2024 Indoor Recap
Gavyn Cothern handing off to Ian Winkler during the Wild West that is the indoor 4x2 Relay. Cothern and Winkler, along with Aiden Germak and Reed Klingler, went on to win the Apollo Indoor Invite and land themselves at #3 indoors for us all-time.
Over the past few weeks, Tiger Track and Field has been going through its yearly “slow rollout” phase… Due to the overlap with winter sports, we have quite a few athletes who have only been with us a couple weeks, and yet we’ve already competed in four indoor meets. Add in a handful of dual sport athletes, and you’ve got a recipe for something that’s semi-chaotic every year, but it’s also a really fun time. Our kids who’ve been training all winter (and who weren’t involved in a winter sport) get a chance to finally compete, and there’s always a lot of anticipation about how much those guys have grown and improved since last spring. And then as our winter athletes begin to join the mix - it’s always an interesting (and usually exciting) process to figure out how all the pieces put together.
We’re probably at least a few weeks from figuring out how everything is going to settle into place. Practices and early meets play a huge role in sorting things out, and this group, in particular, is both deep - roughly 30 sprint/jump kids alone - and young. We’ve got some figuring out to do in April, but but we’ve also already seen some historic performances from our athletes, and every kid who’s participated in a meet has done a tremendous job of competing. As we transition from one season to another (indoor to outdoor), here are some highlights from the past month.
Jumps
I’ll start in the area where the most history has been made up to this point, the jumps. After a pretty unprecedented run last season that ended with two young jumpers landing all-state honors (Sophomore Rex Hallam finished 6th in the Long Jump & qualified in the Triple Jump, and Freshman Gavyn Cothern was state runner-up in the High Jump), we were excited about 2024 for obvious reasons… to add to that anticipation, Rex didn’t pick up Triple Jump until late in the year, and Gavyn reminded us during club track this summer that he’s a phenomenal Long Jumper, too.
But as just about anyone who is reading this probably already knows, we unfortunately lost Rex for the season due to an ACL injury during basketball season (get well soon, Rex!). I’m beyond thankful that we’ll be able to run it back with Rex one more time in 2025, but there’s no getting around the impact on this season… a kid like Rex doesn’t come along very often in a place like Olney - there is no replacing an athlete likely to medal in multiple events. Having said all that, our kids’ efforts have been nothing short of phenomenal.
Gavyn Cothern
Gavyn Cothern - LJ @ the Apollo Indoor Invite (MTZ)
Coming into this season I was concerned about Gavyn Cothern’s bar being set too high (no pun intended). State runner-up as a freshman means there’s seemingly only one way to top that feat, and this has been a concern of mine. Gavyn has taken the mantle up as the most competitive athlete I have ever coached… and that can be a double-edged sword. Gavyn and I have discussed this on several occasions, but he’s not making things any easier in that area - so far this season all he’s done is High Jump 6’6 and Long Jump over 22 feet (along with Rex, just our 2nd LJ to cross 22’ in the past 30ish years), both good for #4 in Class 2A going into the Indoor Top Times Meet and Indoor School Records for our program.
Ian Winkler
Ian Winkler - LJ @ the Apollo Indoor Invite (MTZ)
I’ve noted on several occasions how glad I was to finally have Ian Winkler join our program last spring. He jumped out immediately during testing his sophomore year - something about the way he jumps is different than literally any other athlete I’ve ever worked with. He just “floats”, and I’m not the only one who I’ve heard say that. Ian put out some very solid numbers during his first season - 5’10 in the HJ and 40’11 in the Triple - but I felt pretty strongly after a tremendous summer and fall that he was poised to break out this spring. In the weeks since Wink finished up an incredible senior campaign on the basketball court, Ian has blown up: he’s become just the 5th Tiger to hit 23mph, the 3rd Tiger to hit 70cm in vertical leap, and only the 2nd Tiger since the 90s to hit 43ft in the Triple Jump (Rex Hallam hit 43 last season). Wink’s effort in the Triple at MTZ is good for #8 in Class 2A, and a school record indoors. Along with Gavyn, he’ll be headed to Illinois Top Times meet this weekend. (Btw, in his only indoor meet so far this season, he also jumped 20’3.25” in the Long Jump, making him #3 all-time indoors for us, behind only Cothern & Hallam.)
Youngsters/Rookies/etc. in the Jumps
Freshman Gavin Root after winning the MTZ Mini Meet in the HJ. Gavin’s jump of 5’10” is good for #4 indoors all-time for RCHS and makes him the #4 Freshman in the state.
With all the unprecedented state-level excellence we’ve had over the past couple seasons, it might be easy to look past the fact that we have some new/young guys do some really great things - but we shouldn’t. As freshmen, Gavin Root and Aiden Germak have both turned in fantastic performances. Gavin hit 5’10 in the High Jump early on in the indoor season at Mt. Zion and Aiden Long Jumped 18’10 at EIU. Both are top 5 performances indoor for us and both currently sit at #2 on the freshman record board behind Gavyn Cothern. Gavin is also Top 5 in Class 2A amongst freshmen!
Ryan Kirby, who has grown significantly in terms of explosiveness and athleticism over the winter, took on Triple Jump for the first time this indoor season as well, and he’s already putting up very nice numbers (over 38’). “Ryno” currently sits at #4 on indoors for us, and is our first sophomore to ever attempt the Triple Jump before outdoor season.
Throws
Casey Thomann
Casey Thomann - Shot Put @ the Gene Armer Invite (U of I)
After an injury-shortened season in 2023, the wait is finally over to see what our former Middle School State-Champion in the shot has in store for us. With only a few weeks under his belt, big Casey Thomann has already gotten to work. Casey crossed the 45 foot barrier at the MTZ indoor invite, and then improved on that the following week at U of I. Those throws are a full 3 feet further than what he threw last season before he was shut down with a shoulder injury. Casey is #1 indoors for us all-time in the shot put, the #4 sophomore in Class 2A, he sits at #3 all-conditions (indoor or out) for us since 2010. He’s the first Tiger to hit 45 feet since state-qualifier Derek Deimel in 2016. Excited to see where the big fella goes from here (and to find out what he can do in the disc ring).
McKinley & Schrader
We’ve got a couple other cats who haven’t seen a ton of action in the throws yet… there’s no discus indoors and several of the meets we’ve attended have only allowed one entry in the shot. But we’re definitely looking forward to seeing what guys like Jashaun McKinley and Zander Schrader do now that we’re headed outside.
Sprints
We knew coming in we were going to have some school record-sized shoes to fill with the graduation of the fastest man in the history of Tiger Track (Ayden Cothern). You can’t just replace a guy who finished 3rd in the state in the 60m and has his name on the record board in 3 different places. But we also knew we had a lot of talent returning, and I’ve been very excited to see how guys perform after a year of growing and putting in some tremendous training. We’ve also added some very talented freshmen to the mix. They have not disappointed.
Ian Pianfetti
Ian Pianfetti - 200m @ the Gene Armer Invite (hosted at University of Illinois)
This conversation has to start with Ian Pianfetti, who firmly established himself last spring as the fastest freshman I have ever coached (his 7.55 60m and 11.57 FAT 100m are both freshman records since 2010). The talent wasn’t in question with Ian. What we had to wait to find out was whether he was going to take the next step… What I can easily state at the conclusion of indoor season is that Ian has not just taken a step, but a leap. In his first 60m in late February, he turned in a 7.34 - tying Ayden Cothern’s best effort from his junior season. But the big shocker came the next week when he ran a 7.19 (which he bettered with a 7.18 at U of I two weeks later). Those two times firmly put him at #2 in the 60m for us all time (trailing only Ayden Cothern). He’s also now #4 for us in the 200 indoors… Ayden set the bar ridiculously high (his best of 6.97 is FAST), but as the fastest sophomore in Class 2A (!), Ian should be setting his sights on big things. And btw, Ian’s progression has exceeded expectations, but it isn’t really surprising - the kid has simply put in the work for the past 9 months. Extremely proud of him.
Isaac Zwilling & Jashaun McKinley
A couple other guys who’ve jumped out and had a strong indoor season are Isaac Zwilling and Jashaun McKinley. They’ve gotten limited opportunities (entry limits are often very strict at indoor meets), but they’ve made the most of them. Isaac has shown some fantastic improvement in the 60 from last year, dropping 2 tenths of a second, and Jashaun managed to land himself at #9 on our all-time list in the 60 despite the fact that he’s never run it before this year (Jashaun has predominantly been a thrower for us in the past). Isaac has also shown some serious growth in the quarter, turning in a 56.6 split at the Gene Armer Invite.
Relays
The Indoor 4x2 might be the craziest race in all of High School Track and Field, and is about as close as track comes to being a “contact sport”. Brayden Jenner & Isaac Zwilling completing a handoff as part of our B Squad at the Apollo Indoor Invite.
The order of events at several meets and the fact that we had limited availability with some of our guys (finishing up a winter season, being a dual sport spring athlete, etc.) meant we never really got a full varsity group together in any of our relays. It would have been nice to have been able to see what a group consisting of our very fastest guys could have accomplished, but I honestly didn’t mind it. Relays are crazy and unpredictable indoors, and sometimes those races are the best shot to give some other guys a chance to run. This indoor season, the guys that got the opportunity made the most of it. We had two different groups put together top 4 indoor performances (for us) in the 4x200, and at the MTZ indoor invitational, our group of Cothern, Winkler, Germak, and Klingler won the meet with the 3rd best time indoors in School History (notice that group didn’t even include the fastest soph in Class 2A). The next week, a group filled with relatively inexperienced and young guys (Kirby, Kaeden Davis, Hudson Kuhn, and Zwilling) ran the 2nd fastest time we’ve ever turned in indoors in the 4x4.
Youngsters and “Rookies”
Hudson Kuhn - 4x4 Relay @ the 2024 Gene Armer Invitational
As mentioned above, quite a few guys have gotten limited meet time (or none at all)… indoor season can be tough for young guys to break through in, but we’ve got some really talented young guys who have already shown a ton of improvement and/or legitimate ability. The list of young guys who are going to shape into a fantastic group of track athletes is long: Carter Seaman, Hudson Kuhn, Gavin Root, Aiden Germak, Jackson Young, Kaeden Davis, Reed Klingler, Maverik Cordell, AJ Padilla, Reid Brown, Owen Kocher… and the list goes on. These guys are going to be fun to watch over the next 3-4 years.
We’ve also got a really great group of “Rookies” (upper classmen who are out for the first time) and returnees who maybe haven’t broken through yet, but that are showing up and putting in the work every day. Alessandro Ghelfi, Paolo Davi, Kaden Sager, Brayden Jenner, Xavior Zuber, Ruger Stevens, Kadyn Cooley, Christian Weber, and many more have been a joy to work with every day in practice. Seriously looking forward to outdoor season so these guys can get some opportunities to compete. In the meantime, you can check out what they’ve been doing in practice so far this spring on our Practice Rankings Page.
2024 Indoor Meet Results
2024 Apollo+ Indoor Invite @ Mt. Zion - 3.9.24
2024 Gene Armer Invitational @ the U of I Armory - 3.16.24
2024 Indoor Season Galleries
Decided to take another crack at indoor photos this season, which I have discovered is a bit of a fine art (shout out to Justin Hatten for both taking amazing pictures indoors and out of our athletes, and for giving me some great advice this spring). After a couple YouTube tutorials, I had better luck this year indoors than last, but be warned my photography skills are still in a work in progress!
2024 Apollo+ Indoor Invite @ Mt. Zion - 3.9.24
2024 Gene Armer Invitational @ the U of I Armory - 3.16.24
List of 2024 Indoor Accomplishments
Gavyn Cothern
Long Jump - 22’0.5” / #4 in Class 2A / Top Times Qualifier / Indoor School Record / Apollo & Gene Armer Invite Champion
High Jump - 6’6” / #4 in Class 2A / Top Times Qualifier / Indoor School Record / Runner up at EIU Indoor
200m - 24.26 / #5 All-Time Indoors for RCHS / 3rd Place Finish @ Apollo Invite
Ian Winkler
Triple Jump - 43’ 1.75” / #8 in Class 2A / Top Times Qualifier / Indoor School Record / Apollo Invite Champion
Long Jump - 20’3.25” / #3 All-Time Indoors for RCHS
Ian Pianfetti
60m Dash - 7.18 / #32 in Class 2A / #1 Sophomore in 2A / #2 All-Time for RCHS / 3rd Place Finish @ EIU Indoor & Apollo Invite
200m - 23.71 / #4 All-Time Indoors for RCHS
Casey Thomann
Shot Put - 45’2.25” / #40 in Class 2A / #4 Sophomore in 2A / #1 All-Time Indoors for RCHS / 3rd Place Finish @ Apollo Invite
Gavin Root
High Jump - 5’10” / #4 Freshman in Class 2A / #4 All-Time Indoors for RCHS / 1st Place Finish @ MTZ Mini Meet
Aiden Germak
Long Jump - 18’10” / #5 All-Time Indoors for RCHS
Ryan Kirby
Triple Jump - 38’3.75 / #4 All-Time Indoors for RCHS
Relays
4x2 (Germak, Winkler, Cothern, Klingler) - 1:38.26 / #3 All-Time Indoors for RCHS / 1st Place Finish @ Apollo Indoor
4x2 (Pianfetti, Cothern, Kirby, Zwilling) - 1:39.65 / #4 All-Time Indoors for RCHS
4x4 (Kirby, Kuhn, Zwilling, Davis) - 3:52.68 / #2 All-Time Indoors for RCHS