2025 Indoor Conference Previews: Friday Edition

Conference week is upon us and our second major day of conference action is set to happen today! Each day we will preview what each conference will look like that are happening on that day.

CSL-North Boys Conference

The CSL-North is held at the infamous Niles West indoor track which hosts many meets throughout the indoor season. This conference has some great sprint battles that we will see with sprinters like Shamar Wilson of Highland Park, Maksyn Makota of Maine West, and Jack Gutowski of Vernon Hills looking to be in contention for the individual sprint events. Wilson looks to stake his claim as the top sprinter in the conference, but it will not be easy. Pending what each athlete ends up running, we could see some great distance matchups here with Luis Mendoza of Maine East, Dylan Dominguez of Highland Park, Bryant Lester of Vernon Hills, and Evan Parker of Niles North all being in the conference. Running fast on Niles West is hard though with its tight turns. Okiki Olurotimi of Maine East will dominate the hurdle race here with the fastest PR by far. Maine East is also aided by thrower Roman Wolanin who is one of the top in the state. This looks to be a battle between Vernon Hills and Maine East for the team win. 

CSL-South Boys Conference

New Trier has been one of the top teams in the state for most of the season and it is almost certain that they will win the CSL South this year. They have players ready to score in almost every single category. It will take a huge effort from either Deerfield, Glenbrook North, or Evanston to take down the Trevians, the most likely contender will be Evanston. They narrowly missed making the team rankings this week, but they have the firepower up front to make it happen. Kicking things off with sprints, we should see fireworks in the 60 with several guys nearing the 7 second border. Will Landwer is the landslide favorite in that event, he is seeded first with an IL #8 time of 6.90. He has yet to lose at this distance this season and the CSL will do their best to take him down. Justin Johnson of Evanston and Sean Schermerhorn of Maine South are the boys to challenge Landwer. Johnson is seeded over Schermerhorn, 7.04 to 7.05. Schermerhorn was 10th in the 100m last year at 3A state with a time of 10.71, but his explosiveness will have to be on point if he wants to get past Landwer. Johnson has built off of his terrific freshman season and is making a name for himself on one of the most underrated teams in the state. He has run 22.50 for the 200 to complement his 7.04, I think he could also challenge Landwer for a win. Johnson and Schermerhorn are set to double in the 200 as well, it will be a battle between them and Dylan Nemorovski of New Trier for the title. Niko Kokosioulis of Maine South will be in the mix as well. He has run a PR of 22.63 this season which can compete with the times that Johnson, Schermerhorn and Nemorovski have put up. If we move up to the 400, we will really see Evanston step into their element. Dallas Amos has been on fire this year, he has run a PR of 51.03 so far and will most likely take the win here. The 4x2 will be hotly contested between Glenbrook North, Maine South and New Trier. GBN has the fastest time in the field at 1:31.25, which they used to take second at the Mustang Relays. Maine South is in that general vicinity, they ran 1:31.40 at the Cabin Fever invite. The reason that I would give GBN the edge is because they ran 1:31 on a flat track 200, whereas Maine South ran a slower time on a banked track. New Trier is running without Will Landwer, so I think it is unlikely that they will be able to beat both GBN and Maine South. They will ride on their coattails to take a close third place. If we move over to the distance events, it looks to be a Deerfield vs New Trier showdown. Jamie Chandler of Deerfield is doubling in the 3200 and 1600, he will likely grab a win in one of these 2 events. Jordan Kreiner of New Trier is the top seed in the 800, he has an outdoor PR of 1:58.8 and is an important factor in New Trier’s 4x8. He will be challenged by Will Lambert of Deerfield, who has run 1:26.0 for the 600 and has competed exceptionally well in the 4x8 as well. He unfortunately missed the fast heat, so he will have to run a monster solo race in order to win over Kreiner. Field features the event of the night, the high jump is absolutely stacked. Evanston’s Jaden Jean-Paul went crazy last week and hit a new IL #2 PR of 6’9” at the Evanston Phillips-Richards Relays. He is the big favorite, but Michael Gorelick of New Trier will do his absolute best to stop that from happening. Gorelick hit a PR and season best of 6’ 6” at the Clash to take the win. This was a 6 inch PR for him at the time. He will be in the mix for the win, this might be his meet for another breakthrough. Evanston and New Trier have 2 other guys who will be fishing for points as well. Nelson Heck of Evanston also hit a big PR at Phillips-Richards last week, he jumped 6’ 5” to take third. Enjiel Shelton of Evanston is the major favorite. He has been throwing out of his shoes lately, his season best sits at 55’ 10.25” and he is 3 feet ahead of Ryan Cunningham of Deerfield. Oliver Neuenschwander of New Trier took home his conference title with an easy vault of 13’ 7.75”. His PR sits at 14’ 1”, so all he had to do was clear the winning bar and he stepped out after that. Phoenix Bodino of Glenbrook South took second with a vault of 13’ 1.75”. New Trier is going to win by an absolute landslide

Fox Valley Girls Conference

We are going to see a total Huntley takeover at FVC, they are walking away with points in literally every single event. Dominique Johnson would be the star of the show here, but she is taking this meet off, since Huntley won’t need her to win. Katherine Jewell of Prairie Ridge is the fastest short sprinter in the field. Her season bests are absolutely outstanding, she runs 7.66 and 25.49. She will take the 60 and the 200 with relative ease. Myla Wade of Huntley is going to compete for the win in the 400. She has run sub-minute so far this season and will look to bring home big points for the Red Raiders. Huntley has weapons in distance as well, with Haley Rahman and Morgan Sauber scoring big time points for them. Sauber will likely run 800, where she will have to compete with Alyssa Garcia of Hampshire. Garcia has run 2:19.2 and 58.19 this season and is the big favorite in both the 800 and the 400. Sauber would have to have a great race if she wants to win, but even if she gets second she will score huge for Huntley. Rahman can run any event the Red Raiders need her to run, which will likely be 800 and 4x8. Hudson Szymonik of Jacobs will stop them from going 1-2 in everything, but a 2-3 finish is still amazing for the team. Outside of Szymonik and Garcia of Hampshire, Huntley goes largely unchallenged in distance. They should capture the 4x8 win, and they will score anywhere from 30-40 points from distance. In the field, it’s a similar story of Huntley taking all the points for themselves. They have a depth of athletes that the other schools just can’t match. Ryleigh Mazzacano of Crystal Lake Central will put up a big mark in the high jump, her season best of 5’ 5” is way ahead of everyone else. LaRaiya Cunningham-Duncan of Burlington Central had a terrific triple jump mark of 37’ 3.25”, she will look to take second place behind Johnson. After these 2 athletes, Huntley will devour the rest of the points for breakfast. 

DuKane Boys Conference

The DuKane Conference is set to take place at Batavia High School this Friday and has some exciting events to watch for. Highlights from the meet will likely come from the 3200m, 1600m and Shot Put. The 3200m is loaded with talent as Aidan Murphy of Wheaton North, Edward Polaski of Batavia, Greyson Ellensohn of St. Charles East, Sam Hill of St. Charles North, and Aiden Noel of Wheaton Warrenville South all entered into the race. It could take 9:20 lows to win this stacked race. In the 1600m most of the same runners coming back with Ellensohn, Murphy, and Hill all entered. They will face off against Francesco Benelli of Batavia, Josiah Narayanan of Wheaton Warrenville South, and David Bednarek of Batavia who will be fresh going into the race. This will be sub 4:20 to win. In the ring, Gavin Pecor of Batavia has had an excellent season up until this point. Throwing a hefty 57-4 this year, he will be challenged by the Lake Park duo of Joseph Michelini and Rodrigo Gonzalez. The team race looks to be Batavia’s to lose. The Bulldogs will rely on big points from Thomas Woodard and Nathan Whitwell in the sprints in order to do that. Watch out for Glenbard North as they can walk away potentially with the team title. Zechariah Morris has had an excellent season for this group and will be scoring big points in the sprints and long jump. Eduardo Gonzalez and Royce Krush will also score big time points for this group. Nathan McLoughlin of St. Charles North cannot be ignored as well. The 16 foot pole vault will put on a show here. 

DuPage Valley Boys Conference

Naperville Central and Neuqua Valley will duke it out over the DuPage Valley title. The sprints will be highly contested between both schools. They each have 3 representatives in the top 8 in both the 200 and the 400, it will be a game of who wants it more to see where places will fall. The 200 will feature one of the most exciting sprint matchups I’ve seen on a spreadsheet. Braylen Anderson of Dekalb and Daniel Robinson of Neuqua Valley are both running the 200, I am very curious to see who will win. On the one hand, Anderson has not lost an indoor 200 since he was a freshman. He was last year's 3A top times 200 champ, and he has the faster season best in 22.15. On the other hand, Daniel Robinson has not lost anything this season, period. That’s including the 60, the 200, and the long jump. Both of these boys are incredible competitors, it’s the best 1v1 race of the night by far. Naperville Central will clean up shop in the distance events. Patrick Clune is running the 800 and the 1600, and Manny Najera will run the 3200. I don’t really see a world where either one of them loses, Clune will run tactically to ensure that both races result in a win. Naperville Central also has Ben Blank in shot put who has been throwing exceptionally as of late. He has a season best and PR of 54’ 7”, he will likely take the win here. From my perspective, it feels like it’s Central’s meet to lose. Neuqua would need everything to go right in the sprints, and have both the 4x2 and 4x4 wins under their belt to have a chance at the title. While this is totally possible, I think it’s more likely that Central will grab points that they desperately need. 

GCAC Girls Conference

St. Ignatius is going all out here, they really want their conference title. The distance events could not be more stacked, I could not be more excited. Annika Swan of St. Ignatius and Emily Stecky of Depaul Prep are both doubling 800 and 1600. Stecky is on an absolute tear this season, running a season best and PR 800 of 2:13.02. She is currently IL #1 in that event, she will do her absolute best to keep Swan from taking that title. Swan is (as you already know) an incredibly well rounded distance runner. Her range is diabolical, she can run 2:15, 4:50 and 10:40 and not even call it a good day. She is seeded with her season best of 2:16.30, but Stecky is going to force her under that mark. Because the 800 is the earlier event on the timeline, I think it’s likely that it will be the all-out-gun-for-a-fast-time race of the day. Cecilia Hilby of Central Catholic will do her best to stick with Stecky and Swan, I think it’s highly likely that she is dragged to a big season best. The 3200 will also be a hot event, with Ally Shutler of St. Ignatius and Jane Lynch of Loyola being the top seeds. Shutler has run 10:35 this season, which is pretty far under Lynch’s all time best of 10:48. This will be Lynch’s 3200 season debut, so expect sparks to fly in this race. The 1600 will be the tactical race of the day, because it will feature all 5 athletes we’ve talked about coming back for their second race. Swan, Shutler, Stecky, Lynch and Hilby are going to be gassed by the time they get to the mile, the strategy is going to get weird in this race. It will likely be a few laps before they drop the hammer, since most of the girls are going to take it out slow and leave it to their kick. I would still be excited for a good race, the last 2 laps especially will be electrifying. This is the best distance conference meet that the state has to offer, there will be some great racing at Gately here. 

SPC Boys Conference

The SPC Conference is historically one of the best conferences in the state each year and nothing changes here. This is potentially one of the best editions in the meets history. On the sprints side it will be Joe Oswusu of Plainfield East, Max Smith of Minooka, James Kokuro of Joliet West, Anthony Vilcek of Plainfield South, David Obadein of Plainfield South, and Bruce Duncan III of Bolingbrook battling it out for supremacy. Kokuro is the most complete sprinter in the conference and could walk away with a few event wins here. During XC we know about the legendary battles between Plainfield South and Plainfield North, It will be like that once again between the Cougars and Tigers distance crews plus a few other fantastic runners. Quinn Davis of Plainfield North is entered in the 800m and will race against Owen Horeni of Yorkville who recently ran 1:53.60 at New Balance Indoor Nationals. Joining Davis and Horeni in the 800m will be Dylan Buturusis of Plainfield South and Nathan Gabriel of Joliet Central which could make this the race of the day. Last year Dylan Maloney of Plainfield South was runner -up in both the 3200m and 1600m at this meet to teammate Camyn Viger. With Viger now graduated, expect for Maloney to try and grab both titles. It won't be easy in the 1600m though with Thomas Czerwinski of Plainfield North trying to track him down. The 4x200m will look to be a great battle between Plainfield South, Minooka, and Plainfield East. The key for winning this race will be trying to stay out of the congestion of a 4 lane indoor 4x200m. Joliet West, Yorkville, Bolingbrook, and Minooka will look to cap off the meet with an excellent 4x400m race. The field events also look to be exciting here. Starting off with Zach Morrisroe of Oswego East in the Shot Put. Morrisroe has already gone 58 feet this year and will look to continue his dominance here. Taelor Clements of Yorkville is the clear favorite in the High Jump with his 6-6 mark from this year. Same with Cooper Bowman of Minooka in the Pole Vault. Bowman is seeded 2 feet above the competition. The Long Jump could be the breakout of Keith Cyracus of Plainfield North and Devin Cathey of Bolingbrook who have both struggled this indoor season. Both were 23 feet jumpers last year outdoors and will look to rekindle that magic. Treycen Bownes of Plainfield North generated a ton of talk last week with his 48-1 mark in the TJ. Bownes will be looking to make another big leap towards stardom in the sport. 

SWSC Boys Conference

Lincoln Way West and Homewood Flossmoor will be the team matchup of the week, it’s hard to say who will win. LWW has the raw talent in Austin Rowswell and Ryan Stilglic as well as relay strength, but HF is disgustingly deep. Normally, in a conference meet, depth beats talent in the team standings, so it will probably be HF on top. Rowswell is seeded to run the 200, 400 and 4x4, he will win all of them. I think the saying is death, taxes and Austin Rowswell winning the open 200, but don’t quote me on that. LWW is loading their 4x4 as well, so it should be an easy win for the squad that ran 3:20. However, Rowswell will actually see competition in the open 400. Nolan Lamoureux of Lockport was under 50 seconds last year during indoor, he will use Rowswell to finally break that barrier again. He will use this race as a statement to everyone that he can, and will, step up when he’s challenged. Homewood Flossmoor will still score high in the sprints with Zion Morrison and Joaquin Jordan running the 60 and the 200. Other than Rowswell, they are virtually unchallenged. Caden Wolfe of Tinley Park and Bryce Counihan of Lincoln Way Central will battle it out in the 800. Both have PRs of 1:57, it will come down to who is the better runner on the day. Mateo Ramiro Garcia of Orland Park and Braden Hoff of Lincoln Way Central will match up well in the mile. They are strikingly similar with the speed and range that they possess, once again, it’s anyone's race. Anthony Edison and Kellin Maclin of Homewood Flossmoor will do their best to go 1-2 in long jump. Malachi Lee of Bourbannais will do his best to disrupt that, he has jumped an incredible 22’ 4.5” this season and is definitely in range of the two Vikings. Ryan Stilglic of Lincoln Way West holds the pole vault in a chokehold, he will take the win here. I think this is HF’s meet to lose, they have depth that Lincoln Way West just can’t compete with. 

WSC Silver Boys Conference

The WSC Silver is the most historic and #1 conference meet in the state every year. With Downers Grove North, York, Glenbard West, Proviso West, Hinsdale Central, Lyons, and Oak Park-River Forest all being in the conference, you know some great marks will be produced here. The sprints look to be hot and the return of Caleb Schulz of Oak Park-River Forest. Schulz is the defending 3A 100m State Champion and will be running his first meet here. The future DePaul Blue Demon enjoyed an extended playoff run in hockey this year that caused his debut to be this late. He is entered in the 60m, 4x200m, and 200m, he will be the favorite to win the 60m and 200m. Mason Ellens of Glenbard West will be attempting to challenge Schulz after his impressive indoor campaign. He is the top seed in both the 60m and 200m. Dominic Tresslar of Hinsdale Central, Bruno Massel of York, and Danny Karnatz of York will provide depth in very deep 60m and 200m fields. Brian Jackson of Oak Park-River Forest and Praxton Robinson of Proviso West will battle it out in the 400m which will surely make for an excellent race here. DGN will look to dominate the distance races with Phillip Cupial in the 600m, Grant Schroder in the 800m, Will Surratt in the 1600m, and Brady Travers in the 3200m. They can realistically win all the open individual events as well as the 4x800m with Cupial and Schroder listed on the relay card. The biggest challenge to a DGN distance sweep is in the 1600m where Liam O’Connor of Oak Park-River Forest and Emmett Bradford of York are entered. If they can rekindle what they did last season, they can win this race. The 4x200m will be an excellent race with Glenbard West, Downers Grove North, York, and Oak Park-River Forest all being in contention for the win. Same goes in the 4x400m where we could see Downers Grove North,  Glenbard West, or York win it. The field events will be looked to be cleaned up by OPRF who are slated to have Malik Griffee win the High Jump, Kwabena Osei-Yeboah win the Long Jump and Triple Jump, Lukas Brauc win the Pole Vault, and Jonathan Sibley-Diggs win the Shot Put. All are top tier field event athletes in the state and even the nation. Expect for OPRF to walk out with the win here, but DGN and York will put up a fight. 

WSC Gold Boys Conference

It will actually be a pretty close team race between Willowbrook and Berwyn Cicero Morton, there will be some electrifying distance races to decide the winner. Morton has been building a distance army right under our noses, and they will use it to score them big points. Alex Rodriguez is set to run the 800, his season best is 1:58.04. Seeing as this is his only event of the day, I would be shocked if he doesn’t run faster. Conrad Saner of Downers South is the only man to step up to Rodriguez, he is seeded under 2 at 1:59.88. I don’t see Rodriguez losing this race, he has been splitting in the 1:56s on Morton’s 4x8 and he is just too good to be challenged. Morton will run Orlando Sandoval and Miguel Flores in the dirty double. Sandoval and Flores are likely going 1-2 in both the 3200 and the 1600, their main competition will come in the latter. Conrad Saner, Nathan Gunderson of Addison Trail, and Wojtek Gilarski of Hinsdale South are all sitting at 4:30 and will chase the Morton boys. In the sprints, Tayshaun Austin of Downers South will dominate both the 55 and the 200. He has had a great indoor season and is going to be unchallenged in both events. Christian Valadez of Morton is running solo in the 400. His season best of 51.02 is above the rest of the field by over 2 seconds. Otis Powell of Willowbrook had an amazing high jump last week at the Evanston Phillips-Richards Relays where he jumped an IL #2 6’ 9”. He will obliterate the competition in the high jump here. 

WSC Silver Girls Conference

Just like the boys, the WSC Silver is one of the most anticipated conference meets every season. The meet will kick off with some good field events including heavy favorites in the HJ and PV. Kendal Cullen of Glenbard West sports a PR of 12-0 in the Pole Vault, it will be hard seeing anyone in the field taking her down. Isabella Brauc of Oak Park-River Forest was an all-stater in the High Jump last year and it will also be surprising to see her lose. The track events will be kicked off with a great battle in the 4x800m between York and Glenbard West who according to entries, are slated to run their top teams against each other. After that it will be a 1-2 in the 300m for Julia Brown and Isabella Brauc of Oak Park-River Forest who have had a great season up to this point. Both will be in the top 3 in the 400m later in the meet as well. Karlin Janowski of York is entered in the 3200m, she was 2nd at the State Meet in cross-country and will be looking to make a statement here. York will be the favorite in the team battle here as they have a great distance group and great sprinters like Jillian Booth and Morgan Navarre who will be challenging for the wins in the 55m, 200m, and 400m. The race of the day looks to be the 800m with a field of  Lily Hodneland of Hinsdale Central, Ava Gilley of Downers Grove North, Mackenzie Gilbert of Glenbard West, and Sophia Galiano-Sanchez of York. All have lifetime bests under 2:17 and that makes for an extremely exciting race here. Alexa Novak of Glenbard West and Lily Eddington of Downers Grove North will go at it in the 1600m. Could either one of those athletes get under 5:00? Finishing off the meet will be a great battle between Downers Grove North, Oak Park-River Forest, and York in the 4x400m relay. Maybe 4:00 can be broken. 

Upstate 8 Boys Conference

This conference will be a very field event heavy conference, there is plenty of talent to go around. West Aurora will likely win the team race, they have a ton of pieces that will look to capture wins here. Azuriah Sylvester of West Aurora is seeded in the 55mH, the 55, and the triple jump. He has a chance at walking away with wins in all of those events, however he will have competition in the triple. De’Angelo McCullough of South Elgin has jumped 44’ 7” this season and he has Sylvester on a season best. Sylvester has a PR of 47’ 1.75” which is a lot higher than McCullough, but he hasn’t seen the 45s yet this season. I think Sylvester will find his way to a win here, and likely a season best as well. Dionte Shaw of West Aurora has been doing his thing in shot put this season. He has a season best and PR of 55’ 2”, he will steamroll his competition to take his title. Terrence Smith of West Aurora has leaped over 6’ 6” this season and will flatten the high jump in a similar manner. Sere Iranloye of West Aurora will join Terrence Smith in the 200 to take a 1-2 finish for the Blackhawks. These 2 are the only runners seeded under 23 seconds, I would expect them to win handily. The open 800 will be a great race, Noah Callahan and Josiah Lindsey of South Elgin will go against Nathan Gehrmann of West Aurora. All three of them are seeded right around each other, but Gehrmann has the much better PR. He ran 1:55.6 at the state meet last year as only a sophomore. So far this season he has run 2:00.73, but I would expect him to compete with the South Elgin boys for the win.