Whitaker sets IHSA Class 1A State Meet Pole Vault Record

Salt Fork repeats as Class 1A Champion behind Taylor double win; Murray double win in 3200/1600

By Michael Newman

Charleston, Ill – It is usual when a freshman steps into a stadium to compete in a state meet, they may become flustered with the situation. It did not seem to bother Isaiah Whitaker of Bloomington Central Catholic when he walked inside O’Brien Field Saturday morning at the IHSA State Track & Field Championships.

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There were expectations on records that Whitaker would be able to set in this meet. This freshman was focused on one things.

“Records are nice to set,” Whitaker said with a smile after the competition had ended. “I was just focused on the state championship.”

Whitaker did earn his first state championship. He also got a record in the process. Whitaker set a new Class 1A Meet Record of 5.10m (16-8.75) to easily win the state title.

He came in early easily clearing 13-5.25 on his opening attempt. He passed on the next two heights and went into the lead after second-place finishers David Staller of Robinson and Mason Gilpin of Carlinville missed all three attempts at 14-1. Whitaker followed clearing 14-5.25 on his second attempt to win the state title. He followed that up clearing on his second attempts at 15-9, 16-9.25, and then the record height.

Salt Fork had a good preliminary session on Thursday to put them in contention for a trophy. Their Saturday went even better as they repeated as Class 1A State Champions scoring 45 points. Shelbyville on the final event moved into second-place scoring 30.5 points edging Newton (30 points). Tuscola missed a trophy by one point scoring 29 points to finish fourth. Auburn, with 25 points, finished fifth.

Garrett Taylor was the strength of the Salt Fork scoring on this Saturday repeating as the state champion in the Discus and adding the Shot Put to his state gold medal collection. There was no change in the top three places in the Shot as Taylor fouled on two of his three final attempts. Taylor’s 60-7.25 mark from Thursday held on for the state title. Mitchel Myers of Arcola (57-1.5) and Chris Boyd of Tuscola (55-8.25) finished second and third.

Taylor improved on his second attempt on Saturday extending his lead with a 183-7 throw. Mitchel Myers earned his second silver medal of the meet throwing 173-4.

Connor McGlauchlen of Pana finished third (163-4).

Salt Fork won two other events to claim the state title. Nathan Kirby fought from behind and caught Jackson Kern of Auburn on the final hurdle to win by just five hundredth of a second. Kirby was timed in 14.28 ahead of Kern (14.33). Kirby was also a part of Salt Fork’s victorious quartet in the 4x200m Relay. Kirby caught Madison’s Steven Moore in the final 50-meters to help his team to the win (1:28.69) ahead of Madison’s time of 1:28.99. Shelbyville ran 1:29.52 to finish third. Salt Fork earned their other points finishing fifth in the 4x100m Relay. Forreston ran 42.91 to edge St. Teresa (42.98) for the race win.

Shelbyville had 22.5 points when they stepped to the track for the 4x400m Relay. The Rams held the lead throughout. Ridgeview’s Braydon Campbell caught Shelbyville’s Gage Smith steps from the finish line. Ridgeview won the race (3:22.03) just ahead of Shelbyville (3:22.46). Those eight points catapulted them into second-place in the team standings.

Defending champion Mason Kooi of Springfield Lutheran was behind Noah Gilmore of Robinson after both had cleared 6-7.50. Gilmore had the advantage with no misses on seven heights. Kooi missed once at 6-4 and again at 6-7.50. The pressure moved to Gilmore after Kooi cleared 6-8.75 on his second attempt. Gilmore could not clear on his final attempt giving Kooi the win.

Kooi was all-state in two other field events. Kooi finished third in the Long Jump jumping 20-10.75. KJ Davis of Oblong-Palestine-Hutsonville held his position after prelims jumping 21-4.75 to win the state title. Cole Pemble of Blue Ridge finished second (21-2.75). Kooi was ninth after the prelims in the Triple. He moved up to fourth with a 44-0.50 jump on his final attempt. Max Milbrath of Pecatonica led after the prelims but had dropped to seventh after two fouls on Saturday. Milbrath in the final jump of the competition jumped 44-10.25 to win the state title.

Unpredictability was the choice word to use in the three sprint events in Class 1A. Daryl Okeke of Judah Christian led all qualifiers in the 100 Meter Dash with the field slightly behind him. He got off to a good start as did the middle of the field. Peyton Locke of Rockridge, who had the sixth fastest time in the prelims. H moved quietly on the outside and caught the pack at 60-meters. He moved away and crossed the line in astonishment running 10.86 for the win. Supreme Muhammad of Winnebago ran 11.02 to finish second as Charles Shaw of SIU-E Charter and Okeke both ran 11.05 finishing third and fourth.

Locke faced off with Muhammad again in the 200 Meter Dash. Muhammad pulled away in the final 20-meters to claim the win (21.60) with Locke finishing second. Okeke picked up his third medal of the day running 21.91 to finish third.

Okeke had the lead in the 300 Meter Hurdles until being caught by Jackson Kern at the final hurdle. Okeke clipped his final hurdle that gave Kern the slight advantage. Kern won the state title (37.80). Okeke lost control and started to fall to the track not before crossing the line in 38.42 for second. Gage Smith ran 38.78 to finish third.

The top seven finishers in the 4oo Meter Dash all ran personal bests which says a lot about this race. Reece Curtis of St. Anne was the runner that claimed the state title (49.28) with Parker Wolf of Newton finishing second (49.88). Mateo Young of Hope Academy (49.99) edged Bjorn Carlson of Rockford Christian (50.01) for fourth.

Harvest Christian Academy switched their lineup in the 4x800m Relay putting David Peterson lead-off. The race was close at the first exchange as Eureka and HCA were together all in the 1:59 range. Eureka’s Gabriel Gerber opened up the lead on HCA’s Luca Bryja to three seconds. The lead traded off once again as Jimmy Bernaeyge ran a 1:59.5 personal best to give his team a two second lead as Daniel Winkelman would get the baton. Eureka would also have an all-state runner with Charlie Bardwell anchoring.

Winkelman ran a 53 second opening lap to put distance on Bardwell. That was the difference as he came off the final curve with a sizeable lead. Bardwell closed the gap but ran out of real estate to catch Winkelman.

Elgin Harvest captured the state title under eight-minutes for the first time (7:58.35) but the right time to do it. Eureka ran fantastic with an 8:00.64 to finish second. St. Teresa (8:03.15) and Williamsville (8:04.59)

Bardwell’s split was 1:54.44; Winkelman ran a split of 1:53.42 to end that race. Peterson and Winkelman and Peterson ran in two more races. Peterson missed all-state by one spot finishing tenth in the 800 Meter Run. Winkelman finished sixth in that race. Both were all-state in the 1600 Meter Run with Winkelman, seventh; Peterson ninth. Both were exhausted afterwards. Winkelman’s made sense when he said: “I would not have changed anything about today.”

Julian Aske of Beacon Academy felt the same way after crossing the line as 1A champion in the 800 Meter Run after finishing second last year. His strategy was to go after the first lap. He agreed after the race was too slow in the first lap of this race as Noah Britton of Alleman went through in 58 seconds. One of the favorites in the race Charlie Bardwell fell 150-meters in the race but was fighting to stay within reach.

Aske took off coming off the curve onto the back straight with the lead with Britton falling back. Aske negative split the race 58 seconds / 55 seconds crossing the line with the state championship (1:53.53). Britton finished second (1:54.87) holding off Josiah Hortin of Tuscola (1:54.89). Isaiah Hill of Elmwood ran 1:55.38 to finish fourth.

The only other double winner in this meet was Tommy Murray of Riverdale that completed the distance double. It was a tactical first mile as Logan Beckmier of Arthur-Lovington led at the first mile in 4:45. Four other runners within a second of the lead with Murray, Jackson Barrett of Tuscola, Weston Forward of Rockford, and Akili Parekh of Latin School part of the group.

Murray threw a 69 second lap on Lap 5 to break up the pack. Barrett and Parekh stayed with each other. Beckmier, Forward started to drop off. The pace picked up again as Murray was turning the screws on the runners with him as a 66 second lap took place. His lead was six seconds on the final lap. A final 1600 of 4:27 for Murray showed that long distance kick that some distance runners long to have.

Murray still had work to do, but the 9:14.77 he ran to win gave him an elusive state title. Parekh ran a strong race running 9:22.32 to finish second. Barrett was two seconds in third (9:24.18). Forward ran a personal best of 9:25.70 to finish fourth. Beckmier ran 9:28.49 to finish fifth.

This would be the second (or third race) for 10 of the 12 runners in the 1600 Meter Run as the first two laps of the race showed it. Murray was the puppet master of pace having earlier won the 3200 Meter Run. Murray led the pace and the pack through 70 seconds with the other 11 runners within two seconds of the Riverdale senior.

Runners were getting nervous coming off the first curve. Bryson Grant of Iroquois West made the first move and suddenly the pace picked up. Murray countered the move and kept the lead with Akili Parekh and Isaiah Hortin staying close as they passed in 2:15. It kept getting faster and faster with Murray trying to break the will of everyone running a 62 second third lap.  Grant and Parekh stayed with at 3:17 with the rest of the pack four seconds behind.

Murray wanted the double and it showed as he got to the line. His 4:19.24 winning time was not a personal best but what a double. Hill, who was in seventh-place entering the final lap, caught Parekh, and finished second (4:19.93) running a 58.4 final lap. Parekh’s double was also impressive running 4:21.06 to finish third ahead of Grant (4:22.68).

Carson Maroon of St. Joseph-Ogden had a stressful day but made lemonade out of the lemons he was give given. Maroon had to use the bathroom while waiting for the start of the first of the 3200m Run in the starter’s tent. When he came out, his spikes were gone. He went to the starting line in his training flats. He responded by running 9:42.54 to win the first of two sections of the 3200 Meter Run. It placed him seventh overall earning all-state honors.

He had to borrow someone’s spikes to run the 1600 Meter Run. Maroon ran 4:25.28 to finish fifth in the 1600 Meter Run.