2023 LIC Championship Recap

Something a lot of folks don’t know about track & field at the high school level (and that took years for me to figure out after becoming a track coach) is just how wildly different one meet can be from the next, and how the makeup of a team can drastically impact their potential to place as a group in the final standings at these different meets. A great illustration of this can be found in comparing our 2019 squad to this year’s. That 2019 group was DEEP, with good to great athletes in every facet of track & field. We won every invite we attended that year aside from Charleston (at that time, the schedule included invites at Olney, Robinson, Newton F/S, and Newton) . We finished that run by racking up an unbelievable 176 points at Conference, nearly doubling the point total of the 2nd place team, and scoring 2 guys in almost every event. But when we got to the 2A Sectional at Monticello, we ran into a buzzsaw. We had a few guys who had the potential to qualify for state, but even they were going to have to have a career day or something beyond to get through. In the end, we didn’t have any individual place higher than 4th, and only one Tiger qualified: Braden Nicholson in the 3200m. Braden would go on to be all-state, with an amazing 3rd place finish at EIU the next week (He remains the highest placing Olney Tiger at State since we moved to 2A in 2011).

I’ve known for a while that our 2023 team was built to be great, but in a different way from that 2019 group. With the utmost respect to that crew (one that is always going to have special place in my coaching career), this team possesses what I would deem as ELITE level track talent that the 2019 group did not have, nor has any group that I’ve ever coached. In fact, you’re going to have to go back a long way to find a group that has. I can’t debate and won’t get into comparisons with the talent this school had in the 60s, 70s, or 80s, but there’s no doubt you’d have to go back DECADES to find a team with the depth of top-shelf ability that I believe this one has. We are currently ranked in the top 6 in the STATE in 4 different events (3 different athletes), in the top 15 in two more, and are close in 3 other events. This group has also seen 2 school records go down, with 3-5 more being threatened. That points to enormous opportunities at the Mattoon Sectional in two weeks (and beyond). BUT… this team is not built with the same depth as that 2019 crew, who were incredible in their own way. That’s how a team like ours can finish 4th at the 40 team EIU Indoor and 7th at the 60 team Gene Armer meet, but come in 3rd at the Olney and Newton Invites. This is over-generalizing, but smaller meets are tougher in some ways for this group than bigger ones.

Which brings us to Wednesday Night’s LIC Conference Championship. Despite outpacing Newton at places like EIU, Gene Armer, and Edwardsville (Outdoors), I’ve known ever since the Olney Invite (where they outscored us by 50 points) that getting them at Conference was going to be a battle. We were shorthanded at Olney and had several mishaps (dropped batons, hurdle crashes, etc.), but Newton showed again at their own invite how good they were, just barely getting edged out by St. Teresa (the #1 team in the state) and beating us by 10 points (when you take out the F/S relays). Both the Olney and Newton Invites were closer to conference in terms of the size of the teams and number of schools. And when I ran my simulations for the LIC meet, things were extremely close, breaking for either Newton or us by less than 10 points. For perspective, anything inside 10 points is basically the equivalent of a 1 point basketball game (by the way, 3 of the last 4 conference championships coming in were decided by 7 or fewer points). I knew it was gonna be close, and especially because of our health status coming in, it really felt like we were walking a tight rope without a safety net. But in the end, we wound up sharing our 4th conference championship in 5 years with our friends from 20 minutes up the road, the Newton Eagles. It was an amazing night.

Our Big Guns Deliver

We came into Wednesday seeded #1 in 8 of the 18 events. Out of those 8, we brought home 6 Conference Champions. The two that fell short (Ayden Cothern in the 200 and Holden Hough in the 3200), we could absolutely live with for a few reasons: both guys were loading up on more events than they have all year, both managed 2nd place finishes in the events they didn’t win, and we got two surprise wins in other events. All in all though, our studs took care of business.

Hough Doubles Up, Conference Champ in the 1600

Difficult to imagine a tougher ask of a kid than competitively running in both the 3200 and 1600 in the same meet. But the excellence and competitiveness of Holden Hough coupled with our lack of depth and experience in the distance events meant that’s exactly what we needed from him. Holden was seeded first in both events, but there were runners capable of pushing him in both races, and he was going to have to run smart, particularly in the 3200 if he wanted to be able to bounce back in time for the mile.

Holden suffered a setback in the first half of the double, electing to hang with Austin Wesley of Robinson and let him set the pace. When the two decided to kick with about a lap to go, Wesley had enough gas in the tank and a bit too much foot speed for Holden to put him way. Holden was upset and frustrated following the race, and bouncing back from something like that can be tough for a distance runner, but he knew we needed him. Going into the 1600m, we trailed Newton by 4 points… Holden put the 3200 behind him and took care of business in the 1600, running just 3 seconds off his personal best despite all the effort expended earlier in the meet. And he wasn’t done yet… we were going to need him later in the 4x4 if we wanted to have any shot at hanging on.

Ayden Cothern Repeats as the LIC’s Fastest Man, All-Conference in the 200m

Ayden Cothern came into Conference ranked #5 in the state in the 100m on the strength of a record-breaking 10.83 at Mascoutah back on 4/14. The past few weeks have been tougher, with sub-par weather and some knee tendonitis. Ayden started his rebound last week at Newton with an 11.15 into a slight headwind and not much competition. This week, though, the conditions were right, and a friendly rival returned. Parker Wolf, Newton’s own all-state sprinter, has been out the past few weeks with a hamstring, preventing a rematch of Ayden’s win at the Olney Invite back in early April. Ayden and Parker duked it out all last season, trading victories back and forth almost every week, ending with a conference battle that resulted in Ayden edging out Parker 11.35 to 11.36 - .01 of a second. Ayden won their first meeting this year pretty handily, but every race is a new race, and these guys have built their careers off competing against and pushing one another.

When the gun fired, though, Ayden left little doubt, pulling away from the field pretty quickly, and stamping his 2nd straight conference championship with a 10.89 (Parker finished 2nd at 11.14). Some additional perspective on Ayden’s race from Wednesday, which I think was a significant one. His 10.89 solidified his standing as one of the fastest kids in the state by building on the 10.83 he ran a few weeks ago. Breaking 10.9 (FAT) twice shows his performance from a few weeks ago was no fluke… one could claim a favorable wind at Mascoutah, but Wednesday evening there was nothing of the sort. Also, instead of chasing after the fastest kid in Illinois (Nathan Hippard of Mascoutah at 10.61), Ayden led the field by a quarter of a second. It was also 15 degrees cooler Wednesday night than it was at Mascoutah - good for distance runners but not necessarily sprinters. And just in case anyone had any doubts about that school record-breaking performance at Mascoutah, that 10.89 would have been good for the record as well. Lastly, this race was just another example of just how much Ayden has improved in the 100m from a year ago. Parker Wolf hasn’t gotten slower, he’s gotten faster (two tenths faster at this year’s conference meet than last), and Ayden still managed to pull away (Parker would go on to show his own greatness in the 200 & 400 later in the meet, winning with times of 22.71 & 51.99 respectively.)

Ayden was disappointed in his All-Conference run in the 200m, because he’s a competitor and he holds himself to a high standard. He knew we needed every point, and at that stage in the meet, there weren’t many races left (in fact, just one race remained - the 4x4). But Ayden made massive improvement from his 200m at Newton, his first 4 event performance in weeks. He dropped from a 23.5 to a 23.05. That makes him #2 for us since 2010, trailing only Gus Lathrop (2015). Nothing to be ashamed of at all!

*Historical note: Ayden’s 2nd LIC title is the 7th time in 10 years that the LIC’s fastest man has been from Olney (Gavin Dorn’s senior year was lost due to a broken ankle in the COVID football season of 2021, or it undoubtedly would have been 8). Ayden is preceded by himself (2022), Jace Greenwood (2019), Gavin Dorn (2018), Gus Lathrop (2015 & 2014), and Dirk Washburn (2013).

Hallam Repeats in the LJ, Adds the Triple to his Toolbelt

Another Tiger with a chance at repeating was Rex Hallam, who impressively won the Long Jump as a freshman at last year’s Conference Championship. Rex came into this year’s meet the clear favorite, with Richards of Casey being the next closest man, his best jump being over a foot less than Rex’s. But like several of our other guys, Rex came in battling injury with a foot/ankle issue that has been bothering him for over a week. To throw another curve in there, jumpers were told at the last minute they would only be able to jump from the board closest to the pit (why, I still don’t know). Rex of course had measured his steps from the board further from the pit, which meant he would spend the entire competition pretty much guessing on his steps. Not a good place to be.

Rex failed to clear 21 feet for the first time in a month, but his best on a not great day was still good enough to get the win. His 20’11 was two inches better than Richards & Sisson of Mt. Carmel, the next closest competitors. To be half a foot off his next worst jump from the past month and still have enough to go home with a Conference Championship shows just how dominant Rex is... He is currently seeded #1 at the Mattoon Sectional by almost 6 inches, and sits at #6 in Class 2A.

Up until this point in the season, this is the point where we’d be done describing Rex’s jumping exploits at a meet. But, probably unbeknownst to a lot of folks, we’ve been trying to work Rex into the Triple Jump dating all the way back to April 6th at the Olney Invite. But either lack of preparation due to weather, bad weather at the meet itself, or injury have prevented him from making his first appearance. With Conference on the line, though, Rex was determined that nothing was going to get in the way this time, no matter what.

We knew from jumps at practice that Rex was probably capable of clearing at least 41’, which based on past performances of opponents would probably good enough to get the win - although nothing is guaranteed… Noah Gilmore, the indoor state champion in the High Jump, also Triple Jumps and has come pretty close on several occasions, and with Rex’s ankle, his Coach was nervous about him even attempting it. That first attempt finally game, though, and it was a doozy: 43’1.5. With his first ever competitive attempt in the triple jump, Rex sealed a 2nd conference championship for himself, immediately made himself #1 all-time for me (since 2010) by almost 2 feet, and vaulted himself to #6 in the state (again). I only let him jump once more (his ankle was already causing some discomfort) and then we decided it was best for him to shut it down. He would need all of those 43’, though… Gilmore would go on to jump 42’4.5, his personal best.

Gavyn Cothern Shocks the LIC in the HJ

(Pictures of Gavyn Courtesy of Dave Rohr)

Previously mentioned Noah Gilmore of Robinson was the clear High Jump favorite coming into the LIC Championship. The Junior has had an incredible season thus far, winning Indoor State, and so far outdoors he’s broken his school record with a jump of 6’9, clearing 6’8 on two other occasions. He’s currently ranked #2 in 1A. But HJ can be unpredictable, probably as much as any other event in Track & Field. And that unpredictability showed up big time on Wednesday. For starters, Gilmore failed to clear 6’6, something he’s only done once this season, all the way back on March 30th. The other big surprise was our super-talented freshman, Gavyn Cothern. Gavyn has been threatening big things for weeks, ever since coming back from a broken wrist two weeks ago: He cleared 6’2.75 at Edwardsville, then followed that up with another jump of 6’2 last week at Newton. Despite not clearing 6’4, virtually everyone watching saw that he clearly had the height, he just clipped it on his way down.

Wednesday night, it all came together for Gavyn, who is one of the most competitive kids I have ever had the pleasure of coaching. Not only did he clear 6’4, he went on to clear 6’6 (Dave’s pictures are of Gavyn attempting 6’8!!!), sending him into a tie-breaker with Drew Rodgers of Paris, who also PR’d at 6’6. Unfortunately for him, Gavyn also has a knack for winning tie-breakers this season - he’s done so in each of the last 3 meets (it’s not just luck, btw, ties are broken by the fewest number of misses - Gavyn is an efficient jumper). Gavyn made himself the 2nd “Flying Tiger” this meet to seemingly come out of nowhere (following Rex in the TJ) and announce himself as a state-level competitor. That 6’6 jump is currently good for #2 in 2A. It also makes him the 2nd best jumper in my tenure, following only Blaine Storer at 6’7 (2013), and within less than an inch of the LIC record.

Side note: the HJ at next year’s LIC Championship should be one of the premier showcases in the state. Gilmore will be back for a senior campaign, Rodgers will be a junior, and Gavyn will be just a sophomore.

Saul Jones Reclaims 110 Hurdle Title

Saul Jones was the LIC Champion in the 110 High Hurdles as a sophomore back in the COVID-impacted 2021 season. While he sat out last season, former teammate Chase Travis picked up the torch and swept the hurdle events. His return, which began indoors this February, hasn’t been without a few ups and downs, but for the most part it’s consisted of a methodical march back to form. The past few weeks, though, Saul’s improvement has accelerated, with drops in time of a quarter second or more every week for the past 3 weeks. Last week he crossed the threshold, finally eclipsing his best as a Sophomore and cracking 16 seconds on FAT for the first time ever. Wednesday he came in seeded 1st by almost 3 tenths of a second, but when the gun fired it was clear he came ready to do more than just take care of business. He kept his recent streak of incredible improvement alive, dropping over 3 tenths of a second from his previous best (again, that’s a ton of time in a race this short). That made him Conference Champ convincingly, but his new best also firmly positions him in some new territory. Saul’s 15.62 makes him #1 for us since 2010 (edging him ahead of Tate Nohren [2015] & Peyton Blanton [2019]), #1 in the Mattoon Sectional, and gets him within the top 20 of Class 2A (as of this writing).

After Saul’s gutsy performance last week (he filled in on the 4x2 for us, and then came back within just a few minutes to run a personal best in the 300m hurdles), I was pretty excited about what he could do in that race this week without the 4x2 to drag him down. He also had some pretty great competition waiting for him: Kyden Boyer of Marshall. Kyden and Chase Travis battled it out for the Conference Title last spring, with Chase just barely edging him out at the end. Kyden came in this year ranking in the Top 10 in 1A, seeded almost a full second ahead of Saul. Kyden and Saul both ran clean races, and it was fun to watch. Both athletes wound up dropping a ton of time (Kyden almost a second, Saul a second and a half), and ran away from the rest of the field. Boyer ran a great race to win the title, and his 40.83 currently sits at #6 in 1A. Saul’s 41.27 is only .04 from overtaking Chase Travis for #1 since 2010 for us. It’s also currently good for #1 in the Mattoon Sectional and #14 in 2A.

4x1 Makes Some More History, 4x2 Runs Clean and Dominates

We knew going in that if we could stay healthy and execute, our two sprint relays should win going away. We came in seeded over a second faster than the rest of the field in the 4x1, and 2 seconds faster in the 4x2. But with most of our top 4 spending at least some time in the Trainer’s room over the past week and moving Dawson Brown to the 400 for points, I was anxious going into both sprint relays. Thankfully we stayed relatively healthy, and our guys ran clean races.

We’ve settled at this point on the 4x1 group of Pianfetti, Gavyn Cothern, Hallam, and Ayden Cothern, and we’ve had 3 straight weeks of great baton work. Those 4 ran a school record 43.13 last week at Newton, knocking off the 2nd best 4x1 in Class A, and I have no doubt they can be our first group to ever break the 43 second barrier on the right day. Currently, they are ranked in the Top 15 in Class 2A. The Conference meet was all about taking care of business for these guys: Essentially, get the baton around the track, and we win 10 points. Impressively, not only did our guys take care of business, but we ran a time (43.60) that broke the LIC meet record (set by our 2013 group), was faster than the IHSA Qualifying Standard, and would have broken the old school record again - all without really being pushed (we finished close to a second and a half ahead of 2nd place Newton).

Our 4x2 also came in heavy favorites. We subbed Brody Runyon in for Dawson Brown on the first leg to hopefully pick up a few valuable points in the 400m, but I had every confidence he would run great and that we could execute. My big challenge to the guys was to give Ayden as much of a lead as possible so he could cruise to the finish and save some juice for the 200. Rex was especially gung ho about dominating the 3rd leg as much as he could to give Ayden breathing room. The fellas did their job, and even with Ayden taking it extremely easy on the anchor leg (calling it “cruising” might even be a stretch), we turned in a 1:35.75 and finished a full 2 seconds ahead of 2nd place Mt. Carmel.

The 4x2 really put on display the unique mentality at a Conference meet… scoring as many points as we could didn’t always line up with breaking records, etc. But going forward, the 4x2 is going to be a huge focal point for us, starting at the Charleston Invite. That’ll be our last chance to get a good look at where we are going into a tough Sectional.

The GUTS Crew Sells Out for a Title

After winning a conference title as freshmen, then sitting out 2020 and being denied by just two points in 2021, last year’s seniors were dead set on doing whatever it took to win a another last year. Brooks Julian alone lined up in the 4x8 and 800, knowing that it would likely cost him an individual championship in the 1600m (he finished 2nd), and then topped it off with an anchor leg in the 4x4. That kind of mentality is infectious, and this year’s crew had every intention of keeping the tradition going. We had guys maxing out in 4 events for the first time, bumping up a distance, and giving up individual opportunities for the good of the team. Essentially, we’re talking about setting aside personal preference and ego to be a part of something bigger than yourself.

We had a ton of guys sell out for the team at Paris, but one in particular stood out: Senior Captain Dawson Brown. Dawson has been the leadoff for our 4x2 all season long. Despite being a member of that team last year, he knew coming in that he was going to fight like crazy to hang on to his spot with so much speed joining the program. But that’s exactly what he’s done, and he’s been a tremendous leadoff man all season. Having said all that, we had an opportunity to pick up a few more points with him in the 400 (the race right after the 4x2) and still win the relay. Knowing he was a lock to be a Conference Champion as part of the 4x2, and knowing his efforts in the 400 wouldn’t guarantee us anything at the team level, he still said without hesitating “whatever the team needs, Coach”… No hesitation, but I could tell it wasn’t easy for him. He wanted that medal, but he put the team first.

Dawson was an obvious example, but our “GUTS” Crew was a big one:

• Ian Pianfetti - 4 Events, 3 of them Individual

• Ayden Cothern - 4 Running Events

• Rex Hallam - 4 Events for the first time this year

• Holden Hough - Doubled in the 3200 & 1600, then ran a killer leg in the 4x4

• Saul Jones & Caleb Rudolphi - Ran fantastic legs in the 4x4 on short rest following the 300 hurdles.

• 4x8 “Sprint Crew” - Brayden Beard, Isaac Zwilling, & Ryan Kirby, all sprinters, ran legs on our 4x8 so we could score! And they ran great, too.

Exceeding Expectations

As I always do (with a lot more ease now that everyone is using Athletic.Net), I ran simulations on the LIC meet. Depending on how I ran them, the final score came out within 10 points one way or the other - extremely close in a track meet. In the course of doing so, I pinpointed some pivotal events and what our guys needed to accomplish in those events. Essentially none of the ones I highlighted involved our guys that came in expected to win - it was sort of a given that we needed them to do their job. This was about our guys that could edge out a few more points here or there… they would be the difference makers. I sent that list out to our kids going into the meet. Those guys knew who they were and so did their teammates. In the end, their best is all a guy can give, and no one event or performance was going to make or break us, but I wanted them to be aware of what their efforts meant.

The guys were also aware that we pretty much had no safety net. If anyone fell short of what we needed, someone else was going to have to pick us up. Inevitably, we did have some guys that fell short (in some instances because an opponent overachieved), but for every guy that did, someone else carried us In fact, I counted 8 athletes or relays that exceeded our expectations. And we needed every single one of them:

• Dawson Brown finishing 4th in the 400 (we had him projected for 5th). He set a PR along the way.

• Our 4x8 “sprint crew”. They needed to beat Paris to be able to score (which is what we asked them to do). They went out and beat Mt. Carmel, too, and finished 4th.

• Zach Wease has shown some huge promise in the throws, but as a senior this was his first year doing it for us, which has predictably led to some ups and downs. We had him down to just barely get into the scoring column. But he came up with a huge PR in the disc - 127’ is our furthest throw since 2016 - finishing 3rd… and came in 4th in the shot. Maddox Dorn came up big and scored in both as well. 13 points is the most we’ve gotten from the throwing events in a while.

• Hudson Lathrop, who we frankly wrote off at PV coming into the year, keeps defying the odds. He placed 3rd and set a new PR of 11’6 (#5 for us since 2010). We had him projected at 4th.

• The aforementioned Conference Champs in the HJ and TJ. I had Gavyn down for 3rd in the HJ and he shocked everyone in attendance with the win. Rex went 43’ in his first ever TJ attempt. I was hoping for 41’!

• Our 4x4… see the next section.

The Finish

We knew things were going to be close, but after the mile and the 200m, things were even tighter than expected. We went into the 4x4 up by just two points. Obviously, the ultimate goal would be to win outright, but based on what we knew coming in, our best hope was to hang on for a share of the title. For that, we were going to have to compete our tails off, and probably hope for a little bit of help. We knew Newton was probably going to be too strong for us to catch, so we had to make sure that we finished no worse than one spot behind them. Casey came in seeded first, so we needed them to do their thing and win, and we needed to finish 3rd. Doing so would likely mean us having to turn in our best time of the season with 4 guys in the lineup who had already given their all leading up to that. Brown had swapped out the 4x2 for all-out effort in the 400, Hough had doubled up in the 1600 and 3200, and Rudolphi and Jones had just fought like crazy in 300m hurdles.

I spent the leadup to the race thinking about how proud I was of the whole team regardless of how things played out, but in particular these 4 guys… they knew the score going in, and they knew what they had to do was going to be tough, but I saw nothing but determination on their faces. They’d sold out all night; this was just the closing statement. What resulted was something I could only describe as “reckless abandon”. Our 4 guys ran like mad men, as if their lives depended on it. Saul Jones had previously turned in splits of around 53 seconds, but our other 3 legs had averaged somewhere between 55 and 57 second splits. On this night, though, we averaged splits of around 54 seconds for the entire group (unfortunately their head coach was too wrapped up in the race and lost the presence of mind to get splits). Our time of 3:37 was a full 10 seconds faster than our previous best this season… the best 4x4 we’ve had since 2013, and within 1 second of the fastest 4x4 we’ve had since 2010. Most important of all, it earned us a 3rd place finish and a share of the LIC Championship with Newton. I went into the race thinking I couldn’t be prouder, but these guys proved me wrong again.

Medalists & Scorers

As stated above, a track meet cannot be won on championship performances alone. It takes an enormous team effort. We were fortunate to come home with 8 individual Conference Champions, but we also scored in all but one of the 18 events, and we scored twice in 8 of the 14 non-relay events (by rule you can only score one relay at invites). We’ve already discussed our Champions and all-conference performers above (Ayden Cothern, Jones, and Hough all earned 2nd place/all-conference honors in their second individual event). So below are our medalists (3rd place finishers) and our remaining scorers. Simply put, without these guys, we don’t share in the conference title.

Medalists (3rd Place Finishers)

• 4x400m Relay (Brown, Hough, Rudolphi, Jones)

• Zach Wease - Discus

• Hudson Lathrop - PV

Scorers

• Ian Pianfetti - 100m (5th) & 200m (4th)

• Zach Wease - 400m (6th) & Shot (4th)

• Dawson Brown - 400m

• Caleb Rudolphi - 110HH (5th) & 300m Hurdles (4th)

• 4x800 (Cooley, Zwilling, Beard, Kirby) (4th)

• Maddox Dorn - Shot (6th) & Disc (5th)

• Brody Runyon - Triple Jump (4th)

Other Notes

• Going into 2018, Olney had not won a conference championship since the mid 80s (so just over 30 years). In the time since, we’ve now won or shared in the title 4 out of 5 years, with only 2 points in the crazy COVID season of 2021 preventing this from being our 5th straight. All of them have been amazing and this one was no exception.

• For the record, I am not in the least bit disappointed about sharing the title. It took a monumental effort by our kids to make it happen. We asked them to give everything they could, and that’s exactly what they did. In addition, the Olney and Newton programs are extremely tight. Many of our kids are friends, go to church together, etc. I consider Coach Short of Newton one of my very good friends. He has been an tremendous mentor for me over the years, and has worked with our athletes on several occasions. He cares about kids above all else, and appreciates our success as much as we do theirs. The chances of a tie are so minute… this was special.

• I’m no mathematician, but I would love to hear what the odds are of a tie in a meet where 557 total points and 8 teams were involved. Has to be slim.

• Following the huge performances we had on Wednesday, we have guys ranked in the top 15 of Class 2A, with a couple more knocking on the door. We also have a slew of Tigers ranked at or near the very top of their event going into the Mattoon Sectional Next Week (more on that to come).

• We’re in a bit of a weird spot in our schedule, the lull between Conference and sectionals. After years without any kind of substantial competition over these two weeks, I’m extremely thankful to have the Charleston Invite for our guys to compete at. It’s a fantastic meet with great 2A competition, and our last chance to improve seed times going into Sectionals.

• After a weather cancellation of Monday’s Fairfield Invite, some of our younger guys are now done for the season. We've had a fantastic group top to bottom this year. More on these guys to come.

• Full Results from the LIC Conference Meet

• Full Gallery from the LIC Conference Meet