Apollo+ Highlights: Broken Records & a 3rd Place Finish
The Tigers headed into Saturday’s 2A heavy Apollo+ Invite as close as we’ve been to full strength yet, but were still waiting on some pieces that we believe could become key contributors down the line, either due to injury (Runyon, Wease) or just not having adequate facilities, weather, or time to be ready to go yet (Gavyn Cothern & Winkler in the HJ, Zuber & Weiler in the PV). Even so, there are a ton of highlights from Saturday to celebrate. We racked up a fantastic overall team score, monster individual performances, and some broken school & class records along the way.
Overall, the Tigers finished 3rd at the Apollo+, trailing only Mt. Zion (currently ranked #2 in 2A), and Mahomet-Seymour, another outstanding 2A program. In all, 10 of the 13 boys teams were Class 2A. This is our best finish at the MTZ Indoor Invite (we placed 8th last year). A lot of factors go into how well teams from central and southern IL can compete in an indoor meet… weather (to actually get time to practice on a track), when you get winter athletes, and a lot of times just how many returnees you have can really impact your team at these meets. A couple of these factors landed in our favor this year, but it’s also pretty obvious that our squad is talented and we’re going to be pretty fun to watch this season.
Cothern Keeps Rolling…
“AC”, as we sometimes call him, has made the shocking commonplace over the past 18 months. In 2021, he ran in one track meet, his only race a 27.4 second 200m dash (to be fair, it was a miserably cold and rainy day). I was honestly a little shocked when he told me he was running last year after that experience, but he’s gone on to become one of the most dominating sprinters in the area and is threatening to become the fastest Tiger in the history of the school.
After becoming conference champ in the 100m last spring, he’s only continued to get better, and now finds himself amongst the fastest athletes in Class 2A (he currently sits at #5 in both the 60 and the 200). After a pretty convincing win on Saturday, Ayden remains undefeated in the 60m (we pulled him out of the 200 after he experienced some mild hip discomfort in the finals). Ayden’s performance was all the more impressive considering it followed an intense anchor leg in the 4x200 (the first race on the schedule Saturday). Ayden currently owns the 4 fastest 60m dash times in school history (the 60 wasn’t the predominant indoor sprint up until around 2010).
The competition promises to be fierce at next Saturday’s Gene Armer Invite, and the 4x2 will be after the 60m… probably our best opportunity yet to see Ayden crack 7 seconds.
Hallam Shines in Return
In his first track meet of the season, Rex Hallam showed almost no signs of rust. Due to basketball, weather, and wisdom teeth, he’s had very little prep time, but none of that stopped him from ripping off a meet best 21’0.75” jump on Saturday. That sets a Tiger Indoor Record, and is only 1.5” off his best jump from his freshman season. Rex is already #1 all-conditions in the LJ for the RCHS Era as a sophomore… signs point to an almost 50 year old school record being in serious jeopardy before Rex is done (Mike Dugan jumped over 22’ back in 1968).
Rex’s jump Saturday is good for #11 in 2A, and like Ayden’s 60m, came after a great leg in the 4x2. Yet another reason to watch what happens on Saturday at the Armory.
Saul Jones: Back in the Saddle
After being out last year, Senior Saul Jones has a unique path ahead. He’s one of the most talented athletes I’ve ever coached (he would have been the #13 returning High Hurdler in the state last year), but he hasn’t had a normal track season in his entire HS career yet thanks to the COVID pandemic. He’s had his ups and downs so far during the indoor season, probably somewhat to shaking the rust off, but I also think he’s adjusting to the speed he’s gained since he last competed (Saul became just our 2nd Cat to hit 23mph a few weeks back). There’s definitely a mental element to the hurdles that you don’t have in some other events, so this week was a big race for Saul after not finishing the previous week at EIU.
Saul came out of the blocks for us in the 4x2 Saturday, and we both hoped going in that would help him get the jitters out before the hurdles… it seems like it did the trick. Saul qualified for the finals, finished 2nd overall, and set a new best of 9.14. That puts him roughly a tenth off our best all-time in the 60m HH, set by Peyton Blanton back in 2019. I was as proud of him as anyone on Saturday… bouncing back from last week was no easy task. Saul currently sits at #22 in Class 2A (top 24 qualify for the Top Times Meet), and he still hasn’t run his best race yet. He’ll get at least one more shot at it this weekend, and hopefully one more the following weekend (at indoor state).
Hough Guts It Out in the 1600m
Holden Hough has his eyes set on big things in the 3200m this spring, and has been training his tail off all winter long. As of this writing, his 3200 performance at EIU (pictured left because I forgot to get one of him at MTZ) is ranked #11 and just above the cut line for the Top Times meet. Before he lines up in the 3200m again next weekend, we entered him in the 1600 at Mt. Zion. His strategy? Hang with Baker (Mt. Zion) and Morgan (Taylorville) for as long as possible and then figure the rest out from there. What resulted were 6 pretty fantastic laps and a 400m of pure guts. His 4:44 was just a second off his best indoor 1600 last year at EIU, but over 2 seconds better than his time at last year’s Mt. Zion indoor (different indoor tracks can produce faster/slower times, especially as the distance gets longer).
Holden has without question had a running career with lots of twists and turns thanks to injury, illness, etc., but he’s worked hard to get himself in a position to have some serious success as we finish up indoor season and get ready to head outside. He’ll have one more shot to solidify himself in the 3200 this weekend.
Depth on Display in the 4x2, B Squad Finishes 7th
We knew coming into this season that our depth in the speed category was going to be borderline freakish by our standards. Our returnees have only continued to get faster, we added Saul Jones back to the mix, and brought in 3 freshmen who were members of a Middle School 4x1 that finished 2nd at their state meet and crushed their school record with a time of 45.43. Right now, our top 15 guys average 21.8mph… that type of thing might be more commonplace in schools of 2-3,000 kids, but for a school less than half that size, it’s pretty wild. Our guys are already aware: some fast dudes may not make our relay teams this year.
Even without Brody Runyon, who’s established himself as one of our top 3-5 guys in terms of mph and was out with back pain, we had enough cats to fill out two competitive 4x2 teams this weekend. And they were both fun to watch. Our “B” squad, made up of freshmen Ian Pianfetti & Gavyn Cothern, junior Ian Winkler (competing in his first ever track meet), and senior Jerrison Hough, won the 2nd fastest heat with a time of 1:40.44, led by an especially great split from Cothern (23.3). That was good enough for 7th overall… again, impressive in 13 team meet filled with 2A schools.
Varsity 4x2 Takes 3rd, Closes in on Record
Our Varsity group, running competitively indoors for the first time, turned in an equally impressive performance. 3 of these guys (Brown, Hallam & Cothern) were part of our relay group last spring, but if you’ve ever watched an indoor 4x2, you know it’s a different animal entirely. After the first handoff, the 2nd runner cuts in somewhere along the way, and from there on it’s basically the Wild West. Handoffs can turn into a full contact sport, and this weekend was no exception.
Typically when things get crazy, timing and luck play a huge factor, and unfortunately our 3/4 runners (Hallam & Cothern) were on the wrong end of that equation. It wasn’t a full on collision, but it was enough to put us a step behind, which is huge on a 200m track with no metal spikes in your racing shoes (Mt. Zion currently prohibits them to protect their gym floors). Ayden gave it all he had, but he basically had to catch Mahomet’s #4 before the final turn to have a chance, which means he had just over 50 meters to do it, and he came up just short (in the end, .01 short).
Even so, their time of 1:37.05 brings them within a second of our indoor school record, held by Washburn, Hahn, Waggoner, & Lathrop (2013). That crew went on to break the school and conference record outdoors, and qualify for state. Fully spiked and with a race under their belt, this group looks to take a step in that direction on Saturday. They are currently ranked #14 in Class 2A.
Big First Meet for our Big Freshman
6’8” Casey Thomann has had a pretty huge freshman year. After starting at left tackle for Tiger Football, and then center for Tiger Basketball, he hopes to throw varsity innings for Tiger Baseball and compete for us as well.
In his first track meet since winning an SIJHSAA State Championship in the shot last year, Casey got off to a great start. His best throw of 42’4.75” was good for 4th place, our 3rd best indoor throw ever, and an all-conditions freshman record in the RCHS era.
Gavyn Cothern Almost Hits 20 ft. Again
Gavyn had a huge first meet, winning long jump at the 41-team EIU Invitational with a leap of 19’11.25”. Indoor season can be extremely unpredictable, though, and an almost identical jump this week netted him a 5th place finish in a 13-team meet. Gavyn is ultra-competitive, so he was predictably frustrated. But his coach saw him come within 2 inches of last week’s jump with no metal spikes in his race shoes and after running a 23.3 split in the 4x2 (he did not sprint for us last week). Long story short, Gavyn had an outstanding day, and he’s going to be fun to watch the next 4 years.
Pianfetti Sets Our Third Freshman Record
Ian Pianfetti has only been with us for about a week, but he’s already left a mark on the program. Ian ran a great first leg on our younger 4x2 squad, and then came back to run a 7.52 in the 60m. That didn’t quite make the cut for the finals, but it was good enough for our 2nd fastest 60m time this season, and the fastest freshman 60m we’ve ever had.
Winkler Finally Gets to Jump
Ian Winkler was on our roster last year, but we never got a chance to see what he could do. Anyone who’s seen “Wink” play basketball knows he’s a gifted athlete with tremendous bounce, but weather and his schedule (he was a dual sport athlete last spring) never came together for us. This past Saturday proved the wait was worth it. After only a couple sessions with jumps coach Ethan Rodgers, Ian went out and jumped 37’11.5” in his first ever meet (after a great leg with our younger 4x2). Wink’s jump is #4 all-time for us Indoors, and #5 all-conditions for us during the RCHS era.
Other Notables
Kadyn Cooley continues to improve… he ran 35 seconds faster indoors Saturday than his fastest 1600m outdoors in 2022.
Splits from our 8 4x2 runners: Jones 23.6 / Brown 24.21 / Hallam 24.95 (disrupted handoff) / A. Cothern 23.83 / Pianfetti 24.13 / G. Cothern 23.33 / Winkler 25.01 / Hough 27.77
6 Tigers competed in their first meet of the season on Saturday, 5 of them were competing in their first HS track meet ever.
Full Results can be found here.
This Saturday, we make our first ever trip to the Gene Armer Invite at the U of I Armory. It’s our last chance meet before Top Times the following weekend.