2025 Mattoon Invite & Edwardsville “Meet of Champions”
Every track season feels like it goes quickly, but this one has flat out been a blur. The next time we get our varsity group back together, we’ll be kicking off the portion of our schedule I refer to as “championship season” at the LIC Conference Meet (due to prom we won’t be sending our older guys to the Newton Invite on Friday). This past week was a special kind of whirlwind… our varsity guys competed at two meets in less than 48 hours. We were strategic about how we approached those meets, but it was still a lot in a short span, and our guys made the most of all of it… 3 school records, a slew of personal bests, state ranked performances, & honor roll marks, capped off by a program-best team performance at the Edwardsville Meet of Champions (over 50 points and a 5th place finish in the varsity scores)… We also racked up 74 points, 13 out of 1st place, at Mattoon, despite limiting our best athletes to no more than 2 events.
Having said all that, this is not a week we went into with team scores and first place medals in mind. We went to compete and get pushed (and in many cases to get beaten). But in the end, we came out with a pretty clear picture of how truly talented this group is, and when we hit the home stretch I think they’ve got a chance to do some things that Olney Track & Field has never done - a pretty lofty claim for a program with over 100 years of history. I also have to say that I have been blown away this week by our kids, over and over again. Their character, perseverance, and willingness to put team over self (in a sport that tends to bend towards individual glory) has had me almost choked up on several occasions. I’ve had more than one coach from programs that I respect immensely go out of their way to comment on our culture. These kids are amazing, and I am lucky to be their coach.
Highlights
Time with Coach Holler
Before diving in on all our kids accomplishments from last week, I want to start with a quick note about Coach Tony Holler of Plainfield North in Chicago. For our followers and athletes that don’t know him, he’s the father of the “Feed the Cats” philosophy (and by the way a coach with multiple state titles under his belt) that has revolutionized track and field for so many coaches and athletes around the country and the world (these days, Feed the Cats is becoming more and more prominent in other sports like football and even swimming). It’s not an over-exaggeration to say that Coach Holler completely changed the trajectory of our program, impacting hundreds of our athletes. I went to my first Feed The Cats clinic in December of 2017, and that following May, Tiger Track & Field won it’s first conference championship in 33 years - we’ve since gone on to win 4 of the last 5 conference titles, and the past few years our athletes have been doing things that I never would have even dreamt possible… The amazing athletes we have are responsible for those accomplishments, but Tony’s ideas on how to practice, promote our kids, and make track FUN helped us find these athletes and support their growth. We’ve got a once in a lifetime group right now, but we were ready for them because of the things we’ve learned from Coach Holler. I know there are so many other coaches out there who feel the same way that I do.
As to why I am bringing this up here: Long story short, his son Alec is an assistant coach at Edwardsville High School, and Tony brings his team down to this meet every year (I’d be lying if I said that wasn’t one of the reasons I wanted to get our kids into this meet back in 2023). Both myself and our relay guys were so stoked just to even see “Olney” in the fast heat with Plainfield North (amongst many other power houses) on Saturday. Coach Holler and I follow each other on social media and have had numerous exchanges over the years, and I’ve bumped into him a few times both at this meet and at his clinics - he has always been so down to earth and friendly, but I’m not the most extroverted person in the world… so the conversations have been pretty brief. This year, though, we just kept running into each other, and we chatted on and off for probably half an hour… how fast these Olney kids are going, how to help athletes who are struggling, what makes a great track program… even the history of Olney and the Herrin brothers (Coach Holler was at Harrisburg for years before he made the move to Plainfield). It’s not being overdramatic to call Coach Holler a hero of mine, so to get to chat with him like I would with any other coach at a meet made an already surreal day even more so. I can’t thank him enough for being so generous with his time - without a doubt something I will always remember.
Throws
The past week has been overloaded for me with “proud coach” moments. I’ll start with one involving our state-ranked thrower, Casey Thomann. Last year, it was pretty much all roses for the recent U of I commit… after missing his Freshman year due to injury, he literally came out and PR’d almost every single week, eventually climbing to 52’4 and making it to the state finals. This season has been a bit more bumpy, first with a pretty severe ankle injury at the tail end of basketball, and then realizing he’s maxed out with “the glide”. Knowing he was going to have to change things up to go any further, Casey switched to spinning at the end of indoor season, and saw his numbers take a tumble (at the Olney Invite, he threw 46’6 - almost 6 feet less than his best last year). And for a guy his size, spinning is not easy… it takes a tremendous amount of balance and athleticism to throw that 6’8 frame around. It also takes patience and guts to take a temporary step back so you can continue to move forward. But Thursday saw him finally hit on what we knew was there all along. He set a new best of over 53 feet, putting him at #6 in 2A and just about foot off the school record. Discus is still a work in progress (learning to spin in shot is undoubtedly impacting his spin in discus - they aren’t the same thing), but not a doubt he will get there. Super proud of this dude, and can’t wait to see how he finishes out.
Our best young thrower, Taylor Levitt, isn’t where he wants to be, but sometimes you just have to hang in there. The past week has seen him hit some of his best outdoor numbers in both shot and disc of outdoor season. I still think he has it in him to hit 40’ in the shot on the right day, something only a couple freshman have done for us in my time as head coach.
Distance
In the decades separating the Golden Age of Tiger Track (the 60s up through the early 80s - a time when our enrollment was anywhere from 50-75% more than it is today) from our more recent success starting in the late 2010s, distance is arguably what this program hung it’s hat on more than anything else. Amongst other things, we saw a state runner-up team finish in the 2010 XC season, a 1600m indoor state champion in Max Gassmann (2011), and an all-state performance for Braden Nicholson in 2019. But I’m not sure this program has ever seen a group like the one we will have through 2028. 50 year old records are already being threatened, and we currently have a pretty incredible resume in the 2A state rankings amongst freshmen:
Two Top 11 800m runners (Butler #3 & Livingston #11)
Three Top 16 1600m runners (Berger #5, Butler # 7, Dicks #16)
Two Top 8 3200m runners (Berger #1 & Dicks #8)
Quaid Berger especially, but all of these guys to some degree, have struggled to find the right competition on the right day during outdoor season. Our top 3 haven’t yet hit the times they were indoors, but my estimation is that has everything to due with race conditions up to this point. I expect to see them all peaking at the right time. Thursday night at Mattoon was a huge one for the youngsters, with all of them hitting some big outdoor milestones (aside from Judah, who was battling illness - but he bounced back and ran a PR in the 1600m on Saturday). Berger cracked 9:30 for the first time outside in the 3200m (again, without getting pushed - he won by over 30 seconds). Tristen Butler on the other hand, got to the chase the Greer twins on Thursday night, and he came away with a 4:30.01. At the time, that was the fastest outdoor 1600m a Tiger has ever run during my time as head coach (all classes - dating back to 2010)… It stood for about 36 hours. Quaid Berger came back on Saturday morning and ran a 4:29.61, finishing 3rd (when you have a group of great runners, they all wind up pushing each other and being better than they would have been otherwise - the rich get richer). Landon Livingston also had a great run on Thursday night, running a 2:06 half. That’s number 11 for us since 2010, and makes him the 3rd fastest freshman I’ve ever had in that event (Butler is #1, Nick Dobbs was #2 in 2011).
Jumps (aka, the Flying Tigers)
I’ve mentioned this on several occasions already this year… track is a humbling sport. The second you feel like you’re flying high, there’s typically something on the horizon that is going to bring you back down to earth… some of those things are in our control (mistakes, etc.), but many are not. Bottom line: greatness is not the absence of struggle; it’s how you respond to it. Our jumps crew, one of the best in 2A, has experienced it’s fair share of ups and downs already this season, and none of our guys has been immune to it.
Rex Hallam started off the season with uncertainty about his return from ACL surgery and a pretty bad ankle sprain on top of it. When he came back, he struggled to find his footing (though he came out of the gate essentially picking up where he left off in 2023). The past 3 weeks, though, Rex has obviously gotten into a groove, making the jump from “where he left off” to where we would’ve hoped he’d be if the injury never happened. The first two meets of outdoor season, he tied or eclipsed the former school record, which had stood for 57 years until it was broken by Gavyn Cothern last season. This Saturday at Edwardsville he took the next step, officially breaking 23 feet for the first time (23’0.75) and edging out Gavyn’s school record jump of 23’0 from earlier this March. I say “officially” because despite struggling to find his steps, Rex had a monster of a jump where he drug his back foot at Mattoon. The official allowed a measurement of where his mark would have been, and it was somewhere in the neighborhood of 24 feet. Btw, for anyone who’s wondering whether it was legit, he did the exact same thing on Saturday (and again, the official estimated roughly a 24 foot jump based on the painted pit markings). Rex currently sits at #2 in 2A.
Gavyn Cothern’s ride, on the other hand, started off smooth and has since gotten a little bumpier. He had bests of 23’ (LJ) and 6’8 (HJ) during indoor season, and topped it off with an incredible Top Times meet where he finished 2nd in the LJ and won an indoor state championship in the High Jump. Since outdoor, he’s put together some nice numbers (22’2.5” at Edwardsville & 6’5 at Mattoon), but not what he expects out of himself (no question, Gav is his own harshest critic). He hasn’t quite felt like himself these past few weeks, but I’ve got faith that some time off and some good PT will get him feeling right. Something amazing is always just one jump away with Mr. Cothern, and he is bar none the greatest competitor I have ever coached. It’s not a matter of if he’ll bounce back, but when. Until then, his “lows” are higher than they were last year… and for someone as good as him, that’s saying something. All rides are bumpy at one time or another, I’m thankful for every day I get to be on this one with Gavyn.
Gavin Root didn’t have his best day either, but he wasn’t far off. And he’s getting to the point where “not his best day” is still pretty darn good. After clearing roughly 6’3 last week at Mascoutah, Gavin hit 6’1 this week. That tied him for 5th, but tie breakers dropped him to 7th. Still phenomenal for the sophomore, who’s now living in the 6’s on most days. And he knows he can go higher… the height is there - if he cleans up some technical stuff (easier said than done as the high jump is one of the most skill heavy events, but Gavin is more than capable) the numbers are going to continue to go up. Maverik Cordell continues to consistently hit 11 feet in the PV, but I have a feeling 12 is coming soon (he has a personal best of 11’6). Just a matter of time. And last but not least our Triple Jumpers (Ryan Kirby and Reid Brown) continue their steady improvement. Ryan hit 39 feet for the first time since March, and Reid just keeps setting new bests. He’s now at 37 feet and counting.
Sprints
Even as our groups have gotten faster and faster in the last couple years, I’ve marveled as we went to big meets like Edwardsville and watched teams run half a second or more faster than we were going. I was hardly able to contain myself all winter thinking about how fast our relay might go if everyone was healthy… my main goal was for us to break the school record and crack 43 seconds (a feat we accomplished on a windy day in lane 1 at Mascoutah)… doing so would give us a shot to possibly break through and do something else that has never been done: take a sprint relay to the state finals. With that now out of the way, the question becomes “just how fast can these guys go?” Well, we got a glimpse on Thursday Night at Mattoon, where we had a warm night, low winds, and side by side matchup with Danville, who currently sit at #4 in 3A. Our crew (Goncalves, Hallam, Cothern, & Pianfetti) ran a clean race and hung with Danville most of the way, clocking in at an unbelievable 42.33. That’s good for #4 in 2A/#15 all-classes, .80 faster than the school record coming in to this season, and over a second under state-qualifying time. Which takes us to Saturday at Edwardsville. I’ll let Mike Baxter of Milesplit set the stage for that race:
"Checking the start lists for the Winston Brown Invite. In heat 3 of the 4x100, we will see IL #2, 9, 15, 16, 23, 26, and #7 in 2A. The fastest times for these 7 teams are separated by 1.09. Must see." Still gives me chills to think we not only ran in that race, but that we were in lane 6, right in the middle of all of it. We wound up finishing 3rd, and running 42.55 on a day that wasn’t as conducive to fast times as Thursday Night was. The fellas followed that up with another school record in their 4x2 debut, shattering the previous record by over a second (1:30.00 - good for #7 in Class 2A) and finishing 2nd. Bottom line, these kids are big boy fast, and they are unlike anything Olney has ever seen. Our goals for this group are out the window. Time to just ride the wave and see where it takes us (thanks to Coach Holler for that analogy).
Individually, we only sent Ian Pianfetti and Felipe Goncalves to Edwardsville, and entered them both in the 100/200m. I didn’t have plans of running either of them in all 4 (having kids run 4 races this early is something that we try to avoid). Ian wound up running the 100m at both Mattoon and Edwardsville, with results he had mixed feelings about. On what was a faster night overall, but with a headwind in the 100m, Ian ran 11.34. I thought this was a solid race… based on the best times of all the other guys in that race, including D’Mario Jackson of Danville who has run in the 10.6-10.7 range, I think Ian’s 11.3 could have easily translated to an 11.1 or a 11.0 (in other words, everyone’s times were slower that night). Saturday, Ian ran 11.47 - not what he was hoping for. Bottom line, he just didn’t have his best race. He wound up getting edged out at the end by Weldon Dunston of Effingham, who he’d beaten less than 48 hours earlier. It’s not as though Ian got any slower from Thursday to Saturday… sometimes we just don’t have our best stuff. I think a week of rest will do him a lot of good as well.
Felipe Goncalves, the biggest shock of the season, continues to amaze us and yet somehow still fly under the radar. He’s a quiet and humble kid… but his performances are getting louder and louder with each passing week. Thursday night he ran 22.6 at Mattoon in the 200m, #2 for us since 2010, trailing only Gus Lathrop. Saturday, my intention was for him to just run the 100 (he did fantastic by the way, finishing 3rd with an 11.03), but after the 4x2 he insisted on running the 4th race. I relented and let him do it, but I told him I was going against my better judgement… he better make sure he’s physically prepared to stay healthy and he better run fast. This time, the athlete was right… Felipe ran a 22.31 into a slight headwind. That’s faster than anyone has ever run a 200m in my time as head coach, including Gus Lathrop’s 7th place finish at state in 2015 (22.38). Another learning experience for me… Coach your kids up, and then trust them. Btw, that’s currently #13 in 2A… dropping any more time puts him squarely in the conversation for the state finals.
Rounding up our remaining spring performances from Thursday night, we had a couple more PRs from guys that continue to get better. Xae Owusu-gyan ran an 11.75 - technically not a Personal Best, but his fastest race on FAT… which is significant… even after conversions, hand times just aren’t as reliable because of all the human error involved. I was really happy to see that time on Thursday - Xae is gonna be a star both on the track and the football field. Reed Klingler, one of my favorite human beings on the track team, is steadily showing improvement (I’ve told him numerous times that I am waiting for him to really pop off - we’re not there yet, but I really believe we’re getting closer). Thursday night, he ran a 24.2, a new best. He’s more and more conistently hitting fly times in the 22mph range as well. And my gut says he has a lot more in him. As we look to the future, I think this kid has a shot to be one of our guys going into his Senior year - and I know he’s going to keep working for it. Another cat I’m immensely proud of, Aiden Germak, ran his best 400m yet at 54.04. I continue to believe he has a ton of potential in this event… He know sits at #8 for us since 2010 overall, and #3 on our FS leaderboard in that time. Last but not least, Ryan Kirby broke into the 43s for the first time ever in the 300 Hurdles. In what some would call the toughest race in High School Track, Ryno showed a ton of guts on Thursday night, and it was fun to watch. He now sits at #3 for us since 2010.
Up Next
This year, the IHSA schedule rolls back. The biggest impact of that is felt this week, when our Prom falls on the same night as the Newton Invite, perennially one of my favorite meets for our guys. In all honesty though, this break comes at a good time for our top guys, who’ve been a whirlwind tour of the state, with 10 meets in the past 8 weeks. The Mattoon invite and the Charleston Indoor Meet were our shortest trips in that span at roughly an hour - every other trip has been at least 2 hours. This also gives some of our fantastic youngsters a chance to shine on a bigger stage - they’ll be competing on Friday Night while our older guys are hopefully having a great time (and being safe while they do it). Next up for our varsity group: the LIC conference meet next Wednesday, where we hope to win our 4th in a row and 6th in 7 seasons. We’ll then turn around and head to Collinsville for another monster meet (our first time ever attending this one).
Relay Splits
*4x1
For those wondering why I don’t post 4x1 splits… I tell my guys that we only keep one split on that race, and it’s the official time. The human error I mentioned above just creates too much chaos, and the splits aren’t reliable in any way (at least, IMO). And besides, when the 4x1 is run correctly, it should look like one guy running it… why not actually treat it that way?
4x2 @ Edwardsville ( We were DQ’d @ Mattoon)
Goncalves - 22.9
Cothern - 22.0
Hallam - 22.0
Pianfetti - 22.9
4x4
Edel - 54.8
Butler - 53.1
Georis - 59.5
Kirby - 54.3
*No 4x8 This Week
Event Winners
Mattoon
Berger - 3200m
Thomann - Shot Put
Cothern - High Jump
Hallam - Long Jump
Edwardsville Meet of Champions
Hallam - LJ
New Personal Bests (Outdoors)
Mattoon
Klingler - 200m
Germak - 400m
Livingston - 800m
Butler - 1600m
Berger - 3200m
Kirby - 300m Hurdles & TJ
4x100 - (Goncalves, Hallam, Cothern, Pianfetti)
Thomann - Shot
Edwardsville
Goncalves - 200m
Berger - 1600m
Dicks - 1600m
4x200m - (Goncalves, Hallam, Cothern, Pianfetti)
Hallam - LJ
New School Records & Honor Roll Performances (Top 10, Outdoors, Since 2010)
Goncalves / 200m - #1
Germak / 400m - #8 (#3 FS)
Berger / 1600m - #1
Butler / 1600m - #2
Dicks / 1600m - #9 (#3 Freshman)
Berger / 3200m - #1
Kirby / 300H - #3
4x1 - #1 / *School Record*
4x2 - #1 / *School Record*
Kirby / 300m Hurdles - #6
Thomann / Shot - #1
Hallam / LJ - #1 *School Record*
Kirby / TJ - #9
Tigers Who’ve Hit State Qualifying Marks
Long Jump / 21’3
Hallam
Cothern
HJ / 6’2
Cothern
Root
Shot / 48’10
Thomann
4x100 / 43.51
Goncalves, Hallam, Cothern, Pianfetti
4x200 / 1:31.33
Goncalves, Hallam, Cothern, Pianfetti
3200 / 9:57.04
Berger
Dicks (Indoors)
1600m / 4:32.20
Berger
Dicks
100m / 11.03
Goncalves
200m / 22.59
Goncalves