53.96) while Katelynne Hart holds the Class 3A State record (10:12.96) set seven years ago and well within the grasp of this sophomore. She has three years to get a hold of David’s all-time best.

We could see big things from her in March at Nike Indoor Nationals where she is entered in all three distance events but has not decided what she will run in that meet.

The meets the past weekend were smaller but will grow in team attendance and in hype. Here are some of the performances in the past week for Illinois

Jerry Rowe Invitational (Boys) @ Rockford Auburn – Messiah Tilson of Rockford Guilford had a great opening meet to start his junior season. Tilson ran a state leading 6.88 to win the 60 Meter Dash. He then ran 22.43 later in the meet (IL #4) for the fastest flat track time in the state to win the 200 Meter Dash. Nicholas Martino of Winnebago opened his indoor season in style running 4:24.47 to win the 1600 Meter Run finishing ahead of Jamie Chandler of Deerfield (4:30.29) and Cole Tupper of Elgin (4:33.11). Brady Faulkner of Hoffman Estates dominated the field in the 3200 Meter Run winning with a 9:39.29 time ahead of Chandler (9:53.55) and Luke Marshall of Lake Zurich (9:57.02). South Elgin took the top two places in the 800 Meter Run as Noah Callahan ran 1:59.42 for the win ahead of teammate Josiah Lindsey (2:01.21) and Rockford Christian’s Andrew Kurien (2:01.69). Ryan Cunningham of Deerfield commanded the Shot Put with a 50-2 mark. DeAngelo McCullough of South Elgin jumped 21-2 to win the Long Jump.

Huntley Girls Open (Thursday) – The first time that this early season meet has been held. Defending Class 3A Prospect displayed their talent in a big way. Anna Niebrugge ran 7.59 to win the 60 Meter Dash ahead of teammates Nikki Niebrugge (7.77) and Amina Hadziahmetovic (7.81). 110 runners finished in that event. The three Prospect athletes took the top places in the 200 Meter Dash as Anna Niebrugge ran 25.30 for the win ahead of Hadziahmetovic (25.63) and Nikki Niebrugge (26.05). Veronica Znajda and Meg Peterson pushed each other in the 1600 Meter Run finishing together with Znajda winning (5:15.02) just ahead of Peterson (5:15.88). Haley Rahman of Huntley ran 2:23.55 to win the 800 Meter Run with Ireland Wildhart of Prospect running 2:25.12 to finish second.

York Boys Quad (Saturday) – This small four team meet churns out some great performances on the fast Joe Newton Fieldhouse track. The 2025 edition was no exception. Naperville Central’s Patrick Clune had some of the top performances of the meet in two distance events. Clune had the lead in the 800 Meter Run and cruised to the win in a 1:59.01 season’s best. Manny Najera of Naperville Central passed York’s Sam Kehoe on the final lap to run 2:01.90 to place second with Kehoe running 2:02.98 to finish third. Clune was also in command of the 600 Meter Run from the start running 1:25.91 for the win with York’s Max Zangan running 1:28.69 to finish second. Conrad Saner of Downers Grove South took the lead through the halfway point of the race to go on to run 4:33.38 for the win with teammate John Clinton finishing second (4:38.38). Carter Olsen of York moved on the final lap to win the 3200 Meter Run (10:04.25) with freshman teammate Patrick Hill running 10:05.04 finishing second.

Tayshaun Austin of Downers Grove South won on the lean in the 55 Meter Dash running 6.57 to edge York’s Bruno Massel (6.62). Danny Karnatz of York was a double winner in the sprints running 36.45 to win the 300 Meter Dash. He then came back to run 22.89 to win the 200 Meter Dash. Luke De Simone of York ran 7.88 to win the 55-Meter-High Hurdles missing the facility record by two hundredths of a second. De Simone also won the 55 Lows (30” height) with a 7.58 time. Jordan Lamkins of Bolingbrook jumped 21-9 to win in the Long Jump.

Cupid’s Arrow Invitational (Girls) @ Plainfield South – Marlie Czarniewski of Plainfield North made a good impression in her first meet of the season. The sophomore won the 800 Meter Run by 11 seconds with a 2:22.24 time. Teammate Tessa Russo won a close race in the 1600 Meter Run. Russo ran 5:14.15 to edge Joliet Central’s Madison King (5:14.53). Plainfield East swept the top two places in the 55 Meter Dash as Courtney McDonald ran 7.26 for the win ahead of Haley Anderson (7.47). Courtney Clabough started her senior season with a 37-11.25 best to win=n the Shot Put,

Eastern Indoors Invitational @ Norton Center, Louisville – East St. Louis set a high standard for the rest of the teams in Illinois heading to Kentucky to accomplish that. The Flyers quartet of Demarcus Coleman, Melvin Sledge, Mark Samuels, and Darius Ivy ran 3:24.92 to capture the win against a club team St. Louis Blues Track Club (3:25.70). Ivy’s anchor split of 50.5 to help his team to the win.