It’s a big week for Illinois track and field, there are plenty of big invites that are happening all over the state. Top ten lists are going to be in shambles after this week, there will be tons of fast times and quality performances across all events. Just so you are aware, we do not have finalized entries for any of these meets, we are just speculating at what athletes will compete in. This is a preview of some of the invites that we won’t be able to attend.
We will be on site at the following meets. Watch out for meet previews in the coming days.
Plainfield North Girls Invite
Proviso West Boys Invite
Homewood-Flossmoor ABC Girls Invite
Sequoit Showdown
Batavia Girls Invite
March Madness Youth Invite
Thursday
ONU 3A Boys Invite
This invite, hosted at Oliver Nazarene University, is loaded with talent. D’Mario Jackson of Danville had a terrific freshman year in the sprints, running 10.80 and 21.65 respectively. He will compete with Austin Rowswell and Josh Veldman, both of Lincoln Way West, for the sprint titles. Rowswell was 7th in the state as a sophomore in the 200m, and then unfortunately missed his whole junior year of track due to injury. Now he’s back, and he looks like he’s in good shape, running 34.63 during early indoor season to win the CYUP Misfits Invite. Veldman just recently ran 6.50 in the 55m, he is currently joint IL #1 with Daniel Robinson of Neuqua Valley. Nolan Lamoureux of Lockport and James Kokuro of Joliet West will compete with Rowswell should they all run the 400. Kokuro was 49.3 last year as a junior, he took 3rd at the Greg Foster Invite just last week. Lamoureux has incredible range, last year he ran the 600 in 1:21 at ONU, so if he chooses to run the 600 again, he will likely win. However, if he runs the 400 he will have to compete with Rowswell and Kokuro. If he steps it up even more and chooses to run 800, he will be met by Braden Hoff of Lincoln Way Central. Lamoureux ran a 1:54.55 during the summer last year, which closely meets Hoff’s split PR of 1:55.5. Hoff has yet to race this season so we have no data on how he is racing so far, but after his cross country season, I would expect him to be a fierce competitor in the middle distance. Ryan Stiglic of Lincoln Way West will look to continue his dominance in the pole vault, he should capture the win here in the vault.
Friday
Triad Knights Boys Invite
Noah Feldt of Mascoutah headlines the sprint field, he is an exceptionally well rounded sprinter, running 10.69, 21.56 and 49.23. He was the runner up in the 2A 200m last year, and he was top 5 in both the 100m and the 400m as well. He will be joined by his teammate Raphael Smith Jr, who runs 10.88 and 21.74. Both have yet to open their season, but will likely dominate the short sprints. Devin Habermehl of Collinsville will hopefully make his season debut, he threw a gigantic 58’ 11.25” at the state meet last year to take 4th. He threw 56’ 9.25” last year indoors. He saw vast improvement between his sophomore and junior years, I would expect him to win with a wide margin. Moving to distance, Landon Harris of Granite City and Drew Twyman of Triad are the standouts. Harris has run 4:20.5 for a full mile already this year, which would be about 2 seconds off of his 1600 PR. He is a sub 2 800m runner as well, and he had a solid cross country season. Twyman was all-state in the 800 last year, running 1:55.2 to take 7th in 2A. Ideally, these two should go head to head in an 800, that would produce the best results and the most exciting race, but I think it’s more likely that Harris runs the mile and Twyman runs the 800. Finally, Louis Yohannes of Triad will likely be opening his season in the 60mH at this meet. Yohannes is one of the fastest returning hurdlers in the state, pretty much second only to Arion Hill of Centralia. I would expect him to set the track on fire with whatever time he ends up running.
Huntley Boys Invite
This is one of the more loaded invites of the weekend, there are a total of 14 top ten ranked athletes signed up for this meet. Across all categories, there are incredible athletes ready to compete for some fast times and big marks. Joe Bregenzer had an excellent cross country season, and he is the returning 3A state champ in the 3200. He will be joined by Rory Gaan of Fremd and Tommy Nitz of Huntley. Nitz ran 9:05 last year and was all-state in both the 3200 and cross country this fall. Gaan got his season cut short last year, but was still able to run 9:09 and take an all-state spot during cross country. Fremd also sends their sophomore superstar, Jack Jennings. As a freshman, Jennings was running consistently under 9:20, capping out at 9:16. He is one of the most talented runners in the class of 2027, he will definitely run some fast times. Max Sudryzinski of Jacobs and Patrick Clune of Naperville Central could have a showdown in the 800. Sudryzinski ran 1:56 last year at the state finals, Clune ran 1:56 last year, and has already ran 1:25 for 600 and 1:59 for 800 this indoor season. Clune is extremely well rounded, so I believe that gives him an advantage over Sudryzinski, but it’s still too close to call the winner. Maxx Haas of Grant will be the only other 800 runner in contention with these two, he just missed the sub 2 minute mark at Lakes two weeks ago, he will look to join the sub 2 club. Moving to sprints, Joe Owusu of Plainfield East had a killer 55m at Plainfield South last weekend, he will be racing Vinny Costa of Huntley and Max Smith of Minooka for the win in the 60m. Adam Lyon of Barrington should have the 400 under his thumb, he ran 49.52 last year and was 7th in the 3A state meet for that event. The shot put will be hotly contested, Ben Blank of Naperville Central and Owen Fors of Barrington are both over 53 feet. They will be joined by Harlem’s throwers, Tyson Hill and Connar Penney, both of whom have hit 52 feet this season. Khristos Oludimo of Jacobs will take the high jump competition with relative ease, he hit 6’ 6” 2 weeks ago at Lakes, no one else in the field is within 6 inches of him. The triple jump will be a showdown between Jack Anderson of Rolling Meadows and Oluwadamilare Hassan of Fremd. Anderson was all state last year, taking 9th at the 3A state meet, his lifetime PR is over 45 feet. Hassan jumped 44’ 11.25” just last week and is currently IL #5 in the triple jump. Both jumpers have the potential to beat the other, it will come down to who is better on the day. Similar to triple jump, the pole vault sees a showdown between Will Viken of Rolling Meadows and Cooper Bowman of Minooka. Viken has a season record of 15’ 10”, which is a solid 4 inches ahead of Bowman, but both are undefeated through the high school season. Just like with triple jump, it will come down to who is better on the day. This meet is well rounded across the board, expect some serious marks to come this Friday.
ONU 3A Girls Invite
ONU hosts back-to-back 3A invites this week, with their boys meet on Thursday and their girls meet on Friday. Noelle Hunt of Champaign Centennial will look to open her high school season in the long jump. She jumped 17’ 8.25” during early indoor and she has a PR of 18’ 7” from last year indoor. She will be challenged by the jumpers of Shepherd, Kyla Motley and Rajae Stevenson. These 2 teammates are separated by a quarter of an inch in long jump; they sit at 17’ 11.25” and 17’ 11” respectively. They will also run the show in triple jump, Stevenson sporting a season best of 35’ 4” and Motley bringing a 34’ 7.25”. The shot put has a strong field as well, with 2 representatives from Thornton in JaRiah Smith and Maliyah Coleman. Smith has a season record of 37’ 7.5” which is currently IL #7. Coleman has thrown 35’ 2.25” this season and will be a strong competitor as well. However the resounding favorite looks to be Maya Hooks of Mother McAuley, who joined the 40 foot club last spring when she took 5th in the 3A state championships. She was averaging around 37 feet last season with striking consistency. If she is anywhere in the realm of 37 feet she will be in contention for the win. Alaina Steele of Lincoln-Way East ran 56.7 in the 400 last year at the 3A state meet, she will hopefully open her season at this meet with a fast time. Mia Forsytek of Lincoln-Way Central could give her competition, her 400 PR is a 59.6 and could be close to Steele. If she chooses to run the 800 instead she will be leagues ahead of the competition.
Saturday
Coach Bastings Boys Invite
After a long wait, it appears that Edwardsville is finally ready to start their season, and they couldn’t have picked a better meet to open at. East St. Louis has looked strong so far and it will be interesting to see how they matchup against such a prolific sprints program. With the exception of Darius Ivy who has been running his off event (400) with incredible success, ESTL has only focused on relays. If they put some of their relay guys into open events, I would expect them to throw up some quality times. Mark Samuels and Demarcus Coleman were apart of their 8th place 4x4 last spring, both have the capability to run in the low 50 seconds. Jayden McCallum ran 10.96 and 22.24 last year as a freshman, he has the capacity to score for the flyers this weekend as well. ESTL also has run some wicked fast relays, with an IL #3 1:31.41 in the 4x2 and a supersonic 3:24 in the 4x4. The flyers are no slouch in the field either, they have Shamond McClain who is currently IL #2 in the triple jump with a huge 46’ 9” mark. Edwardsville returns two all-state 200 runners, Zach Lane and Clayton Lakatos, Lakatos was the runner up to Omar Mims in the 200. They also retain key relay runner, Darren Wilson, who will help them out massively in the 4x2. Where Edwardsville excels is actually in the field. They return two 22 foot jumpers in Jacob Wahl and Jayden Cole, they return a 6’ 7.75” high jumper in Devyon Hill-Lomax and a 45 foot triple jumper in Gino Montgomery. On top of all of that, they also return Iose Epenesa, the star thrower who was a consistent 55 footer in shot put. Epenesa and Hill-Lomax are in basketball, but even though they won’t be competing, Edwardsville has pieces in distance like Gavin Rogers and Colin Thomas who are more than capable of scoring good points for the Tigers. While we’re on the topic of distance, Plainfield North will likely walk away with most of the points in that category. Quinn Davis and Thomas Czerwinski were a dynamic duo during cross country, I would expect both of them to come home with some hardware. Aiden Connors ran a 14:37 and was somehow not all-state during the fall, he will look to open up his season with a great 3200. Gavin Hall spent part of cross country battling injury, but hopefully he will return to this track season with a solid 800. Auggie Gaudio and Henry McMurry of Mahomet Seymour were both 14:55 at cross country state this fall, I would expect them to challenge Plainfield North. Jude Toft of Mt. Zion split a blistering 1:54 in the 4x8 at state last year, he could show up and challenge for the 800 title. Van Schneider has also run 1:54 but unfortunately had his cross country season cut short due to injury. If he can return to his former speed, he will also be in the conversation for an 800 win. Christian Harris and Boston Beyer both have sub 4:20 1600 PRs, they could be in the mix for a medal. Other than those few individuals, it looks like it will be a Plainfield North showcase in the distance. In the field, Isaiah Whitaker will easily take the win in the pole vault. The junior from Bloomington Central Catholic has been on fire this indoor season, he’s cleared a US #3 17’ 2.25” and he is miles ahead of anyone else in the state of Illinois. Voldy Makabu of Champaign Centennial will likely take the high jump crown. He is the returning champ of this invite, last year he jumped a gigantic 6’ 8” at this meet and he has a PR of 6’ 10.75”. He is the top returning high jumper in the state, tied with Kewon Marshall of West Aurora, I don’t see him losing this meet. Going back to sprints, Centennial also has a key transfer in Josiah Brown, he ran 10.71 and 22.51 as a sophomore, he could sneak into the 60m and score some points for the chargers as well. There are a lot of loaded teams ready to compete for the title, there will be some big time results from this meet.
ICOPS Boys Invite
The ICOPS invite is a powerhouse for sprints and distance, there will be some good competition all around. St. Laurence will dominate the sprints, with superstar sprinters Harley Rizzs and Monroe Thompson. Thompson ran 6.90 during early indoor and has since been consistently under 7 seconds in the 60. Rizzs has a similar PR in the 60m, and was undefeated in the 100m last year during outdoors. He and Thompson will battle it out for the 60m title. Once we start to increase the distance though, Evan Smith will show how he is not a pushover. IC Catholics’ star sprinter has run 22.37 already this season in the 200 and has a PR in the event of 21.68. In his 400 debut this winter, he ran 52.55. He has potential to be proficient in all of the sprint events, he will provide good competition to the St. Laurence sprinters. Brian E Smith II of North Shore Country Day has run 50.49 in the 400 and has the fastest season record out of everyone at this meet. He has a lifetime PR of 49.6 and was runner up at last year's 1A state meet, he will compete for the 400 title. Moving to distance, if the 3200 has all of its pieces in place, it will be a seriously competitive event. Finn Richards of Benet Academy was the 2A state champion in cross country this year, he was 9:20 last year and will look to take home the win. That being said, Simon Lane of Chicago University has been on an absolute tear so far this season, he was 9:18 for 3200 at Lakes 2 weeks ago and will challenge Richards for the win. Luis Flores was 8th at the 2A cross country state meet and has run in the low 9:20s in the 3200 as well, he will chase Richards and Lane. Overall, a solid meet with good representation in sprints and distance, ICOPS will deliver fun racing like it always does.
Kays Jess Gathing CO-ED Invite
This meet has a deep field for sprints, there are some big names who will be running their debuts at Jess Gathing. Kankakee has the deepest squad out of the teams represented here, Naomi Bey-Osborne and Trinity Noble are the main cause of that. Bey-Osborne was the second fastest woman in the state last year, and now that Katelyn Lehnen is out for the season, She is one of the favorites for the 400m. The future Illini has a 400 PR of 55.12 and a 200 PR of 24.77. She has only ran one 60 so far, she ran 7.92 at Kankakee’s intersquad meet at the start of February, but her PR from last year was 7.73. Any event she chooses to run, she will likely win. However, she is not without competition. Her teammate, Trinity Noble, ran 7.93 and 25.67 during early indoor, she has been looking strong. She will provide competition for Bey-Osborne, so will Brooklyn Holmes of Marian Catholic. Holmes ran 7.84 at the Auburn Girls Invite 2 weeks ago, she will be up with Bey-Osborne and Noble. Gabby Graham of Tinley Park had an excellent season of hurdles last year, she will hopefully open her season in the hurdles this weekend. She ran a 55m last week in 7.40, which shows that her speed is there, she just has to put into practice a 60mH. Klarke Goranson of Manteno was a force of nature during cross country, she was 6th at the 2A state championships, she should make some noise in the distance events. Her 400 PR is 1:00, showcasing her speed and proving that she can be a threat in multiple events. She has minimal competition in the distance events, so she should be able to walk away with a win this weekend. Marco Reynolds of Normal Community will dominate the shot put, she has a PR of 41’ 7.25”, which she threw last year during indoor. She has thrown over 40 feet multiple times, I would expect her to steamroll the competition. On the men's side, Amauree Williams of Southland College Prep will be dominant in the hurdles, he has a 60mH PR of 8.36 and is IL #8 in that event. Chikyere Anyamele, also of Southland College Prep, is currently IL #4 in the triple jump with a mark of 45’ 5.75”, he will look to continue his season with a solid win here in Kankakee.
Blazen Brave CO-ED Invite
Cahokia’s crazy sprint lineup is going to dominate this meet. Omar Mims, returning state champ in the 100m, will look to run the show in the 60 and the 200. He ran 10.54 in the 100 last year and 21.43 in the 200, he had the fastest time in the 100 last year and he was only a junior. If he runs the 60m, I would expect him to be well under 7 seconds. Cahokia also has a 400 specialist in Jaylen Pennington, he was consistently under 50 seconds last year and will look to open his season with a win here at Mt. Zion. Cahokia will also likely take the relay wins, they ran 1:33.46 and 3:35.7 two weeks ago and are far ahead of everyone else. Will Fuson of Cerro-Gordo-Bement should open his season here at Mt. Zion, if he runs the 800 he will destroy his competition. If he decides to move up to the mile, he will be met by Elijah Teefey of Pleasant Plains and Caleb Mathias of Champaign Central. Teefey has ran 4:23.4 for a full mile already this season, and is currently IL #9 in that event. Mathias was 4:29 and 9:27 last year, his PRs are fairly similar to Teefey, (excluding Teefey’s recent mile PR) and both were sub 15 during cross. I think it’s more likely that Mathias and Teefey will run 3200, but if both double in the 1600, it will lead to a fun 3 way race between them and Fuson. On the girls side, the distance has a couple of lethal weapons coming from St. Anthony and Father McGivney. The sophomore duo of Isabella Keller and Aubrey Denning will rack up some quality points for St. Anthony. Keller has already ran 4:55 and 10:35 and is IL #3 in both the full mile and 2 mile. Denning ran 2:12 in the 800 last year to take 3rd in the 1A state championship. However, the real star of the show is Elena Rybak, the fastest returning 800 runner in the state. She ran a mind-boggling 2:06.6 last year and is one of the strongest distance runners in the state. She sports a mile PR of 4:49.0 and (with the exception of the 2 mile) will likely win any event she chooses to run. Denning and Rybak in an 800 would be an explosive matchup for this early in the season, but I would maybe be interested in a mile matchup between all 3 girls. Denning has not yet broken the 5 minute barrier, but with such excellent competition, I wouldn’t be surprised if all 3 are sub 5.
U High Girls Invite
Normal University is known for their girls distance, this invite is set to showcase some of the best distance talents in the state. Normal University’s Zoe Carter and Natalie Bierbaum will headline this meet, I would assume they will both run the 3200. Carter has already ran a 3200 this year, she is currently IL #5 with a time of 11:10. Natalie Bierbaum will push Carter if they both run the 3200. Bierbaum followed Carter for most of the cross country season, but they have relatively similar 3200 times, both of them are floating around 10:35. I would expect Carter to take the win, but Bierbaum will be right there with her. They will be joined by Paityn Brady of Sacred Heart Griffin, she ran a solid 11:35 last week at the Clinton Early Bird Meet. Sophia Ramirez of Washington will show up to take the win in the 800. She has an open PR of 2:18, however she split 2:13 several times last year, I think she’s the strongest runner in the field. Her competition will come from Normal University in the form of Tessa Ritter and Lana Alcorn, both have split a 2:24 in the past and are solid 800 runners. The 400 could see a real showdown between Madalyn Marx of Mahomet Seymour and Sammie Yeh of Dunlap. Marx is a little ahead of Yeh in the 400, she split a 57.4 just last week and has an open PR of 58.04, which she set during this indoor season. Yeh was sub minute in the 400 last spring and will challenge Marx, but overall, I think Marx has this one in the bag. Where Yeh really dominates is the high jump, she is one of few returning high jumpers that have cleared 5’ 8”. She is far ahead of anyone else in the field, I would expect her to take home the win.
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