Last year's star Kahlil Wassell will not be in attendance this season
There is no Kahlil Wassell sighting this year. The New Berlin senior is off to Washington DC as a candidate for a Ron Brown Scholarship. The gifted Wassell has been accepted to esteemed schools such as the University of Illinois and Harvard University. This year's meet edition will definitely miss Wassell but the show must go on. Now enter Jordan Rowell (Sr., IC Catholic) as the man to watch. His first event will be the 60m where meet management adjusted his seed time to 6.83, the fastest such time in the state. Conversions or not Rowell is an elite athlete, the future Northern Illinois University football player is fast. It is very possible that the meet record of 6.93 will get touched. Dionte Lewis (Jr., Warrensburg-Latham) is the state leader at 7.07 and Connor Artman (Jr., Illini West) is a key speedster to watch... Lewis is the favorite in the 200 if he chooses to run the race at the end and his 23.02 ranks as the second fastest time in the classification... the 400m should be one of the most competitive races Friday evening. Mason Barr (So., Ridgeview) and Camden Coleman (Jr., Urbana University) are the preceived favorites with times under 52.00. But don't disregard Rowell who is a sub 50 second performer from last season.
Best of the rest-
4x800: The 8:00.15 meet record will likely stand for another year, but the season best by favorite Shelbyville may drop. The Rams 8:27.37 is five seconds better than anyone else in the field.
4x200: The final section will feature four teams closely knitted together. There is no guarantee that favorite Illini West will come away as the winner. This relay is billed as the "NASCAR" of track and field and you can bet something outrageous is going to occur.
4x400: Rockford Christian is the heavy favorite here at 3:32.83. The Royal Lions have a powerful quartet that aims to keep their foot on the opponent's jugular.
LJ: Connor Artman will use his speed to try and turn back Jordan Rowell in the long jump. Artman's 22-2 is the list leader; 5 more jumpers are over 21-feet.
PV: Andrew Glynn (Sr., Staunton) is the Class A leader at 14-6. His chief competitor will be Cameron Witts (So., Williamsville). Both vaulters could push each other to 15-feet.
SP: There is not any super outstanding throwers here but there is a healthy dose of 50 footers. Dillon Birch (Sr., Shelbyville) is the slight favorite over Andy Bird (Jr., Warsaw) and Russell Nelson (Sr., Christian Liberty)
HJ: No Noah Adams? No problem. The former great from Meridian has understudy by the name of Cameron Getz. The junior Getz jumped 6-6 last weekend at the Gene Armer Invite. He is excited about the prospect of getting on to the next level. He will be opposed by Nathan Kiger (Sr., Palestine) who leads the field with a 6-7 clearance.
TJ: Football star Jaylon Bester (Sr., Althoff Catholic) comes with a season best 44-3. He has a foot advantage over anyone else in the field. But as we all know, field events are very technical events and anything can happen if the mental aspect does not match the physical.