Galesburg junior to be Josh Eiker has been crushing the competition this summer (Colin Boyle photo)
It is officially the summer solstice and that means down time for many high school teachers/teachers. It is time for them to catch up with their family and friends- much of their precious time was consumed in the classrooms and on the athletic fields during the course of nine or ten months out of the calendar year.
I am definitely taking some much needed time for myself and my son this summer. In fact, I have taken the liberty to catch up on some “channel zero” known as reality television among other things. Yes I do like watching TV whenever I get the opportunity. Other than the garbage that consumes us on a daily basis, I have enjoyed watching the World Cup, the College World Series championship between Vanderbilt University and the University of Virginia: two great academic institutions finishing up a long collegiate sports year.
I must admit that I get bored on occasion because I am so used to the daily grind of covering high school cross country and track and field. It compels me to pull out precious old Track & Field News publications that I have at my disposal. I like to read about athletes who were hot 10 years ago but no longer are on the scene. It’s kind of like me creating my own “where are they now” scenario. It also made me think “where will I be 10 years from now?” Will I still have the passion to coach and cover sports? I try not to think so far in advance. I just want to take it one day at a time. Before I know it will be time for another school year and new faces to learn and more athletes to cover and more athletes to forecast as the next big stars of our great sport.
This past weekend made me feel like a grumpy old man when I learned how our state governing body of youth track and field known as USATF Illinois has not grown with the times. I got word they were fleecing parents, coaches, and athletes by not providing them with the best product possible. This is not here say by the way. One coach stated how appalling it was that he had to pay $3 for a meet program when one should have been included in his packet. I understand the cost of putting on a large age-group meet but not providing heat sheets for the general public to view is ridiculous. Instead he and others were given performance lists in which they had to guess where their athletes would compete in. It actually made me laugh out loud. I’m sure the powers that be have a different story to tell… but they haven’t done a thing to get product out to the masses so they have no voice to complain when I or others putting their feet into hot lava.
Ok enough complaining. Coach Jonathon Daniel of the Angelic Flyers Track Club gives his personal take on the USATF IL State Association Championship held at Illinois Benedictine University:
This weekend at USATF IL State
By: Jonathon Daniel @coachDSR
This past weekend, the USATF state meet was held at Benedictine University. It’s a unique meet because not only do you see the premiere high school talent, you get to see some of the young up and coming talent in the state. The meet is run well for the most part but there are a couple changes that should be brought up in the future:
1. HEAT WINNERS SHOULD NOT AUTOMATICALLY ADVANCE. Top eight or nine times should go to finals. It grinds my gears to see a kid that runs a slower time get rewarded to go to finals over a kid that runs faster but gets beat in a faster heat. It was a lot of sad kids this weekend because of that. Let’s get rid of that old hand time era rule.
2. It should never be a heat of two kids when there is more than one heat of a particular event. All this weekend, there were heats with only two or three kids in it. Part of that reason is on the coaches but the heats need to be combined when there are only a few kids in the heat. That would save mounds of time.
3. Heat sheets should be posted online or printed out for coaches to have. It makes it hard on a coach when a kid asks before the race what lane he/she is in and you can’t tell them.
Other than that it was a great meet with a number of records broken. Some great performances were:
8&under-
Girls
-Jayla Hunt (Zephyrs TC) just missed the record in the 100m dash by .4 of a second running 15.77. She also won the 200 (33.57) and 400 (1:16.76)
Boys
Miles Miskel (Aurora Flyers) destroyed a 20-year old record in the 100m dash by .4 running 14.49. He broke the 200m record by almost a second running 30.43. That record stood for 13 years.
9-10 division-
Boys
Emmett Mosley (Flippin Flyers) had a big day winning the 100m (13.33), 200m (28.06) and long jump (4.57m a record).
11-12 Division-
Girls
Maya Harrell (Zephyrs TC) enjoyed a superb afternoon winning the 100m (13.24), 200m (27.07), and 400m (1:02.09).
Rikaya Lawrence (Angelic Flyers) won the 80H (15.66)
13-14 division-
Girls
Dajour Miles (Aurora Flyers) won the 100m (12.35) and the 200m (24.85) breaking the great Aaliyah Brown's six year old record in the latter event.
Grace Daun (Inverness TC) broke a 12 year record in the high jump (1.64m).
15-16 division-
Girls
Skyler Bollinger (unattached/Yorkville HS) broke a seven year old record in the 2000m steeplechase running 7:27.12. That time beat the record by 12 seconds!
Ololade Ayoola (Aurora Flyers/Lincoln-Way East HS) won the 100 (12.27), 200 (25.10), 400 (57.98) and high jump (1.65m)
Boys
Josh Eiker (unattached/Galesburg HS) had a monster day winning the 100m (10.67) and setting a new record in the 200m (21.36). Eiker is an emerging star ready to bust out on the national scene. Editor's note: Illinois has not had a male sprint superstar in the national conscious since the days of Anthony Moorman of Lake Park. Could Eiker be that guy?
17-18 division-
Emma Spagnola (Trackmyspeed/West Aurora HS) won the 100 (11.88), 100h (13.85 a new record), the 400h (1:03.70) and got 2nd in the long jump (5.41)
Boys
Joshua Collins (Southwest/Bolingbrook HS) won the 100 (10.79) and the 200 (21.96)
Matthew Anyiwo (Max Quo/Homewood-Flossmoor) won the 400 (48.86), 800 (2:00.11) and also took gold in the 4x800 relay
Aside from individual performances, some teams really stood out:
The Legacy runners boasted some of the top sprinters in the state. Briyahna Desrosiers, Ryan Preacely, Terry McGee, and Imani Payton. They had 1st place finishes in the 4x100 on the male and female side in the 17-18 division.
Zephyrs Track Club and Aurora Flyers Track Club are very strong from top to bottom. They most likely had the most regional qualifiers out of all the teams.
The meet was a great one, breaking many records and posting fast times. In a couple weeks, Illinois will look to dominate Indiana in the state vs. state battle to determine who goes to nationals. The top five finishers in each event will qualify for the national meet in Houston, Texas at the end of July.
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The off-season is also a time for post-season awards. Gatorade presented its state winners recently. Congrats to Evanston graduate Parker English for winning the girls award. Cahokia super sophomore Ja'mari Ward is the boys honoree. Both athletes displayed tremendous ability on the field of battle and great personal character off of it.