2025 Gene Armer @ U of I
Indoor Season is already drawing to a close. The Gene Armer is our 5th and final “regular season” indoor meet and a last shot for kids to improve their times/marks heading into championship week. 50 teams from all 3 classes sent only their top performers (you can only make one entry per event)… it’s a phenomenal opportunity for our guys to get that “championship experience”. In the end, it was a meet of ups and downs. A couple of our guys had rough days (track can be an extremely humbling sport at times), but it definitely wasn’t without its highlights, gutty performances, and silver linings. If you don’t succeed, the opportunity will always be there to grow… on Saturday we did both. And despite a ton of illness and a few just downright tough days for a couple of our guys, we still finished 8th out of almost 50 teams, and scored more points than we ever have at this meet.
Highlights
Distance Crew
After a few weeks of our talented young distance crew competing in different parts of the state (and different parts of the country), they were mostly back together again on Saturday, and it was fun to watch. All 3 of our competing freshmen turned in top 5 performances against some legitimately tough competition. And when I say tough, I don’t just mean the caliber of athlete - distance events indoors are a full contact sport, and they can be cutthroat. 200m tracks mean tighter curves (and shorter straightaways)… Quaid Berger got boxed in and was spiked pretty badly on his way to a new best and a 4th place finish in the 1600 @ 4:30.96. That time is the fastest run by a Tiger in any conditions from the past 15 years other than Max Gassmann’s 4:26 at the Illinois Top Times in 2011 (btw, he won the Single A unofficial indoor state meet with that time). Very gutsy performance on his part. Quaid will be back in action in the 3200 this week, but concentrated on the 1600 so we could give Judah Dicks another shot at his best race (remember, only one entry per event at this meet).
Judah Dicks also ran a great race, but he wasn’t super happy with his performance. He hasn’t gotten back below that 10 minute mark since EIU a couple weeks ago, but his 10:08 on it’s own would have still been one of the fastest indoor 3200s we’ve had (he currently sits @ #2 all time for us indoors). Having the right field to run with is so important in any distance race, but from my point of view it gets more important the longer the race is. If you find yourself behind the leaders and pretty far out in front of everyone else, 2 miles is a long way to go in “no man’s land”, and he still raced well enough to finish 5th at a super competitive meet. We have a few guys that I’m especially happy to see get one more crack at indoor season in the upcoming Top Times meet after they ended on less than a high note at Gene Armer - Judah is one of them.
Tristin Butler, on the other hand, had a bit of a bounce back this weekend. He had a tough race in the 1600m at the New Balance Freshman Nationals. These things happen in track field, and they happen to everyone. It makes it a bit tougher, though, when it happens at a big event that you travel over 1,000 miles to get to… but the bottom line is disappointment is a part of Track & Field. The question is what an athlete will do to respond, and Tristin showed what a competitor he really is. His 2:03.37 at Gene Armer Saturday, put into context: It’s a new all-conditions personal best for Tristin (topping what he ran outdoors at Middle School State Meet), the #1 indoor 800m we’ve ever had indoors by over 6 seconds, and is the 5th fastest 800 run by a Tiger in any conditions on our honor roll (dating back to 2010). Keep in mind, like the two fellas above (and another strong performer, Landon Livingston), Tristin is a freshman.
Sprints
Our lead sprinter, Ian Pianfetti, has gotten off to a pretty phenomenal start, despite it being a turbulent and busy March for him. He’s missed time with illness, soreness, and college visits, but this spring he’s turned in personal bests of 7.12 in the 60m and 23.15 in the 200m, putting him in position to crack 7.10 in the 60 (something only Ayden Cothern has ever done for us) and 23.00 in the 200m (something no one has done for us indoors). Gene Armer had all the makings of a tremendous stage for him to pull those things off, but it wasn’t meant to be. In the 60, it was an uncharacteristically bad start (Ian is one of the best we’ve ever had in that department). He closed extremely well, but a poor start in the 60m is almost always fatal… there obviously isn’t much real estate to allow for catching up. In the 200, it was the finish that got him. He ran a great race, but two things got in the way of the race he was looking for… the makeup of Ian’s heat wasn’t helpful - Connor Smith of Fithian ran an incredible 22.47, 3 quarters of a second faster than the next fastest man in the heat (Ian), and Ian was 2 tenths faster than the 3rd place finisher. That put Ian in a spot where he wasn’t being pushed or pulled, which can make a huge difference. 2nd, Ian pulled up early at what he thought was the finish line… but it wasn’t the correct mark (this happened to more than one athlete on Saturday). As it was, Ian finished with a 23.25, good for 7th place out of over 40 sprinters. Not a bad time at all - it would be good for #3 all time indoors if Ian hadn’t already run a 23.15 at EIU earlier this spring - but Ian’s gunning for more. Thankfully, he’s getting one last shot before outdoor season at Top Times this weekend (he’s earned it).
Aiden Germak, one of several guys who came into this meet either not feeling well or on the rebound from illness, has emerged as one of the more talented 400 runners I’ve had. We saw glimpses of it last season in our predictor workouts, but he was busy leading off relays and was typically our second short sprint guy at most meets. The depth of this team and Aiden’s willingness to embrace the 400 (one of the toughest events there is, especially for a sprinter) has him poised to do some exciting things this year I believe. Despite being ill for the better part of the week, Aiden insisted he was ready to roll on Saturday. I’ve heard that from guys before, and you never know how a kid is going to respond to coming back from illness... All he did was break our FS indoor record, and run the our 3rd fastest indoor time ever (55.54). Aiden was also slated to run on our 4x4 later in the day - an extremely cliche thing in track and field would be for a kid to beg their way out of running that race, and he would have actually had a good excuse to do it. But when he found out we’d probably have to scratch if he didn’t run, he stepped up, and ran a gutsy leg. When it came time to choose this week’s GRIT award winner, there were plenty of fantastic candidates (there always are), but he was the only choice.
Our two sprint relays were enormous highlights this past Saturday, despite neither cracking the top 10. Our 4x4 of Edel, Butler, Germak, and Goncalves finished with a 3:41, roughly a second off the indoor school record we set last week, and they did that despite Germak and Goncalves, currently the two fastest guys in the group, not feeling well. Along with that, all 4 guys had run other events during the meet, and this was the final event in a LONG day. Could have easily been a mail-in, but they went after it and competed their tails off. Extremely proud of that group.
Speaking of proud, our 4x2 couldn’t have made their coach smile much more on Saturday than they did. I’ve been so excited about the depth of speed on this team (last week we turned out our fastest 23 second drill as a group ever, and by a lot)… that depth showed up on Saturday. For various reasons (injury, rest, event conflicts, etc.) we haven’t really run a “varsity” group in the 4x2 this indoor season. Pianfetti, Hallam, and Cothern, despite all being on previous record-breaking relay teams for us, haven’t run in a single relay yet (that will definitely change outdoors). But guys like Edel, Goncalves, Germak, Owusu-gyan, and Hough have all made the most of their opportunities, and I see all of them (and possibly more) getting their shot at varsity invites this spring. At Gene Armer, Edel, Owusu-gyan, Goncalves, and for the first time this spring, Ryan Kirby took on the 4x2. Led by especially impressive legs from Kirby and Goncalves, the group came within .61 of our indoor school record, and actually ran faster than our 2023 group of Jones, Brown, Hallam, and Cothern… 3/4 of that group would go on to break the 4x2 record outdoors that season. By contrast, 3 of the guys on Saturday’s group were newcomers, and Ryan Kirby should probably be considered one - he looks like a different athlete compared to last year. Super impressed with what that group did, and a big shout out to Xae OG… he came to this meet not sure whether he would run, but when his number was called, he was ready. He ran extremely well.
Throws
With the setup of this meet, this section will be pretty short. Big Casey Thomann was our only thrower, and he had a rough day. As part of a recurring theme, Casey wasn’t well pretty much all week. Coming into Saturday he hadn’t been able to keep anything down… Casey is a warrior and I respect the heck out of him for even throwing. But understandably he just didn’t have the juice he normally does. At 46’1.5”, Casey still threw further than he did all of indoor last season, but 3 feet short of his best so far this year. It took him until the middle of this week for him to start feeling back to normal - glad he gets another shot at Top Times to show what he can do.
Jumps
Along with our distance crew, our jumps probably carried the day for us. Rex Hallam continued his return with his 2nd meet of 2025, and had another great day. Rex and I have had several conversations about trying to stay on the level - coming back and jumping after an injury and a hiatus of over 2 years is bound to be a bumpy ride - but that’s easier said than done. Even more so when he comes out of the gate and picks up almost exactly where he left off… it almost creates an expectation that everything is completely back to normal and makes us forget to be patient like we should be. Finding his footing, getting his body adjusted to the nature of what he’s doing again, the pressure to return to form… Rex had all these things going on Saturday; he’s been dealing with tightness, he competed on an elevated runway with a ton of extra bounce, etc. And with all that, Rex was just a half inch off where he was last week and finished 2nd overall at a huge meet. He’s in the top 6-7 long jumpers in 2A and headed to Top Times this weekend. There are still going to be bumps in the road, but man it’s awesome to see Rex Hallam out on the track.
Ryan Kirby, who’ve I already mentioned once above, represented himself extremely well on Saturday in Triple Jump as well. I continue to talk about how much of a changed athlete he is - Saturday he cleared 40 feet on his first 3 jumps… he’d never done that until this weekend. Ryan found himself in the finals at the Gene Armer meet and finished 9th, which is a huge accomplishment for him. He now sits at #3 for us all-time indoors, and he becomes just the 8th Tiger to clear 40 feet since 2010. There’s a huge learning curve with this event, and Ryan is still figuring it out - expect to see him continue climbing.
Maverik Cordell didn’t have any sickness to deal with leading up to the meet, just bad weather… not storms, but ridiculous winds that were gusting out of the South all week long, making it pretty much impossible to vault at our track… we’ve only got one vaulting system, and it cannot be turned around (and we obviously don’t have an indoor track to vault on). Mav had aspirations of setting another PR for the 3rd consecutive week, but improvement doesn’t happen on a straight line. In situations like this, I like to look at history… Maverik’s best jump of all last season (indoor or out) was 10’8, just a couple more inches than what he hit on Saturday (10’4) - when you’re upset about a performance today that you would have been excited about last year, that’s a clear sign of improvement. Sometimes we have to remember that and be grateful. Mav has big things ahead.
We had plans to put Cothern at anchor on our 4x2, but as the day wore on it became pretty apparent that it would interfere with the HJ. That, coupled with the fact that we could only put one athlete in each event, meant Gavyn would only High Jump Saturday, and he made the most of it. Gavyn has seen plenty of senior Matt Pluff (Freeburg) the past few years. Pluff, like Gavyn, is great at both High Jump and Long Jump, and at most meets where they cross paths, they wind up being the last two standing in the HJ. Saturday was no different, and it ended in a tie-breaker, which Gavyn won (sidenote: something people may not realize is that Gavyn has won a ton of tie-breakers the past few years, which are determined by the fewest number of misses during a competition… in other words, Gavyn is extremely efficient and he misses a lot less than most other jumpers do). Just like most other days when Gavyn gets a chance to concentrate on High Jump, he was flirting with something in the neighborhood of 6’8 (his career best is 6’7.25”). Saturday he clearly had the height, he just clipped it with the back of his leg (and he did that twice). For those that don’t know, the school record is Brad Richardson’s 6’9.25 in 1967 - Brad went on to be a star at U of I. That’s a record to watch over the next two seasons if Gavyn continues to jump like he is.
Up Next
We wrap up our strongest indoor season ever by taking a group of 7 Tigers to compete in 10 total events at this Saturday’s 2A Top Times meet, a qualifier-only indoor championship meet (the IHSA does not have an official indoor state series). This will be the most athletes we’ve ever taken and the most events we’ve ever competed in. After that, things get real - we head outdoors, starting with a JV Meet @ Robinson Thursday and the Greenville Invite next Saturday.
Relay Splits
4x2
Edel - 24.89
Owusu-gyan - 24.39
Kirby - 24.08
Goncalves - 23.86
4x4
Edel - 55.29
Butler - 55.54
Germak - 57.32
Goncalves - 53.64
Event Winners
Gavyn Cothern - HJ
New Personal Bests
Germak - 400m (All-Conditions)
Butler - 800m (All-Conditions)
Berger - 1600m (All-Conditions)
Kirby - TJ (All-Conditions)
New Honor Roll Performances (Indoors)
Germak / 400m - #3 All-Time & #1 Frosh-Soph
Butler / 800m - #1 All-Time
Berger / 1600m - #2 All-Time
4x2 - #2 All-Time
4x4 - #2 All-Time
Kirby / TJ - #3 All-Time