Above Photo: Mitch West leads montini to a heat win in the 400 Meter Relay. West also helped the team qualify for the 800 Relay along with qualifying in the 100 & 200 (Mike Newman Photo).

By Michael Newman

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Charleston, Ill --- We do have an idea of who would be challenging for the 2A team title in what was one of the confusing and controversial days in the history of the IHSA Boys State Track & Field Championships. Early on Friday morning, the decision was made by the IHSA to move all the jumping events indoors to the Lantz Fieldhouse due to the possibility of impending storms. The decision was wise at first especially when you looked on the radar to the south of Charleston huge globs of green precipitation heading towards the Eastern Illinois University campus. By 8:15, the forecast changed and it looked like the area would not be hit by rain. It was heading to the west of the state meet site.

Before the radar cleared up, the decision was made by meet management to move the Shot Put inside. It created an uproar with the 2A weight coaches especially since none of the coaches hand indoor implements to use. The IHSA was able to round up four indoor shots that all of the competitors could use. During the entire morning, except for a slight drizzle during the 3200 Meter Relay, no rain fell. The prelims on the track were run on a rolling schedule meaning one event was run after another with no time schedule.

Geneseo survived the prelims and left O’Brien Stadium with the most athletes advancing to the finals. Geneseo advanced eleven to the finals including two relays. 2015 1A champion Tolono Unity put themselves in good position to pick up a trophy qualifying eight individuals and two relays. Defending five time 2A champion Cahokia is in the hunt for a sixth title trophy with nine qualifiers advancing. Morgan Park and Springfield Lanphier were next with seven qualifiers.

Highlights

Morgan Park showed how strong they are in the sprint relays having the top prelim times in both the 400 and 800 Meter Relays. They dominated Heat #3 running 42.03 ahead of Cahokia (42.65), Tolono Unity (42.81), and Springfield Lanphier (43.13) who all advanced to the finals. Montini Catholic (42.34) and Phillips Academy (42.84) were the other heat winners. Morgan Park bested Montini Catholic in the 800 Meter Relay running 1:27.57) more than a second ahead of the Broncos (1:28.96) and Rich Central (1:28.99). Plano (1:28.74) and Urban Prep / Engelwood (1:29.40) were the other Heat winners.

Mitch West (Montini Catholic HS, Lombard) has the fastest prelim time in the 100 Meter Dash running 10.72 to win the first heat. He will be challenge by Adam Nelson (Triad HS, Troy) as he ran 10.73 to win Heat #2 just ahead of Aaron Harris (Lisle HS) who ran 10.85. Israel Adeoti (Plano HS) ran 10.87 to win Heat #3. Najee Syvester (Hillcrest HS, Country Club Hills) won Heat #4 running 10.94.

Aaron Harris was in charge of the longer sprints running the fastest prelim times in the 200 Meter Dash and the 400 Meter Dash. Harris looked smooth in his final heat of the 400 running 48.80 to win ahead of Lanphier’s Dearis Herron (49.53) who also qualified. Colfay Pointer (Rochelle HS) ran 49.33 to win Heat #2 while Chris Ferguson-Scott (Mascoutah HS) ran 49.80 to win Heat #1 four hundredths of a second ahead of Cahokia’s Tyran Lyons (49.84). Defending 400 champion Tyler Higgins (Highland HS) finished sixth in the second heat and failed to advance to Saturday’s finals.

Harris looked just as strong as he ran 22.31 to win Heat # 3 running into a strong headwind. He will be challenged by Tayjione Nathan (Hillcrest HS, Country Club Hills) who ran 22.38 to win Heat #4. Brandon Cruz (Kaneland HS, Maple Park) and Joshua Williams (Vernon Hills HS) were the other heat winners. The win for Williams was redeeming. He ran 10.97 in the second heat of the 100 just missing the finals by three hundredths of a second.

Gamar Hayles (Rich Central HS, Olympia Fields) has the fastest prelim time in the 110 High Hurdles as he ran 14.55 to win the final heat of the event. His closest competition is Deion McShane (Freeport HS) who ran 14.64 to win his heat. Reed Vanderheyden (Geneseo HS) missed qualifying for the final in the 110 Highs. He came back to lead all qualifiers in the 300 Meter Hurdles (38.42). McShane had the next fastest time (38.58) winning the final heat.

Nick Wondaal (Illiana Christian HS, Lansing) moved away from the pack in the final 400 and held of Alex Keeble (Mahomet-Seymour HS) to win the first heat of the 1600 Meter Run (4:21.12 – 4:21.62). Andrew Warnes (Tolono Unity HS) pulled away in the final 50 meters to capture the second heat of the 1600 (4:23.18) just ahead of Metamora’s Jake Gillum (4:23.63).

Warnes will have a tough task on Saturday. Earlier in the 800 prelims, Warnes ran 1:57.87 to win the final heat in which the top seven runners all qualified for the finals. Gavin Hartley (Benton HS) had the fastest prelim time (1:57.58) as he won the second heat. Warnes will also anchor Tolono Unity’s 1600 Meter Relay.  The Rockets had the fastest prelim time as they ran 3:22.61 to win Heat #2. Thornridge is the closest team to Unity as they ran 3:22.78 to win Heat #1. Rochelle (3:23.43) and Cahokia (3:23.39) were the other heat winners.

Taylorville had the fastest prelim time (8:02.50) in the 3200 Meter Relay as they won the first heat. Geneseo’s Cayson Frerichs held off U-High’s Jared Schuckman to win Heat #2 (8:05.45). Tim Krashevsky pulled away in the final 100 meters from Cahokia’s Tyran Lyons to win the final heat (8:02.85 – 8:03.31).

Five of the six field events were held indoors and made things interesting in the team championship chase. Darryl Sullivan (Marion HS) jumped 22-3 ¾ to lead all qualifiers in the Long Jump just ahead of Morgan Park’s Xavier Taylor (22-2). Luther Newburn (Hillcrest HS, Country Club Hills) jumped 48-3 to lead all qualifiers in the Triple Jump ahead of Cahokia’s Anthony McRoberts (46-9 ½).

Sam Sikon (Carbondale HS) may have been holding back indoors on Friday waiting for his chance to go after the 2A record on Saturday in the Shot Put. Sikon’s lead mark of 61-5 ¾ leads all qualifiers by more than four feet. Kane Carrigan (Harrisburg HS) currently holds the lead in the Discus after the prelims. His throw of 168-11 is close to two feet ahead of Metamora’s Jake McGrew (167-2). Sikon currently is third in the event (165-9).

Darryl Sullivan and Noah Agnew (Vernon Hills HS) lead a field of thirteen athletes to Saturday’s finals. All qualifiers cleared 6-3. Twelve athletes advanced to the finals of the Pole Vault. Mike Rinella Kaneland H) and Arthur Atwell (Geneseo HS) were notable qualifiers. Defending champion Danny Walker (Kaneland HS) failed to advance to the finals.