Payton breaks own state meet record in winning third straight 2A 4x800 title

Sycamore has the numbers in winning Class 2A team title; East St Louis with three relay wins finishes second; Lane’s final high school race a gem in 3200 Meter Run win; Payton wins for Williams, Collier in distances

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By Michael Newman

Charleston, Ill – Payton Prep High School in Chicago had set several goals that they wanted to achieve in this school year. One of those goals was to win the Class 2A Cross Country team title. They did that at Detweiller Park last November. The second among others was winning for the IHSA State Meet Record in the 4x800 State Meet Record of 7:37.36 set by Sandburg in 2016. Their time at Prospect at the beginning of the month of 7:44.62 showed their coaches that that record was possible.

Payton had the top qualifying time in the prelims of 7:58.92 resting Preston Ellis and substituting him with Obree Fischer. There were a few teams that were within Payton thinking that maybe they had a chance to catch the Grizzlies. The fact is on Saturday that those teams did not have a chance against the two-time defending champions.

Vaughn Collier took the lead at the end of the opening leg as he ran a 1:58.31 and gave Payton more than a second lead. Declan Slavin stretched out the lead on the second lead running a 1:54.54 split to open the lead to five seconds ahead of Mahomet-Seymour and Sycamore another second behind. Tra’Monti Williams broke the race wide open running a fast 1:52.57 to open a 13 second lead on Sycamore and Lincoln/Mahomet-Seymour. It was up to Preston Ellis to get that record. His 1:53.54 anchor split gave them a new Class 2A record of 7:38.95 but missing the state meet record by over a second. Mahomet-Seymour was a distant second (7:55.22 ahead of Sycamore 7:55.77 and Lincoln (7:56.0).

“We weren’t concerned about breaking our old record. We just wanted to break the state record. We did not leave anything out there.”

“I was expecting a gap,” added Williams when he got the baton. “We knew we have that gap to run that record. I was hoping to run a 1:52 and I got that.”

Sycamore had the advantage after the preliminary session Friday morning. Those numbers in the finals paid off on Saturday scoring in 10 events and two wins to help them win the state title with 71 points. Aidan Wyzard helped the Spartans scoring in four events. He moved up to third in the Long Jump (23-6) behind Chris Nelson of Herrin and his 24-5.50 state winning jump followed by Rex Hallan of Richland County (24-3.75). It went down to the wire in the 100 Meter Dash as Tyjaire Kellum of Herrin won (10.47) just ahead of Wyzard (10.50). Wyzard clinched the team title for Sycamore when he ran 21.36 to easily win the title in the 200 Meter Dash title with Akeelan Dowell of Cahokia finishing second (21.84). Sycamore’s other winner came when Dylan Hodges ran 49.18 to win the 400 Meter Dash holding of Logan Smallwood of Limestone (49.26) for the win.

“We learned a lot from last year’s state meet,” Wyzard said. “We worked harder to get to this point and became closer as a team.”

East St. Louis have a great Saturday winning three relays to score 62 points to finish second. Cahokia finishing second in the 4x400 Meter Relay moved them up to third scoring 37 points. Payton and Richland County scored 36 points tying for fourth.

The Flyers have a strong tradition in the IHSA State Meet, especially in the relays. They displayed their prowess of getting the baton around the track. One of the big keys were the big anchor legs by Melvin Sledge in two of the three relays. Sledge ran at Hazelwood East MO until he transferred to East. St. Louis at the beginning of the school year. He was the 400 Missouri Class 4 state champion in the 400 Meter Dash in 2023.

Sledge brought the team from behind in the 4x100 Meter Relay as the Flyers with Durand Sain, Jayden McCallum, Shamond McClain, and Sledge ran 41.57 to hold off Richland County (41.65) and Sycamore (41.91) to win the relay. Sledge again brought his team from behind to run 1:27.03 to win ahead of Sterling (1:27.71) and Richland County (1:27.85). It was a race against the clock once Sledge got the handoff from Sain and then extended the lead to McCallum and gave the lead to Darius Ivy. It had been a busy weekend for Ivy. This was his seventh race of the two days as he was all-state in the 800 and fifth in the 400 finals. Ivy held off Cahokia’s Connor Radford as he crossed across the line baton in the air as the Flyers ran 3:17.80 to claim the win ahead of Cahokia (3:19.20), Sycamore (3:10.26), and Sterling (3:21.05).

Tra’Monti Williams and Preston Ellis had a little time to recover and get ready for the 800 Meter Run. The question would be at this moment was how much would they have coming back?

Both had plenty as Williams passed the first 400 in 56 seconds with Ellis close behind the pack. The junior Payton runner made this race as his lead grow entering the final curve. He won the state title (1:53.77) ahead of Luke Smith of Waterloo (1:54.57), Ivy (1:54.94), and Ellis (1:55.85) who held off Metamora’s Zach Born (1:55.88).

“I took the measures to get ready for this race. My legs were sore after the relays.” Williams said. “I was not worried of who was around me. I heard a couple of footsteps, but I did not care.”

Simon Lane of Chicago University had the most effect strategy for him to stay with the leaders in the front of the pack and go when the moment was right. The runners in the third section knew what they had to race against after two sections were run in the 3200 Meter Run. Max Kirby of Peoria Notre Dame won the first section running 9:42.88 holding off a great race from Edgar Garcia from Murphysboro who ran a huge personal best of 9:45.64). Duffy would end up finishing tenth overall just missing all-state, a position the sophomore should get next year.

The excitement in the second section grew larger. Cuyler Swanson of Morris was running his third 3200 of the year. Swanson ran a 65 second final lap to run 9:26.06 to win this section with Maxwell Carter of Morton running 9:30.90 to place sixth. Swanson, a sophomore, would end up finishing fourth overall. Carter, another sophomore, finished sixth overall.

Raphael and Gabriel Greer of Marion would not let this race become a sit and kick affair pushing the first lap in 67 seconds. Disaster hit Gabriel Greer as he made accident contact with contact on the back stretch on the second lap and fell as the pack left him. He got back up and continued slowly moving closer to the pack but never catching up.

It became a three-runner race at that point with Raphael Greer leading Lane along with Gabriel McLain of Benton as they passed 1600-meters in 4:37. The three took off on the final lap. Lane made his move off the final taking the lead and the state title that he craved for raising his arms running 9:12.79 for the win. Greer ran 9:13.23 to finish second with McLain dropping off the pace running 9:25.28 to finish third.

Happiness turned to disaster for Lane before the start of the 1600 Meter Run. Lane hesitated just before the start as well as another runner stepping over the line as the gun went off and then again. Lane later admitted he did false start devastated he could not race. Officials let the other runner who also false started stay in the race. Lane did not have his season end the way he wanted but he could say that his final finish was a state title win.

None of the other runners wanted to take the lead as the pace dragged to laps of 68 seconds, 70 seconds and another 68 second lap before the bell rang making this a 400-meter dash to the title. “It was the dream scenario,” Vaughn Collier of Payton said after the race still in shock after he realized he won a state title.

Henry McMurry of Mahomet-Seymour led the race by default entering the final lap. Runners were passing each other left and right trying to claim the front position until Collier took command. The senior from Payton, who was in fourth at the bell, ran a 56.26 final lap to give him the improbable win of 4:22.86. McLain closed in a 56.78 final lap to run 4:23.11 to finish second with Christian Harris of Morton running 4:23.33 to finish third closing in a 57.26 final lap.

“I am so happy with this. I just wanted all-state and this happened,” Collier said. “I knew when the pace went slow it was perfect for me. No one has a better kick than me, so I went out and got it.”

Louis Yohannes of Triad did what he did in 2024 in winning the state title in the 110 Meter Hurdles, Yohannes had the lead over the fifth hurdles as he went on to run 14.11 for his second win holding off Lincoln’s Parker Campbell (14.18) and Mt. Vernon’s Keaton Koch (14.47). Amauree Williams of Southland College Prep had finished fourth in the shorter hurdle race. He took the lead on the penultimate hurdle of the 300 Meter Hurdles as he ran 37.77 to hold off Adrian Mann of Harrisburg (37.97) for the win.

Shamond McLain of East St. Louis got his team 10 points with his state title jumping 46-8.25 for the win. Victreze Thomas of Cahokia jumped 45-7.75 to finish second ahead of Jamarion Bardwell of Sacred Heart-Griffin (44-11).

Matt Pluff of Freeburg left Charleston as a three-time all-state athlete, His best finish was when he cleared 6-8.75 on his second attempt to win the state championship in the 2A High Jump. Bardwell picked up his second medal of the meet clearing 6-7.50 to finish second. Jeremy Melton of Pontiac cleared 6-6 in finishing third.

Kyle Quaid Bowman of Glenbard South entered the Pole Vault on Saturday at 14-9 and missed on his first attempt making that height, Andrew Nuyen of Rochelle came in at the same height and had the lead on Quaid Bowman as the bar was raised to 15-5. Nuyen missed all three attempts but still had the lead. Quaid-Bowman stepped up on his third attempt at 15-5 clearing the height and closing the 2A competition with the state title.

Andrew Kinsman of Benton finished his high school career with the state title in the Shot Put his 59-5.50 prelim mark claiming the win. Will Rosenow of Sycamore moved to second on Friday with his 55-8.25 mark claiming that place. Ian Morris of Princeton was in third as he entered the ring for his final throw. He unleashed a 175-9 throw to take the lead and eventually winning the title. Teammate Landon Hoffman threw 171-10 to finish second. Brett Centnarowicz of Johnsburg finished third (166-10).