2026 Wanner Knights Invite Preview

The Prospect Wanner Knights invite has some great talent attending this year. We should see some prestigious names compete for great marks here. We break down all the action here!

Distance

The distance events are definitely the standout events here at the Wanner Knights Invite. There are two main events that will likely put up some premier times, they will be the 1600 and the 4x8.

1600

The field for the Wanner Knights 1600 is absolutely stacked this year, we could see some huge performances. Conrad Saner of Downers Grove South should lead the way here. Saner took 3rd at IIC in the fastest mile field we’ve seen in a while, that’s where he set his PR of 4:10. He has some of the best range out of any distance runner in the state, with a 4x8 split PR of 1:54 and a 3200 PR of 9:01. He has shown that he is devastating on the closing straightaway, but his aerobic fitness shows that he could also run the legs out of almost anyone. There won’t be many people that can take him down in this field, but if anyone can do it, it’ll be Gabe Gronski of Hersey. Gronski has been on an absolute heater lately, dropping his 1600 PR down from a 4:22 to a 4:13 over the course of this season. Gronski is no slouch in closing speed either, so if the night is right, he could certainly join Saner at the front. Jack Jennings of Palatine Fremd will also be a big part of this race. Jennings just broke 9 minutes in the 3200 for the first time at DNIP, he should be riding the momentum from that race into a big mile PR here. Alex Krieg of Palatine will look to join the top group as well. Krieg ran 9:08 last week at DNIP, and has been on an upward trend so far this season. If he can get back to his PR of 4:12, that would put him right in range of the leaders. Quinn Anderson of Lane Tech is an outstanding miler who could see a big PR on the way. He ran 4:17 at the Cabin Fever invite indoors, but this will be his first open mile since then. He split a 4:17 for the Lane Tech 4xmile and a 3:05 1200 for the DMR at the Arcadia invite, and he also ran 9:05 at DNIP. He’s been having great races all around, now he’s just gotta put it together for a fast mile. Orlando Sandoval of Morton just posted a 1:52 at DNIP, his speed will be a strong weapon in this race. Sam Assefa of Lane Tech ran 9:00 in the 3200 last week at DNIP, he should be able to drop a pretty solid PR here as well. 

4x800

The 4x8 in the state of Illinois ramps up during week 5 every year, and the Prospect 4x8 is usually the main culprit. This year, we’re going to see a battle between 6 teams, all 6 should be way under the 8 minute barrier. Naperville Central is the narrow favorite coming into Wanner Knights. NC finished 4th at the Mustang Relays 4x8 with a time of 7:58, which solidified them as one of the best relays in the state. After Lukas Probst’s huge PR in the open 800 last week, things are looking bright for the Redhawks as they now have an extremely capable anchor. If Derek Williamson and Vaugn Sherer can both break 2 minutes, this team will be in a great spot. Downers Grove South will be a big team to look out for. They beat NC at the Mustang Relays, all thanks to a killer anchor leg from Conrad Saner. He split a 1:54 to bring home the Mustangs in 7:56, which was good enough for second. This team has an intense upside, but Saner is also doubling back to run the 1600 later in the night, so we’ll see if he will put in an all-out effort. Lane Tech should be able to put together a team that can compete for the win. Sam Assefa and Quinn Anderson are both aerobic units, showcased by their 9:00 and 9:05 3200 marks respectively. If either one can throw down a 1:57, this team will be looking solid. Dimitri Bratovanov and Peter Georgeopoulos are the main 800 guys for this team, both of them combined with Assefa and Anderson should result in a sub 7:55 squad. Prospect will be a formidable team here as well. They are very similar to LT in the sense that they have 3-4 guys that can all run right around 1:58. The difference is their anchor, Landon Samp, just recently ran 1:56 at DNIP, which gives them an edge they previously didn’t have. Rockford Christian is looking to compete with the big schools as one of the top 1A 4x8s in the state. Their squad is driven by Evan White, who ran 1:53 to win IIC in the open 800. With Julien Honeyville and Blake Lindberg hopefully near or under the 2 minute border, this team should be able to compete with the top group as well. 

Sprints

Individuals

Just because the distance events are the main attraction doesn’t mean this sprint field is anything to ignore. We should see a great triple from Chase Cutler of Hononegah, he’ll be running the 100, 400 and potentially the 4x4. Cutler just ran the IL #1 mark in the 400 last week at 47.17, so he should be completely on his own in the 400. The only person who could compete with him there is Edward Mason of Neuqua Valley, his 400 PR of 48.70 is relatively in range of Cutler’s. In the 100, we should see Daniel Robinson of Neuqua compete with Dylan Nemorovski of New Trier. Robinson’s all-time PR is 10.50, which would be more than enough to get the win here. However, his season best of 10.97 is lagging pretty far behind that, so he’ll need a solid breakthrough. After his electric indoor season, there is a really good chance he breaks out here. Nemorovski ran 10.66 last week at the Minooka Conference Clash, but there was an intense 4.9 tailwind for that race. Both athletes seem like they're in relatively the same spot, so it should make for a great race. 

Relays

The 4x4 will feature a great matchup between Naperville Central and Hononegah; we could see both teams break the 3:20 barrier. NC has already ran 3:20 this year, but we could see something even faster here. Kyle Clark and Chad Earl have both broken the 50 second threshold in the open, their marks are 49.26 and 49.63. With the recent breakout of Lukas Probst in the 800, this team has all the pieces they need to run under 3:20. Hononegah has only ran 3:24 this year, but this is the first time that Chase Cutler is on the relay card. If Hononegah has actually ran 3:24 without Cutler, then we could be looking at a team ready to run 3:19. They have two solid 400 runners behind Cutler, with Gavin Brady and Grayson Schomburg, all they really need is a big anchor leg from the best 400 runner in Illinois. NC will also look to dominate the 4x2, as they are the top seed in that event. They ran a blistering 1:27.99 at a midweek quad meet a few weeks ago, so they should be well ahead of the competition here. Both Maine South and Prospect have ran 1:28 this season, they should be in contention for the next two spots. Minooka is another team to watch out for, they have been trending in the right direction the past few weeks. There has been a big breakout with Blake Larson, as he took his 200 PR all the way down to 21.70 at the Minooka Conference Clash. With him and Max Smith on the same 4x2, they could definitely be in for a big season best. Minooka will certainly compete for the 4x1, as they have the second fastest season best in the field of 42.11. They will be gunning for the 41s along with Barrington, who is seeded at 42.06. With both teams reaching for the same goal, we should see a great race in the 4x1. 

Field

The field features one of the best shot put fields we will see for most of the year, there are almost 8 guys that could walk away with the win. Jordan Phelan of Lakes is the favorite coming in, as he’s on the biggest hot streak we’ve seen in shot put this season. Phelan has put his old PRs to shame so far this outdoor season with his colossal season best of 63’ 10”. He is currently IL #2 in the shot put and he’s in the best position to win the shot put here at the Wanner invite. However, Joseph Michilini of Lake Park is not far behind after a great indoor season. Michillini took 5th at NBN in the shot put with a huge throw of 62’ 11”, which is his all-time PR. He has only hit 60 feet once this outdoor season, and it was to win the Bob Fowler throws meet. If he can get into the 60s here, he should be in a great spot. Dakota Edwards of Proviso West is another name to watch here. He won the IIC shot put with a toss of 58 feet and many of the competitors from IIC will be here at Prospect this week. The difference is that this time around, Edwards has thrown a PR of 62 feet instead of 58 feet, so his big throw capability has gone up considerably. Gavin Pecor of Batavia has been a little off his mark as of late, but his PR is still a monstrous 61’ 5”. If he can get back into the 60s, he will be right with this top group. Shea Lewis of Prospect was runner up to Edwards at IIC, he should compete for a solid spot here as well. Rodrigo Gonzalez of Lake Park will look to join his teammate, Michillini, towards the top of the standings as well. 

In the vault, we should see some quality performances from multiple guys. The duo from Lakes, Will Mercure and Dylan Gates will look to go 1-2 as they have all season. Mercure and Gates are the only two 3A athletes that have cleared 16 feet so far this season, and they’ve sat atop the leaderboards for almost 3 weeks now. With Mercure sitting at 16’ 5” and Gates sitting at 16’ 0”, it’s gonna take quite a performance for anyone to separate them. Cooper Bowman of Minooka will be the next best guy, but he’ll need to be near his best if he wants to compete for the win. Bowman has a really solid PR of 15’ 9”, which he set during the winter. He will need to make serious improvement on his season best if he is to compete for the win. Jack Kruger of Prospect just recently set his PR at 15’ 7”, he should also be looking to compete with Bowman for a top spot.