IHSA State Track & Field Championships - 1A Boys Preliminary Session Recaps

Okeke makes it to the finals in three events: Eureka, Salt Fork lead team qualifiers.

(Photo - Landis Musser leans for the win in a heat of the 1600m Run)

By Michael Newman

The Class 1A Preliminary session Thursday afternoon at O’Brien Field did not answer any questions on who the team favorite would be when there meet resumes on Saturday morning. There are still a number of teams that are still in contention to win the 1A title.

Eureka leads all teams in this close battle with seven qualifiers. Defending 1A champion Salt Fork could be the favorite with six qualifiers but with big points that could come from them. Tuscola and Newton also qualified for the finals. Tuscola took a big hit when Chris Boyd made the finals in the Shot Put but did not qualify in the Discus. St. Teresa, Ridgeview, Rockford Christian, and St. Joseph-Ogden.

Darryl Okeke of Judah Christian had a great day on the track qualifying with the top time in the 100 Meter Dash, 300 Meter Hurdles, and the 200 Meter Dash. There was one hiccup that prevented him from qualifying in his fourth event.

Okeke in the final heat the final five hurdles and one of the hurdles hit a runner on his inside lane. Okeke won the race that qualified him for the finals.. Officials deemed it an in fraction and he was disqualified from the event.

Okeke came back 15 minutes later in the final heat of the 100 Meter Dash and lead all qualifiers by running 10.92 to win the final heat. He had the fastest time in the 300 Meter Hurdles (38.38, IL #2). He came to lead all qualifiers in the 200 Meter Dash with a wind-aided time of 21.70 (3.8 m/s).

Charlie Bardwell of Eureka also had a good day leading his team to the finals in both the 4x800m Relay and 4x400m Relay. Bardwell ran a 1:55.4 anchor leg to lead the Hornets to the win in the 4x800m Relay (8:05.53) in the first heat. Four other teams qualified from that heat including Harvest Christian, St. Teresa, Pleasant Plains, and Urbana University. Newton (8:17.18) and Rock Island Alleman (8:17.95) were the other heat winners.

Bardwell anchored Eureka to the win (3:28.12) with a split of 51.36 seconds. Ridgeview led all-qualifiers running 3:25.85 to win the second heat. St. Teresa (3:27.65), Auburn (3:27.39), and Trenton-Wesclin (3:30.35) were the other heat winners. Shelbyville, Forreston, St. Joseph-Ogden, and Pleasant Plains qualified on time.

Here are highlights from the other events that took place on Thursday afternoon.

TRACK EVENTS

4x100m Relay – Salt Fork ran 42.81 to lead all qualifiers in this event winning Heat 3. Ridgeview (43.30), Madison (43.35), Lena-Winslow (43.36), and St. Teresa (43.66) were the other of the five heat winners. Forreston, Shelbyville, Chicago Christian and Leo also qualified. Winnebago missed qualifying by one thousandth of a second.

110 Meter Hurdles – Okeke had the fastest prelim time before his disqualification in the event. All four of the prelim races were wind legal. Jackson Kern of Auburn led all qualifiers by winning his heat in 14.72. Nathan Kirby was the only other qualifier under 15 seconds

 Winning his heat in 14.78. It should be a great final Saturday afternoon.

100 Meter Dash – Okeke’s time of 10.92 was the fastest qualifying time running 10.92. Peyton Locke of Ridgeview was in his heat running 10.98 to finish second. Charles Shaw of SIU-E Charter (10.97), Supreme Muhammad of Winnebago (10.98), Dionta McAndrews of Harlan (11.08) and Parker Wolf of Newton were the other heat winners.

800 Meter Run – Julian Aske of Beacon Academy led the third heat from the start on his way to winning with the fastest time of the day (1:55.12). Ryan Hendrickson of St. Thomas More was three seconds back running 1:58.67 to make it to the finals. Hendrickson ran in the finals last year and finished sixth after playing on his school’s baseball team’s sectional finals. He will do the same on Saturday as his team advanced to the sectional finals last evening. Charlie Bardwell won his heat (1:57.41) ahead of Josiah Hortin of Tuscola and Daniel Winkelman of Harvest Christian Academy. Isiah Hill of Elmwood won the opening heat (1:58.52).

4x200m Relay – Winnebago, led by a great anchor from Supreme Muhammad, ran 1:29.94 to win the second of five heats in this event. Salt Fork (1:30.01), St. Joseph-Ogden, Shelbyville, and Rockridge were the other heat winners.

400 Meter Dash – Mason Evens of Casey-Westfield won the second heat (50.13) to lead all qualifiers. Newton qualified two in this event with Parker Wolf and Owen Mahaffey. Mateo Young of Hope Academy and Reece Curtis of St. Anne were the other auto-qualifiers with Mahaffey.

300 Meter Hurdles – Okeke’s prelim leading time set the field in this event. His closest competition will come from Jackson Kern of Auburn (39.93). Evan Reitz of Steeleville and Jerrius Atkinson of Danville Schlarman were the other heat winners.

1600 Meter Run – It looked like Tommy Murray of Riverdale would run away to easily win the final heat of the 1600 Meter Run prelims. He had company in the final 100-meters as Elmwood’s Isaiah Hill tried to close the gap. Murray hung on to run 4:20.80 to win his heat and lead all qualifiers. Hill ran 4:21.47 to finish second. Landis Musser came from way back in the final 150-meters of Heat 1 to capture the win (4:25.86) ahead of David Peterson of Harvest Christian Academy. Peterson also qualified in the 800 and 4x8 along with teammate Daniel Winkelman who qualified in the same three events. Bryson Grant of Iroquois West ran 4:29.07 to win the second heat.

200 Meter Dash – Supreme Muhammad could be the closest competition to Okeke in Saturday’s finals. The junior was just seven hundredth of a second behind Okeke to run 21.77 to advance to the finals. Charles Shaw (22.15) and Parker Wolf (22.25) were the other heat winners.

FIELD EVENTS

Pole Vault – It took one attempt for Bloomington Central Catholic’s Isaiah Whitaker to advance to Saturday’s finals in this event. He cleared 12-11 along with Marcus Czapar of El Paso-Gridley. 11 other athletes advanced at 12-5.

High Jump – Defending state champion Mason Kooi of Springfield Lutheran was one of four athletes to clear 6-2 to qualify in the High Jump along with Noah Gilmore of Robinson, Ty Brachbill of Shelbyville, and Earnest Davenport of Madison. The other 10 qualifiers advanced clearing 6-0.75. Kooi also qualified for the finals of the Long Jump and the Triple Jump.

Long Jump – KJ Davis of Oblong-Palestine-Hutsonville jumped 21-4-7.5 to lead qualifiers after the first three rounds of the Long Jump. Cole Pemble of Blue Ridge currently stand in second (21-2.75).

Triple Jump – Max Milbrath of Pecatonica leads by less than two inches with his best of 43-3.25. Dominic Martin of Ridgeview is currently in second (43-1.50).

Shot Put – Garrett Taylor of Salt Fork unleashed a 60-7.25 in his second attempt to lead qualifying in this event. Mitchel Myers of Arcola (57-1.50) and Chris Boyd of Tuscola (55-8.25) are currently second and third.

Discus – It is a two man competition in the Discus. Garrett Taylor threw 176-1 to lead after the first three throws in this event. Mitchel Myers threw 173-4 and is in second. The rest of the field is 20-feet behind these two athletes.