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Newms Notes – January 19, 2015
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By Michael Newman
Even though official organized track & field practices will start for all IHSA schools this week, there was a ton of action involving Illinois athletes this past weekend. Some of the performances demonstrate how tough this state will be this 2015 season.
Here is a look at some of the top performances that occurred at those meets this past weekend.
Arkansas HS Invitational - Results
I really do not know what else I can say about Ja’Mari Ward (Cahokia HS). It would all be repetition. The junior participated in his first meet of the 2015 season and showed why he will be one of the elite horizontal jumpers in the nation. He dominated both events this past Saturday.
Ward won the Long Jump with a 23-5 effort. He had four out of five legal jumps in which three of the jumps were over 23 feet. His winning jump was not a technically perfect jump. He was way behind on the board and fell back on his landing. I think if he stuck it perfectly he would have been over 24 feet. Still, his jump is second best currently nationally. To start off the season over 23 feet demonstrates how good he will be this year.
He only had two out of six legal jumps in the Triple Jump. The two that were legal were spectacular. His 49-2.5 jump in the second round won the event. It was his final jump where he soared to 49-9.5 that caught everyone’s eye. That performance is third currently nationally. He won by more than three feet ahead of Texas’ Michael Madu.
Cahokia showed their sprint depth especially in the 1600 Meter Relay. The Comanches had the lead until the final leg until the Memphis Mustangs Club team led by 400 champ Carlton Orange and anchored by 800 Champ Terrell Jackson took the lead and won by over a second. Cahokia’s second place time was 3:21.77. Their “B” team ran 3:28.66. Their “C” team ran 3:29.91. Talk about some amazing sprint depth! Consider that their A team is running 3:21 in the middle of January. The state record for the event could be in their grasp by the time we get to the state meet.
Cassie Mundekis (Midwest Central HS, Manito) showed her talent last June at the Festival of Miles when she ran 2:12 in the 800 at that meet. She opened up her season winning the 800 at this meet running 2:16.25 (US #11, IL #2). She also ran in the prelims in the 400 where she ran 58.95 (IL# 3) to finish 15th. Asia Brown (Lincoln-Way East HS, Frankfort) finished just ahead of Mundekis with a 58.88 time. Brown’s teammate Alexis Pierre-Antoine ran the best time in Illinois so far this year when she ran 9.05 to finish fifth in the finals of the 60 Meter Hurdles.
AAU Northern Indoor Championships – Results
Three days of action at the Rockford Auburn Field House resulted in three wins in the sprints for Brittny Ellis (Warren Township HS, Gurnee). The senior, who is considered one of the top sprinters in the state, was pushed by Anonise Christian (West Side HS, Gary IN). In the 60 Meter Dash, Ellis ran 7.80 to win by thirteen hundredths of a second ahead of Christian. The Warren senior ran 57.98 to finish ahead of Christian by almost a half a second to win the 400 Meter Dash. Ellis completed her triple by winning the 200 Meter Dash ahead of once again Christian (25.33-25.75).
Defending 2A champion Karina Liz (Aurora Central Catholic HS) started off her 2015 season with a fast 800. She ran 2:16.17 (US #10, IL #1) to win the event by more than seven seconds ahead of Ashleigh Wilson (Minooka HS). Julia Junkroski (Lincoln-Way East HS, Frankfort) and Rayce Albino (New Berlin West WI) both cleared 11-6 in the Pole Vault. Junkroski currently has the second best performance in the state.
Reno Pole Vault Summit – Results
Matthew Knipfer (St. Joseph-Ogden HS) shocked some the week before at the Akron Pole Vault Summit. The junior only had a PR of 13-6 at the end of the 2014 season. The shock was at Akron is when he cleared a whopping 15-3. He followed that up this past weekend in Reno when he upped his PR 1 inch to 15-4. He will challenge last year’s IHSA 1A 2nd place finisher Riley Smith (Casey Westfield HS) this May at Charleston. Smith started his season clearing 14-3 to win the event at the Western Indiana Classic.
The one athlete that caught my attention in the results is 2013 1A State Champion Adam Coulon (Tri-Valley HS, Downs). He did not compete in the 2014 season due to personal reasons. The junior started off the season at Reno clearing 14-10. His presence again in the event will make the 1A state meet even more interesting. He does have a personal best of 16-2.
Brooke Catherine (Normal Community HS) rewrote the Illinois Indoor record books in this event Saturday evening in this meet. She tied for 3rd overall. Her clearance of 13-4 is the best ever for an Illinois athlete indoors in the Pole Vault (TFX Chart). Just like we said about Ja’Mari Ward and his Arkansas performances, we should see some great things from Brooke as the season progresses.
Kassadee Ifft (Prairie Central HS, Fairbury) had an 11-8 performance (IL #2). Becky Lovett (Clinton HS), MacKenzie Gallagher (Normal West HS), Nicole Ogorek (Normal Community), and Nicole Bagwell (Unity HS, Tolono) all cleared 11-4 and are currently ranked #5 in the state.
Big River Indoor Series #1 – Results
Kathleen Young (Warrensburg-Latham HS) had a busy weekend. She started out winning the Shot Put at the KYA HS Invitational in Johnston City, TN. Her winning performance was a 44-6 ¼ put. She traveled to the Big River Indoor Series Meet #1 at the University of Missouri on Sunday. The sophomore set a PR with a 46-11 put in the event. She finished second behind Junior Sophia Rivera (Brentwood, MO) who had a put of 49-9 ¼ to win the event (US #1). With Lena Giger graduated and now at Stanford University, we have entered a new era for Girls Weight Events in Illinois in which Young should dominate the next three years regardless of classification.
2014 IHSA 1A State Champion in the High Jump Karissa Roman (Wethersfield HS, Annawan) started off her season by clearing 5-3 ¾ to finish second in the High Jump. Brett Charlton (Eureka HS) dominated the Boys sprints winning the 60 Meter Dash (7.13) and the 200 Meter Dash (23.93).
And finally…
Tuesday starts the beginning of the 2015 track season where IHSA schools can officially start practice. My daughter is running track for the first time this year. The only advice that I could give her is that it is to have patience. It is a long season compared to cross country. I know when I ran track for the first time in high school. My goal my freshman year was just to survive.
It was a plus in my senior year of track & field in 1980 that the IHSA moved back the starting date to February 15 (The following year, it was moved back to January where it has been ever since). I think that move benefitted me the most. I had just come off of a disappointing end of my cross country season where I did not have great performances at the state meet and the national meet.
My junior track season was bizarre. I ran some of my best races indoors. I did not run great outdoors failing to make it to even running in my conference meet or qualifying for state. Though I wanted to make my presence known on the track immediately, I remembered what had happened the year before. I knew I wanted to make it to Charleston running in the state meet. How did I want to get to that goal?
It was pretty simple actually: PATIENCE. I trained through everything indoors. I took my lumps during the indoor meet. I knew I was in better shape than the year before but I was running a few seconds slower. We ran only five indoor meets that year because of the shortened schedule. After my event was over, my best friend in High School Dave Haller and I would run for the rest of the meet. We put in some major miles. But we knew where we wanted to be in May. The day after our indoor conference meet, Dave and I were dropped off by his mom at Fermi Lab in Batavia where she worked. We ran all the way back to Elmhurst. It was a long run that we regretted the next day when Mr. Newton had us running 20 x 400. Even though my legs were crying after that, I knew it would pay off during the outdoor season. It did.
I knew when I started out that year what the plan was. I just had to stick with it. It paid off.
So just remember this. It does not matter where you are at on the TFX leaderboards at the beginning of the year. All of your hard work will pay off when you look and you see your name towards the top of your event when it counts at the end of the year.
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