On to State

Friday, June 11 2021 - IHSA Sectional Rock Island

Sectionals is always a night that has a unique energy. To advance on to the state finals you have to perform at your best on one night. On a extremely hot and humid evening the Wildcats came away from Rock Island with lots of personal bests and some great races to end the season.

The biggest highlight of the night was Senior Aiden Haughian who ran a second and a half PR to hit the state qualifying standard in the 800. Aiden has improved from 2:05 down to 1:57.67 in the past month. Aiden ran a great race as he sat at the back of the pack through halfway in about 57.8 and came back to run the second lap just under 60 to hit the standard. Aiden will represent the Wildcats next weekend at the State Finals at EIU.

The relays brought great runs throughout the night. The 4x800 resulted in 3 PRs (Cam Mulyk, Tommy Adelmann, and Harlen Matson while Henry Matson just missed a PR), the 4x200 (Connor O’Leary, Patrick Todd, Richard Todd, and Ethan Obeng) just missed qualifying finishing 4^th overall, but came away with a season best time. The 4x400 ran the fastest time the Wildcats have run in 6 years and came away with a 5^th place finish as Richard Todd (50.2), Patrick Todd (52.3), Haughian (53.8), and Mike Forbear (54.8) all ran personal best splits.

Field events had some solid performances, the throws crew didn’t have any PRs but had a strong day (Gavin Schryer and Nathan Lusk in the shot, and Gabe Carrero and Jack LaLonde in the disc), Christopher Frazier had his 2^nd best series ever in long jump, and Patrick Todd just missed a PR in the high jump.

Connor O’Leary ended his career with a new PR in the 200, and Josh Klein, Ethan Obeng and Christopher Fraizer all just missed PRs in the 100 and 200.

Mike Forbear and Paul De Avila both ran new PRs in the 1600 with Mike running 4:27.61 and Paul 4:30.92. Aaron Wyckoff and Jason Zigmant had to compete during the hottest part of the day for the 3200 and they battled tough. Alex Rojo just missed a PR in the 800. Tommy Adelmann ran a PR in the 400 and Harlen Matson just missed his in the 400.