Hilby, Hogan set IHSA 2A State Meet records; Genisio comes close in the 1600

East St. Louis-Senior dominates in winning State 2A team championship

By Michael Newman

Charleston, Ill – The plan before heading down to Charleston for Benton’s Gavin Genisio was to go after the Class 2A State Meet record in the 1600 Meter Run in the Friday morning prelims of the IHSA State Track and Field Championships. The Saturday finals would be capturing his second career state championship.

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He did not get it on Friday having the fastest prelim time of 4:12.60. He would be back on the track Saturday this time for the state title.

Why not get both at the same time? If you first you don’t succeed, try, try again right?

The field that Genisio would face would be tough including Ethan Hogan of Columbia. Hogan had earlier set the 2A State Meet Record in the 3200 Meter Run.

Genisio’s first 200-meters of this race had purpose. He ran the first 70-meters on the outside in Lane Four before he made his cut towards the pack. By 200-meters, he had moved away from the pack, Genisio passed 400-meters in an astounding 58.63. Hogan, who said he had never run 60 seconds for the first lap of the mile, passed through at that pace with Cale Smith of Decatur Eisenhower and Dale Johnson of Sterling who were holding on for dear life.

There was a purpose of the fast pace for Genisio. Just get ahead of this talented group and maybe the record comes. He reached 800-meters in 1:59.89. Not many that were in the stands realized what was going on. Not even the announcers. The distance geeks were loving this. He’s under four-minute mile pace. This was serious.

Hogan was at 2:04 with Smith, Johnson, and Joe Schwartz of Waterloo now joining the group. The pace started to slow on the third lap but lead that Genisio had was growing. The bell sounded at 3:02.95. A 62 second lap would get the IHSA State Overall record. A 65 second lap gets him close to the 2A record. Hogan had secured second. Johnson and Smith were another second behind.

Genisio was hurting when he entered the final curve. In time, Genisio would be running this pace and find another gear. A sub-four minute mile is in his future. Right now, he was finding the energy to make it to the finish line. He found it.

He got his second state title (first on the track) running 4:08.68 for the win. He missed the record by two tenth of a second but had the title. Hogan closed in a 63 second final lap to finish second running 4:13.45 to finish second. Two more runners ran under 4:20 which included Smith (4:16.46) and Johnson (4:17.46).

Distance events in Class 2A took center stage in this state meet with two Class 2A records broken on Saturday afternoon. The 3200 Meter Run came down to a two runner challenge between Ethan Hogan and Dale Johnson. The Sterling junior has been running impressive times throughout the season. Now Johnson would get to test himself against Hogan. Dylan Nalley of Marion missed most of the season due to an injury and started racing two weeks ago. Nalley would be also testing himself in this race.

The pack narrowed down quickly to four runners by the end of the third lap with Hogan leading followed by Johnson, Nalley, and Mac Kittrell of DePaul College Prep all together at 3:21 after 1200-meters. Hogan and Johnson were together passing 1600-meters. Nalley and Kittrell were starting to fall back by another two seconds.

Hogan started to make small surges trying to drop Johnson. That was not happening until the final 600-meters. Hogan made a definitive move that opened up a two second lead heading into the final lap. Hogan would get Riley McInerny’s 10+ year record of 9:08. His 67 second final lap got him to the new record of 9:02.22. Johnson was second running a personal best of 9:08.77. Kittrell finished third (9:21.06). Nalley ran 9:25.80 edging Kaneland’s David Valkanov (9:26.64) and Evan Nosek (9:27.65).

Patrick Hilby of Aurora Central Catholic was the heavy favorite to win the 800 Meter Run. Those expectations came true for this junior. He had company with him for most of the race. Hilby likes to take control of the race early. He did but had company at 400-meters with Sam Atkinson of Mt. Zion, Payton Whitehead of Lakes, and Reese Dusek of Dunlap were all at 55 seconds.

Whitehead tried to pass Hilby on the back stretch of the final lap, but Hilby denied the move. He broke away from the pack around the curve making the race his own. He made the Class 2A State Meet Record his own. Garrett Slack ran 1:51.42 a year ago to set the record. Now Hilby lowered it to 1:50.49 to run the fastest time outdoors this year in the state.

Atkinson, who was diagnosed with mononucleosis during the season, fought back to run a personal best of 1:53.65 to finish second. Whitehead (1:54.27), Kody Danko of Streator (1:54.58), and Caden Emmert of Sycamore (1:54.96) were all under 1:55 and in the top five.

Payton Prep and Lincoln challenged each other for the state title in the 4x800m Relay last year. Lincoln came home with the win in that race. It was a different story on Saturday morning. Payton took the lead at the end of the second leg by a strong run from Declan Slavin. Sterling and Woodstock were in second and third two seconds behind the Grizzlies. Lincoln at that point was in sixth.

Lincoln took the lead on the third leg with Jude Toft running a 1:55.11 split to put the Railsplitters into the lead. Max Kollmeyer kept Payton within a second of the lead. It was Evan Rainsville that put his team in front on the final 800-meters of the race. The senior had a 1:53.26 to give his team a state championship. Brendan Heitzig ran a 1:56.1 split to get Lincoln into second (7:54.94). Three other teams were under eight-minutes including Bethalto Civic Memorial (7:57.54), Glenbard South (7:58.12), and Sterling (7:59.03).

East St. Louis-Senior had the dominance in their qualifying numbers form Friday’s preliminary session. The Flyers scored in 12 of the 18 contested events scoring 72 points to win their first state title since 2019 and their 13 state title overall in the school’s history.

Cahokia scored 59 points to finish second. Herrin scored 37 points to earn a trophy finishing third. Sterling (34 points) and Columbia (33 points) finished fourth and fifth.

The Flyers won three of the twelve events they were entered in on Saturday. Both wins involved Demarlynn Taylor and Devion Montgomery. The two seniors were busy in his final meet competing for the Flyers. Taylor was the leadoff runner for his team in the 4x100m Relay. Taylor, Malachi Wren, and Kenneth Buchanon along with Montgomery as anchor running 41.98 to finish second behind Herrin (41.66) led by Chris Nelson and Kyrese Lukens.

One of the bigger surprises in the meet came in Taylor’s next event, the 110 High Hurdles. Jaden Bosse, who had the top prelim time, got off to a quick start. Taylor, Keshawn Lyons of Cahokia, and Anjani Rush of Hillcrest were even after six hurdles, even after the final hurdle. Rush made one final move and edged Lyons at the line with a 14.26 time. Lyons was just two hundredth of a second back (14.26). Taylor was a tenth of a second back at 14.36. It was the closest finish of the

meet.

Montgomery won his team’s first state title in the 400 Meter Dash. It came down to a final 100-meters for the win between DeAngelo Hughey of Mahomet-Seymour and Montgomery. It was Montgomery that prevailed running a personal best of 48.17 for the win ahead of Hughey’s 48.42 time.

Taylor got his state title in the 300 Meter Hurdles. This time, he was alone going over the final hurdle. Taylor ran a personal best of 37.85 to win the state title. Lyons ran 38.75 to finish second. It was a rough meet for Michael VanHootegem of Marian Catholic was close to the two athletes but hit the final hurdle crashing to the track. The senior was disqualified after hitting a hurdle in the shorter hurdle race. He was all-state finishing ninth.

Braydon Waller of Marian Catholic was in shock after crossing the line not believing he won the state championship in the 100 Meter Dash. Waller and Chris Nelson came out even from the blocks. Waller ended this race pulling ahead of Nelson with 25-meters left and cruised to the win (10.75) ahead of Herrin’s Chris Nelson (11.07) and Kyrese Lukens (11.08). The race was run into a -1.4 m/s headwind.

Nelson and Lukens came back to lead Herrin the #3 time in the state in the 4x200m Relay. Herrin ran 1:27.25 to claim the win finishing ahead of Triad (1:28.09), East St. Louis-Senior (1:28.65), and Sterling (1:28.70).

Montgomery ran 22.21 to finish fifth in the 200 Meter Dash. Jackson Gilbert of Urbana, who was disqualified in the prelims of the 400 Meter Dash on Friday, held off Herrin’s Chris Nelson to win the 200 Meter Dash (21.64-21.70). The two would anchor their team’s in the

It was a close finish in the 4x400m Relay to end the meet and it came down to East St. Louis and Urbana when they got to the final anchor. The Flyers had a two second lead when Montgomery got the baton. Gilbert, who was looking for 400 redemption for what happened on Friday started to close the gap in the final 100-meters. Montgomery got his team the win (3:18.73). Gilbert ran a 47.09 anchor to get Urbana into second (3:18.92).

Nicholas Deloach of Cahokia had a big final state meet that included another state championship in the Triple Jump. Deloach’s first attempt on Saturday of 46-0 improved on his prelim mark of 45-3.75. That was more than enough as he won by over three feet ahead of Jayson Simmons of Hillcrest (43-5.25) and Jayden Leise of Montini (43-3.75).

Deloach was tenth after the fourth round of the Long Jump. He moved to fourth as he jumped 22-2.75. That place stood for him as he picked up his second all-state medal of the meet. Jayden Jones of Macomb was the state champion taking the lead in the second round and never giving up that advantage. His state championship jump was 22-11.75. Aidan Wyzard of Sycamore was second (22-5.25) followed by Jacob Morrison of Mt. Vernon (22-3.50).

It was a three athlete battle for the state title in the High Jump. Drew Tucker of Metamora and Gavyn Cothern of Richland County both cleared 6-6.25 on their second attempt. Deloach was clutch cleared the height on his final attempt. Tucker won the title at Illinois Top Times in March. On this day, he cleared 6-7.50 on his final attempt to win the state title. Cothern and Deloach finished second and third.

Paul Migas of Lakes was perfect in defending his title in the Pole Vault clearing his heights without a miss until he had the competition won. His state championship clearance height was 16-1.25. Kyle Hensley of Mt. Zion (15-7) and Cooper Schaad of Geneseo (15-3) finished second and third.

Chase Crawford of Cahokia had his mark of 63-3.25 from the prelims hold in Saturday’s final. It was a convincing state championship win as he had close to a four foot win over the rest of the field. Caleb Smith of Salem had a 59-5.50 best in the fifth round in finishing second. JehChys Brown of Centralia finished third (58-0.50).

Smith won the state championship in the Discus when he took the lead with a 178-1 throw in the fifth round. He extended that on his final throw of 182-3 to secure his state championship. David Russell of Illinois Valley Central (172-6) and Brown (169-0) finished second and third.