CHARLESTON – East St. Louis qualified four individuals and two relay teams into the finals, while Civic Memorial’s 4×800 meter relay team went through, as did Triad’s 4×100 meter relay team and Roxana’s Ashton Noble qualified in the discus throw in the preliminaries of the IHSA Class 2A boys track meet Friday afternoon at O’Brien Stadium at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston.
In the 100 meters, the leading qualifier was Keegan Fogerty of Princeton, who had a time of 10.83 seconds, with the Flyers’ Kenneth Buchanon right behind in second at 10.85 seconds and teammate Malachi Wren coming in 11th at 11.09 seconds, just missing out on qualifying. In the 200 meters, the top qualifier was Jayon Morrow of Kankakee, who came in at 21.85 seconds, with Buchanon just missing out on qualifying with a 10th place time of 22.14 seconds and Wren coming in 15th at 22.82 seconds. Morrow also led qualifying in the 400 meters at 48.58 seconds, with East Side’s Timothy Cross coming in 12th at 50.51 seconds, failing to qualify.
In the 800 meters, Garrett Slack of Lincoln led the way in qualifying with a time of 1:54.82, with Aslan Henderson of the Eagles coming in 19th at 2:05.23 and Darrus Ivy of the Flyers was 21st at 2:07.19, both missing out on qualifying. Wilson Georges of Bartonville Limestone was the leader in the 1,600 meters at 4:20.24, with Justice Eldridge of CM just missing out on the finals, coming in 13th with a time of 4:32.01 and teammate Jackson Collman came in 17th at 4:38.45.
In the hurdles races, DeWayne Johnson of Pontiac led the way in the 110 meters, coming in at 14.60 seconds, Demarlynn Taylor of East Side going through at 14.86 seconds. Matthew Marcum of Rock Falls led the qualifying in the 300 meters with a time of 39.73 seconds, with Taylor right behind in second at 39.74 seconds. Triad’s Chase Harmon was 15th at 42.45 seconds, missing out on the final.
In the relay races, the leading qualifier in the 4×100 meters was Kankakee at 42.26 seconds, with the Knights going through at 42.44 seconds, as did the Flyers at 42.57 seconds. Kankakee also led the 4×200 meter qualifiers with a time of 1:28.79, with East Side going through at 1:29.45 and Triad just missing out on the final with a 10th place time of 1:29.99. Richmond-Burton led the 4×400 meter qualifying with a time of 3:22.96, while the Knights came in 16th at 3:33.92. Chicago Payton led the way in the 4×800 meters, coming in at 8:05.07, while the Eagles qualified with a time of 8:09.80.
In the field events, JehChys Brown of Centralia led the way in the shot put qualifying, having a throw of 17.59 meters, while East Side’s Samuel McClain, Jr. fouled out. In the discus throw, David Russell of Chillicothe Illinois Valley Central was the leading qualifier with a toss of 50.68 meters, with Noble going throw with a throw of 50.03 meters and East Side’s Andrew Bownes also qualifying with a toss of 46.03 meters. In the high jump, Paris’ Drew Rogers led a seven-way tie for first, all going over at 1.88 meters to qualify, while Curtis Bownes of the Flyers had no height.
Paul Migas of Lake Villa Lakes led a 10-way tie in the pole vault with a height of 4.10 meters, all 10 going through, while Jacob Morrison led the long jump qualifiers with a distance of 6.95 meters, with Triad’s Juliano Cigliana tied for 14th with Luke Hemmersmeier of Lombard Montini Catholic, both going 6.15 meters but missing out on qualifying. Thomas Hills of East St. Louis was 18th at 5.86 meters, also failing to qualify. Nicholas Deloach of Cahokia led the way in triple jump qualifying, going 13.68 meters to go through, while the Flyers’ Kyle Patterson also qualified with a leap of 12.88 meters. Hills finished in 18th at 11.99 meters. missing out on the final.
The finals in all three classes go off on Saturday.
