Weekend Rundown: Week 4 Track & Field

This looks to be a huge weekend for the state! With many top invites in the state happening this weekend we take a look here!

Friday 

3A ONU Classic Boys

The electric atmosphere at the ONU indoor track continues this Friday night with the 3A boys meet. The first of many dominant performances will start with Oak Lawn Richards’ #3TJ, #6LJ Nicholas Jafilan, as this senior is at the top of the seeds for both Triple Jump and Long Jump. 

While #1 Shaun Alexander of Romeoville is not contesting Jafilan in Triple this week, he can still put up a fight against some great 60m sprinters entered in this race. However, Danville’s D’Mario Jackson is the favorite in both the 60m, and the 200m this week, claiming the first seed for both events. Anthony Lusciatti of Lincoln Way West is looking to be a safe bet for the 400m, as his 50.52 puts him in the lead with only competition from his teammate Zavon Johnson. Thornton’s Tahari Curry continues to specialize in rare events as he is expected to clear out the field in the 600m. One can also expect domination to happen in the distance events here, as Caden Wolfe of Tinley Park Andrew is attempting to get his name on the state rankings board in the highly competitive 800m field this year. Lincoln Way Central’s #2 Bryce Counihan is going to sweep the 1600m, as the 3200m will be a battle including the favorite from Orland Park Sandburg, Mateo Ramiro-Garcia. This meet has the chance to shake up a lot of rankings, as well as an opportunity for some underdogs to claim their spot in the competition.

Huntley Boys invite: Krishtian

To kick off the Huntley boys invite, we meet the sprinters in this field. Names like Joe Owusu, Nasir Robinson of Plainfield East and Chad Earl of Naperville Central stand out among the rest of the field. They are all having electric indoor times in the 60, 200 and 400 with Robinson being at the helm so far with his 7.06 in the 60 and 21.84 in the 200. Sprinting may seem to be the highlight of the meet, but the field talent this year around is one-of-a-kind. Tyson Hill of Machesney Park Harlem, Arman Lepuzanovic of Rolling Meadows and Ben Blank of Naperville Central are all outstanding athletes and all being top 10 in the state for their respective events! Lepuzanovic is currently 3rd in the state for long jump with Hill and Blank occupying spaces 6 and 7 in the shot put rankings. With this fierce competition in the same event there’s a chance they’re throwing for the top spot in the state. Distance is bringing some fiery runners to the invitational as Max Haas of Fox Lake Grant (800) and Sam Hill of St. Charles North (1600) are headed for the finish line. Hill is headed out for a battle with his team, St. Charles North, and he will be in the fight with Fremd’s 4x800 led by Jack Jennings, David Moore, Bryden Le and Nihal Kalsi. We are in for a lot of blazing PRs this Friday!

Saturday

ICOPS

Every year, the ICOPS invite compiles the best catholic schools in the Chicagoland area and pits them against each other at North Central College. This year, we should see some strong times from the sprint events. St. Laurence and Brother Rice are the two powerhouse programs that will face off in the 4x2. St. Laurence has been a 2A sprint factory for the last few years, this year is no different. Brother Rice is coming off of a surprising year in the sprints, where they ran a ridiculous 1:27.79 at the 3A state meet. Considering that the fastest guy on that relay ran a 22.00 in the open 200, that’s a pretty incredible mark to put up with nothing but handoffs to carry your team. Sparks will fly between these two in the 4x2, expect a fast time from both teams. Matthew Simon of Oak Park Fenwick is the big name to watch in the individual sprints. The returning all-stater is one of two runners with a PR under 50 seconds, and he’s been looking strong throughout the indoor season. This will be his first 400 of 2026, so expect him to open with a heater. Andrew Straley of Brother Rice should dominate the distance events. Straley had a great race at the Circuit last week, running 9:19 in the 2 mile for a 20 second PR. His success on the grass has clearly carried over to the track, let’s see what he can do here at ICOPS. 

Roger Minton Invite

The Roger Minton Invite this Saturday has many strong athletes in all events and will most likely have many fast times or far marks. Some of the standout distance runners consist of Raphael and Gabriel Greer (Marion) who are a strong twin duo ranked #1 and #2 in Illinois in the 3200 already. Both made state appearances last year and they will most likely lead the distance races on Saturday. Jonathan Witzman Sr. (Murphysboro), who is a strong 800 meter runner and made a state appearance, will be opening his season here. Two teammates from Mt. Vernon may also run their season openers and they are Trace Elliot Sr. (Mt. Vernon) and Rowan Wilford Sr. (Mt. Vernon). Looking at last track season, both seniors are strong 1600 and 800 runners with times in the low 4:30’s and low 2:00’s. After a strong cross country season, hopefully they can have good races this weekend to start off their seasons. Onto the sprinters, there are a few relays who stand out and they include Carbondale's 4x2 and 4x4. With Carbondale’s 4x2 having the entire relay return from their 1:30.25 relay from last year's state, they are looking like a strong team on Saturday. Furthermore, their 4x4 relay also has all four members returning from their all state relay last year with a time of 3:22.66 so hopefully both relays can have strong season openers this weekend.The open sprinter to look out for is Landyn Mitchell of Centralia Christ Our Rock who is a strong hurdler and short distance sprinter. Mitchell has already run a top 10 Illinois time in the 60mH this season and will hopefully carry on the momentum this weekend. Last but not least one of the strongest jumpers at the meet is Brody Wilt Sr. (Pinckneyville). Brody is a strong jumper with state appearances and an all state medal last year at the 2A state meet. He has already shown some impressive times this indoor season with high ranking jumps in the triple jump and long jump. 

3A ONU Classic

The 3A ONU classic is already loaded with talent in all divisions but the field event portion is particularly special. It is rare to see two different athletes at the same meet when each is ranked 5th for their event. Ava Offerman of Joliet West and April Madison out of Lincoln Way East are coming in hot with super impressive indoor campaigns already with Madison dominating triple jump and Offerman dominating pole vault. There will be two star sprinters to watch here, Alaina Steele of Lincoln Way East and Nina Brown of Champaign Centennial. Brown is the clear cut highlight of this meet. She is top 10 in the state for multiple events and is a proven competitor. She will be opening her season this weekend, we should be in for a fast time. Although distance isn’t the main event at ONU, there are still some great athletes. Two in particular are Julie Bach and Renee Warren, both seniors and both out of Normal West. Warren is already ranked top-25 in the state and who knows where she can be pushed to when paired with competition such as Bach.

Batavia Girls Invite

The Batavia Girls Invite will be electric with many of Illinois best talents taking part. You always know there will be fireworks when the Prospect girls roll into town and this meet should be no different. Nikki Niebrugge and Samantha Skowronski will be extending their distance a little more at this meet as they will be taking their talents to the 400 meter distance. Dajana Skolimowska will look to continue building momentum in the 200 coming off a win in the 400 at the Hononegah Girls Classic last weekend.

Despite the excellent talent in the sprints the real main events will take place on the distance side. The 3200 could be the most exciting race of this indoor season. Mia Sirois of Barrington will make her much anticipated track debut as she was sidelined all of the 2025 cross country season dealing with injuries. However, you should absolutely not count her out. The last time we saw Sirois run the 3200 she dropped a staggering 10:01 which won her state by a whopping 15 seconds. She will have company though as the 3rd place finisher from that meet Macy Ermitage of Downers Grove North will be in hot pursuit. The craziest part is we have not even mentioned that the reigning 3a cross country champion Karlin Janowski of York will absolutely be looking to snatch a victory in her opening 3200. Even with all that talent I wouldn’t count out Avery Hacker of Batavia who finished 8th in the 3200 at the state meet last season. Finally, Victoria Tarara of Barrington will look to assert herself in this race as she made a huge jump this past cross country season finishing 8th at state. The 800 is also shaping up to be great as it will be a 3-horse race between Meg Peterson of Prospect, Sophia Galliano Sanchez of York and Angelica Hill of Barrington. Hill will look to build off her 1600 win at the York Girls Invite, but she will have her work cut out for her as Galliano Sanchez is coming off a blistering 2:17 performance 2 weeks ago. Not to mentionPeterson is the most decorated 800 runner in her class boasting 3 All-State medals in the event along with her contribution to 2 State-title 4x800 teams.

On the field side of things Karen Boayke of Downers Grove South will seek another great result in the triple jump after leaping an incredible IL #7 38' 3.25" last Saturday at the WWS Girls Indoor Invitational. Yane Jansen Van Rensburg of Barrington will look to raise the bar in pole  vault after her astounding IL #4 leap of 12”0’ back in December.

Lakes Clash At The Coliseum

The distance field at The Clash at the Colosseum is one of the best distance fields that we’ll see assembled this year. Owen Horeni of Yorkville is the big name to watch coming into this meet. Karanveer Patil of Lake Zurich had a fantastic race last week in this event with a scorching 9:09, he is one of the many athletes who will push the pace here. He ran a blistering 1:52 last week, he will be competitive in any event he chooses to run. Two returning all-staters, Jameson Tenopir of Cary Grove and Thomas Czerwinski of Plainfield North, are top tier milers to watch out for. The Plainfield South duo of Alex Batsala and Dylan Buturisis will add to the depth of this field. Both runners had a fantastic cross country season and will be top 3 candidates in either the mile or the 2 mile.  Cameron Libby of Lake Zurich had the best cross country season out of anyone on this list, and he definitely has the best kick in the field. As long as he is in contact with 400 meters to go, he could be successful in almost any event he chooses to run. 

This meet isn’t only composed of elite distance runners though, the sprints have some elite level talents coming up to Lake Villa as well. Two highly ranked 400 runners are a cut above the rest here, it’s Dontrell Young of Oswego versus Myles Lyons of New Trier. Lyons had an incredible closeout to his junior year, taking 3rd in the 3A final of the 400 and setting a huge PR of 47.46 at New Balance Nationals. He was the top ranked 400 runner coming into the season, and he’s an extremely hard competitor to beat. Young has been the face of the class of 2027 in the sprints for the last two years and he’s an absolute stud in the 400. His PR of 47.63 is among the best of the best, but it's his versatility that makes him so special. His 100 PR of 10.57 and his 200 PR of 21.22 make him one of the most well rounded athletes in Illinois this year, he should be able to walk away with a win at The Clash. Another elite sprinter in the field includes Colton Ladage of Chatham Glenwood. He has the fastest season best in the field of 6.89, and he would be the heavy favorite in that event if that’s what he chooses to run. Joe Owusu of Plainfield East will both be in contention with Ladage for a win in the 60. Owusu has a strong PR in the 60 of 6.90 from last year, but he also just recently ran 6.38 in the 55 at a quad meet. This recent success shows that Owusu is back to his usual, he should put up a pretty spectacular mark here. 

Although the field events aren’t quite as eye-popping as the running events, Logan Abrams of Cary Grove will still put on a show in the shot put. Abrams threw an intergalactic 63 feet at the Grayslake Central Throwcase last week, and he has been consistent over 60 feet. No other shot putter in Illinois is doing what he’s doing right now, he will be in a world of his own here. William Mercure of Lakes will look to dominate the pole vault. The returning all-stater hit 15’ 1” to start the season, he should be in good shape to take down a win here. 

HF Girls ABC Invite

The Homewood-Flossmoor Girls ABC Invite looks to be one of the most loaded girls meets in the state this week, especially on the sprints side. This meet has an interesting format, where each event is separated into three levels (A, B, and C), and each team receives one entry per level. This will leave a ton of room for interesting competition between teams. The sprints fields look to be absolutely loaded. Senior Mariyah Robinson of Homewood-Flossmoor comes in as the top returner for the 60 meter dash and the 200, but she will surely have competition from Senior Jordan Hamb of Chicago South Shore and freshman Camryn Cargo of Plainfield East. These three raced just two weeks ago at the Worrill Invite, and ran blistering fast times of 7.62, 7.66, and 7.73 respectively. Since then, however, Hamb dropped a ridiculous 7.58 at the HF Girls Open meet. It will be exciting to see these three face off again, and expect to see some crazy fast times. In addition to her 60m, Jordan Hamb is likely to contest the 60mH, where she is expected to dominate the field. So far this season, she's dropped an IL #1 8.59, so it will be super exciting to see what else she can do. For the 200, Robinson comes in with the fastest PR of 23.70 from last year's state meet, but again, she'll have competition from Cargo, Hamb, and senior Briyah Beatty of Plainfield East. Beatty has yet to race this season, but comes in with a PR of 24.93, which puts her in contention. Cargo could also make some noise coming in with a PR of 24.99, and is also yet to run a 200 this high school season. Hamb is actually the only one who has raced over 200 this season, with a season's best of 25.37. This 200m field is shaping up to be a great one. 

The sprint relays are also looking to be exciting, with Homewood-Flossmoor and Plainfield East both in attendance. During their last meeting at the Worrill Invite, Robinson was able to come from behind on the anchor leg to win the 4x200 relay IL #1 1:40.79 to IL #2 1:40.80, which are both mind-boggling times to be running in mid-February. This matchup looks to be incredibly exciting, and it will be interesting to see if Plainfield East can get the revenge win over HF. For the 400m, it could very well come down to Robinson, Beatty, and Kayla Riepe from Chicago Whitney Young. Robinson holds a PR of 53.55 from outdoor, but has run 59.56 this season. Riepe comes in with the fastest time in the field this year, with an IL #1 57.69 from the Worrill Invite. They will both have competition from Beatty, who holds a PR of 56.41 from sectionals last outdoor season. 

The distance side will be a bit quieter, but still expect to see some decent competition. The top girls will be juniors Natalie Nahs of Minooka and Ainsley Carter of Chicago Lane Tech. Nahs comes in this season with a 5:20 1600, but holds a PR of 5:16. Carter comes in fresh off a blazing fast PR of 5:00 from the CPS Challenger meet, but will only be contesting in the 4x400, so these two will not end up facing off individually. In the 4x800 Huntley is expected to take the win after their 9:42 at the Sequoit Showdown, but they will surely have competition from Lane Tech, who ran 9:43 with a B/C team to take the win at the Worrill Invite. In the 4x400, four teams will make this race super competitive. HF, Plainfield East, Lane Tech, and Kenwood will battle for the win. HF and Lane Tech currently hold IL #2 and #3, with Plainfield East not far behind in IL #7. Kenwood sits at #13 currently, but hasn’t put together a fully loaded 4x400 yet. If all four teams load their relays, it could make for a very fast and competitive race. 

On the field side, Jordan Hamb, Kaiya Collier of HF, London Jarrett of HF, and Courtney Burt of Whitney Young could make the jumps extremely exciting and competitive. Hamb again holds the IL #1 spot in the long jump with a massive leap of 18-9.98, but she may face some difficulties with Collier, who has also jumped over 18 feet this season. Add in Jarrett and Burt, and this long jump field will be absolutely loaded. It’ll be a similar story in the triple jump, where Hamb occupies IL #1 once again with another massive jump of 40-7.8. She's currently the only athlete in Illinois to break the 40 foot barrier, but Sofia Controneo and Burt are right behind her with an IL #2 39-3.26 and IL #4 38-5.81 respectively. In the high jump, expect to see a battle between Jarrett and Londyn Hendry of Plainfield East, who are currently IL #4 and #7 both jumping over 5 '2". In the shot put, expect pure dominance from IL #1 Jaloni Wiley who has already neared a 50 foot throw this season, an absolutely massive indoor performance. The ABC Invite is seriously shaping up to be one of the most competitive and highly contested girls meets of the season thus far. 

Hononegah Boys Invite

The Hononegah Boys Invite will give us a taste of Illinois’ premier talent in track and field. The best matchup of the day will assuredly come on the sprints side as Coen Lee of Hononegah will square off against Akinyemi Igbalajobi of Metea Valley in the 60 hurdles. Lee clocked a blistering 8.26 at his home track two weeks ago which is good for 7th best in Illinois. However, it looks like he will need to improve on that time if he wants to compete for the win with Igbalajobi. Igbalajobi dropped a filthy time of 8.19 which cemented a top 5 mark in Illinois last weekend at the Rockford Auburn Boys Invitational. It will be great to see these two face off head to head and see who can squeeze out a win. Chase Cutler of Hononegah will look to continue his dominant start as he clocked two top 20 Illinois performances in his first meet running 7.00 and 22.04 in the 60 and 200 respectively. Henry Faber of Metea Valley ran a terrific opening 400 at the Jerry Lowe Boys Invitational three weeks ago coming through in 50.18 which is IL #9. It will be great to see if he can lower that mark and throw his name in as an All-State contender.

Shifting focus to the distance side we should see some great performances all around. Dynamic Dixon duo Dean Geiger and Averick Wiseman both ran top 25 Illinois times in the first rendition of this meet two weeks ago with a 4:30.09 and 4:26.48, respectively. They will try to better those times, which should be aided by another speedy teammate pair. Mateus Salomao of Hersey had an epic ending to his track season last year finishing with an All-State medal in the 800 and flying to a 4:14.55 1600 at Magis Miles a week later. He definitely will be fighting to kick off his season with a win. His teammate, Gabriel Gronski, is no joke either as he completed his season with 4:22.53 at his sectional meet, missing state qualifying by under a second. On the other hand, a guy who does not lack state experience is Luca Bryja of Harvest Christian Academy who finished 4th in the IHSA 1a state meet in the 1600. He will look to contend for a state title this year and this race will give him great competition from bigger classes. Rounding out the field is the hometown favorite Landon Samuelson of Hononegah  who will look to snatch a big victory coming off a huge breakout run at Distance Night in Palatine where he ran a 9:22 3200.

Proviso West Invite

Proviso West is set to feature some of the best sprint action that we’ll see this weekend. Evanston is the best team at this meet, their elite sprint squad gives them an edge over everyone else. Justin Johnson and Anthony Honore of Evanston are the two headliners for the 60. Honore has a season best of 6.93 and Johnson is a returning all-stater in the 100, they make quite the dynamic duo here. Tayshaun Austin of Downers Grove South is the only other athlete who will look to break the 7 second border. In the 200, Johnson of Evanston will double back and look to take the win. The returning all-stater will be virtually alone in this event, it should be easy for him to bring home the gold. Daylin Donaldson of Belleville East will try his hand at the open 400 this week, we could see some fireworks in that event. Donaldson was a member of the Belleville East 4x4 that ran 3:19 last spring, so he should be able to put up a pretty decent mark. Donaldson will also be running the 60mH, he will look to improve his mark from the Worrill invite. Donaldson’s 110mH mark of 13.84 is one of the fastest in Illinois, he should be able to capture the win here. Jordan Rabb of Kenwood and Nathan Cichy of Mt. Prospect are two other elite hurdlers who will add to the depth of this event. 

The field events at Proviso West this weekend will have some strong results. The big event to watch will be the high jump, where Addis Willis of Oak Park River Forest will continue his streak of dominance. Willis hit a colossal 6’ 8” at a quad meet earlier this year, he is the big favorite in this event. In the shot put, Dakota Edwards of Proviso West will look to take down the win. He has thrown down an impressive 58’ 0” so far this season, I don’t see him losing this event. Victreze Thomas of Cahokia leads a loaded triple jump field with his IL #2 mark of 46’ 6”. He was outstanding at the Worrill Invite, where he took the win over several other ranked triple jumpers. Kamron Daniel of Belleville East will look to join Thomas. He hit a huge PR of 45’ 9” at the Knight Invite last week, he should be able to follow that up with another impressive performance this weekend. 

The mile looks to be the premier distance event. Conrad Saner of Downers South is the heavy favorite going into the race. Saner has the fastest PR in the field with a 4:15 1600 from last spring. He has looked strong throughout the indoor season, with a big PR in the 2 mile of 9:27 and a 1:24 600 from the York Quad. He should be able to take down this relatively small field, but Samuel Assefa of Lane Tech could surprise for a win here. Assefa doesn’t have any intense track times, but he is coming off of one of the biggest breakouts in cross country that I have seen in a long time. He went from 15:19 as a sophomore to 14:17 as a junior, taking 6th at the 3A state meet. Him and Saner finished right next to each other at the state meet, it will likely be a similar story here. Amilo Rajandram of Whitney Young will be another name to watch here. He ran 4:22 at the Worrill invite and he should be right with Saner and Assefa for most of this race.

Rockford Auburn Girls Invite

The Rockford Auburn Girls Invite this Saturday is looking like an electric meet with many top athletes in the state and many strong returners competing at this meet. Starting on the distance side, St. Charles North has two strong 800-meter runners named Julia Rodney Jr. and Gwen Hobson Jr., who have both already run times that place them in the top ten for Illinois this season. Other notable distance runners include Ella Satre So. and Lily Hodneland Sr., who both run for Hinsdale Central and have both already run strong times last year and this indoor. It is looking like a strong matchup between these four runners and many others competing. Both St. Charles North girls have run top ten times in Illinois in the 800 this season. Moving on to the short sprints, there is one very notable name at this meet, and it’s Rege Cooper Smith Jr. (North Chicago). Cooper Smith is the returning 2A state champ in both the 100-meter dash and 200-meter dash, and this meet will be her season opener. Hopefully she can start her season off strong. On the field side of the meet, two names that stand out are Allison Stibal Fr. (Rockford Guilford) and Joi Story Sr. (Edwardsville), who are both very impressive athletes. Stibal already has the second farthest mark in the long jump for girls season, with an impressive 18’ 4”. Furthermore, Story is a State medalist from last year and has the number three-ranked throw in shot put this season. It is looking like there will be many very impressive times and marks this Saturday from the Rockford Auburn Girls Invite.