By Michael Newman

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Indoor season is finally over thankfully. I have nothing against the three-ring circus atmosphere of a track meet under the roof. It’s just time for some fresh air with some elements of weather thrown in. One of the first meets of the year will be Saturday in Moline. Temperatures are supposed to be near 40 degrees with 25 mph winds. Tactics take over. Fast times will have to wait.

Let’s take one more look at last weekend’s Illinois Top Times Championships as well as some other thoughts thrown in there.

The 1A Meet

We know in the sprints that there should be two overwhelming favorites. Easton Bianchi of Sterling Newman Catholic is not untouchable in this classification but close to that. Tate Walcott of Ridgeview was within three tenths of a second in the 200 Meter Dash. I think Bianchi is better in the shorter outdoor sprint.

The heartbreaking moment in the 1A session was the 60 Meter Dash final when Bella Uscila of St. Edward pulled up 10-meters from the finish with an injury. Think about the fact that she had the fastest preliminary time by almost four tenths of a second. The injury reminded up five years ago at this meet when Jessica Jump came up with the same kind of injury and was never the same. I hope Uscila takes her time coming back. If she is fully healthy, no one will touch her in this classification. If not, the 1A Girls sprints go wide-open led by ITT double winner Janiya Collins of Madison and Katelyn Lang of Hume Shiloh.

Out of all three of the meet’s sessions, the 1A distance races may have trumped the other two sessions regarding excitement. We found out that Wyatt McIntyre of Athens has been working on his kick. He showed that with wins Friday night in the 3200 and 1600 Meter Run. One thing that may be lost in his kick wins was his use of race strategy. That may have improved also. He used lapped runners to make his move at the right time in the 3200 Meter Run. He started his kick farther out in the 1600 Meter Run because of a loaded field with Pittsfield’s Eli Ten Eyck and Illini West’s Jacob Bryan. Let’s not forget Bryan had a good double Friday night running 1:57.55 then coming back in 4:29.09. Logan Hall of Arthur-Lovington is looking ahead towards outdoors. He looked easy in clicking 35’s every lap in the 3200 Meter Run. He just got outkicked by McIntyre. Both runners will be trying to get some fast times at Arcadia next weekend.

The one runner that has a killer kick is Rockford Christian’s Riley Wells. He ran a smart race waiting for the right moment to move and ends up running 1:55.71 to win the 800 Meter Run. His negative split 400-leg in the 1600 Meter Relay was amazing to watch. It won’t be a surprise if he dips under 1:51 this spring.

One huge shout out to Francis Parker’s Jack McNabola who ran a big double in this meet. It was a strategy in the 3200 Meter Run like what we saw at Detweiller park last November. He led until the final 50-meters before finishing third behind McIntyre and Hall but still running 9:24.51. He came back in the 1600 Meter Run to also finish third (4:28.91). He had his head in his hands after that 3200 race. This was after finishing his basketball season at the beginning of March. He has guts. What ever school he ends up going to will get a great runner who could flourish on the next level.

The top 1A Girls distance runner in this meet was Urbana University’s Arielle Summitt. The two-time defending champion in the 800 Meter Run seemed to “fall asleep” in the final lap of that race last Friday but still won by two seconds. She was the strongest runner in the 1600 Meter Run field as she pulled away in the final two laps to win by five seconds running 5:17.57. Summitt will be tough in the 800. The 1600 Meter Run could be another story. Latin School’s Marianne Mihas ran 5:01.27 last Saturday at the Florida State Relays. The freshman should be under five-minutes by the time we get to the state series.

Chloe Lindeman of Fulton stepped into KD Young’s shoes in the Shot Put. The junior had a 48-2.5 throw to win in this meet. She ended up the indoor season ranked third nationally.

When it comes down to teams, the Girls is not that hard to figure out as of today. St. Joseph-Ogden won two of the three relays contested and, in my eyes, look like the team to watch in May. Their depth will be the key outdoors.

Illini West has the edge on the Boys side, but ever so slightly. They will get the points from Connor Artman in three individual events and Jacob Bryan in the 800 and 1600. After those two, that’s about it. If it is not the Chargers, then it’s either Colfax Ridgeview or Rockford Christian. Ridgeview will get the bulk of their points from Mason Barr and Tate Walcott. They could also be strong in three relays. Rockford Christian has Riley Wells and some good relay running. Wells put in the 3200 Relay could get the Royal Lions in position to win that race. Their 800 and 1600 relays could come up with wins.

Right now, it could take 40 to 45 points to win the 1A Boys championship.

2A Meet

What did we learn from the 2A Girls side of the meet? We learned that it could be tough to touch Dunlap. We learned that no one will touch Imani Carothers in the 2A Hurdles.

Carothers finally got Shamier Little’s meet record in the 60 Hurdles. Does she go down as the top hurdler ever in the state. We may get that answer in May.

I enjoyed the 2A Girls Long Jump. It should be another great final in May when Erika Furbeck of Geneseo, Serena Bolden of Springfield Southeast, and Carothers face off again. Bolden/Carothers in the Triple Jump should also be great. Bolden set the 2A meet record in the Triple Jump looking for longer jumps when we get outdoors. Carothers competed in the Triple Jump a couple of times indoors. She had not done that the past couple of years. She said after the meet that she was working on technique before she got outdoors. Do you think she has a 44-foot plus on her mind when we get the great weather?

Kiara Pauli of Dunlap looked great in the sprints. I would not say she is the favorite in the 2A sprints when we head outdoors. Decatur Eisenhower’s Katina and Tina Martin will be waiting for her.

One thing is certain in the 2A Girls distance events: Rachel Hickey of LaSalle-Peru looks hungry to get her second state title in the 800 Meter Run. She controlled the pace in winning last Saturday over a good field including Gillian Fiene of Illiana Christian and Brooke Delahanty of Rosary. How strong is Hickey? She ran 11:06 for 3200-meters at a meet at Mendota three days ago.

Jenna Schwartz of Waterloo is still running with the confidence that she gained in last fall’s cross-country season when she won the 2A state title. Her 3200 race was convincing last Saturday pulling away from Campbell Petersen of Dunlap to win that race. Petersen’s 1600 Meter Run win was a thing of beauty. We are going to see some great things from this freshman the next three-plus years. She was fifth entering the final lap of the race to come from behind to catch teammate Franny Verville. All Verville could say after the race with a smile on her face was “Dang it! She caught me again!”

It is a given that Dunlap will be the 2A Girls team favorite again in 2018. Kiara Pauli thinks the Dunlap team is better than their state team from last spring. I would tend to agree with her. Their team is deep that could score in any of the 18 events. They may not sweep the relays outdoors like they did last Saturday or last May at state. East St. Louis-Senior will have some good relay power and could be the team to challenge the Eagles. We have not seen the full power of the Flyerettes yet. We will have an idea of how good their team is in the next couple of meets.

Urbana is another team to keep an eye on. Diamonasia Taylor looked great in winning her second straight meet title in the High Jump. They have the range to score in all the disciplines. A trophy could be coming their way.

There are a ton of questions that still need to be answered in 2A Boys. We did not see East St. Louis-Senior in this meet. The Flyers remain the favorites in this classification. St. Laurence will be one of the teams chasing after a state championship. Their sprint group looks strong enough to get some big points outdoors in two of the relays as well as two of the short sprints. Alex Saunders picked up a double win in the horizontal jumps in this meet. Cahokia’s Andra Ward did jump in this meet. During warmups according to his coach Leroy Milsap, he tweaked his ankle trying to avoid someone who was walking across the runway. “It was not worth it letting him to compete today. We have some things that we are looking forwards to outdoors.”

Mahomet-Seymour is another team to watch outdoors. Hunter Hendershot had a personal best throw of 56-5 to win the Shot Put. Caden Whitehouse finished second in the Pole Vault behind Dunlap’s Jack Pompe. Both Hendershot and Whitehouse will give the Bulldogs big points in the field events. The team’s distance presence was evident with Mathias Powell and Ryan Hodge finishing fourth in the 3200 Meter Run. Brandon Bretz finished second in the 400 Meter Dash and will give his team big points outdoors.

Nick Oakley of Charleston showed a monster kick in winning the 800 Meter Run. The one runner that could make things interesting is Nick Schwarzendruber of Geneseo in this event. He has run sub-50 seconds in the 400 Meter Dash. That speed could make things difficult for some runners once he gets used to that distance.

It was good to see Freeburg’s Charlie Parrish win in the 3200 Meter Run. He has gone through so many things in his four years at the school. He is ready for a big spring after a strategically great race in both the 1600 and 3200. Jacob Gebhardt of Sterling will be the runner to watch in 2A. He said after the meet that he would be trying both those distance races at state. He just missed the state title last November. A title will be in his grasp in the spring.

3A Meet

The spring snow storm that hit the Bloomington area last Saturday also prevented some matchups that we had hoped to see. We may have to wait to May to see some of those. We did get some great races in the 3A distances.

It was not expected at the beginning of the season that the 3A Girls 800 Meter Run who be one of the most anticipated events especially the way it went at the end of last season. Even though Glenbard West’s Katelynne Hart could not make it to Bloomington, this race was one of the top events of this meet. When you get three runners under 2:12, two runners under the meet record, then you are saying a lot. Madison Marasco of Schaumburg running under 2:12 in consecutive meets including 2:11.44 at ITT could mean we could see her under 2:10 outdoors. Let’s see what happens with a chance of Marasco catching Courtney Clayton’s state record of 2:07. It could happen. This event is deeper than last year with Enyaeva Michelin of Evanston Township and Stephanie Kriss of Highland Park there to push.

Speaking of 800’s, Hinsdale Central will not make any public comment about a chance that he could have a good 3200 Meter Relay team outdoors. He did not run his best squad this indoor season when they ran 9:24.96 at the WSC-Silver Championships two weeks ago. Consider that their top four runners all ran under 2:20 indoors with Grace McCabe running 2:14 last week. Add the four times together and you have a relay near 9:08. We will see what happens outdoors, but the Red Devilettes could have a special state meet in May if they choose to go after the championship.

Homewood-Flossmoor is still one of the favorites to capture the 3A crown. They have good depth in the three sprint relays. The emergence of sophomore Kaylah McCall winning the 60 Meter Hurdles in this meet will give them some more punch in the individual events.
Naperville North may have the slight advantage. Their distance strength with Sarah Schmitt, Hannah Ricci, and Claire Hill among the runners that could score in the individual events and in relays. Hallie Bieber should be the favorite in the 300 Hurdles and Sarah Wastek could score in the Shot Put. There are still many things still discover in the next two months.

With most of the top distance runners missing this meet in Class 3A and Homewood-Flossmoor running last weekend in California, not much can be said of significance in this classification. I still believe that Class 3A is up for grabs. Neuqua Valley could be a team that returns to the podium. Lockport has John Meyer and Connor McCarthy that could help that Porters grab some points. Then there is Hoffman Estates led by Declan Rustay that could get the points to finish in the top three.

There are so many ifs at this point. It might only take 35 to 38 points to win the state title.

Other takeaways at the Illinois Top Times Championships.