Sectionals Recap

Sectional night is always a roller coaster of emotions. It doesn’t matter where you are ranked or what marks you have put up during the season, you HAVE to put it together at Sectionals in order to make the trip down to Charleston the following weekend for the IHSA State Championship.

Here are some great pictures of the night thanks to Lori Forbear! Thanks:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/w5ZRTWkDcytduQ69A

Jon Goetsch ended his summer getting ready for cross country season in tremendous shape, unfortunately for him a hip injury early in the fall sidelined him for 8 weeks. He came back to help the team to a 9^th place finish at Sectionals, but Jon was hungry for this spring. Jon had the top seed time coming into the Sectional, but if you still have to put it together on race day. Jon had been fighting a fever during the week (unbeknownst to me) and on a hot a humid evening Jon controlled the race from the first step to qualify for the state finals for the first time in his high school career. Jon became the first qualifier in the 3200 since 2003.

The other qualifier was a 2^nd year qualifier Geremiah Lawson. In an event, long jump, that you have to put a good effort in 3 attempts, Geremiah struggled on his first jump. But was able to get a good one on jump number 2, to secure a spot to Charleston for the 2^nd straight year and win a Sectional Championship. The first long jump Sectional Championship in school history.

The team had two other top 5 finished. Senior Jordan Facio ran 2:07, and finished 19^th last year at the Sectional in the 800. He had run 2:03 at Conferenceast week (which was a 2 second PR in the open 800). Jordan knew going in the 800 could be a wide open race, and the plan was for him to sit back and go for a ride for 500 meters and then make a hard charge to the front with 300 to go. Jordan executed the plan to perfection, so much so he took the lead with 150 and held that led until 50 meters left. Jordan was passed by 3 guys in the final 50 to finish 4^th in 2:01.5 (a 2 second PR from Conference). Jordan has been a do everything guy for us this year. He has been the picture of a model teammate. Jordan led the team in meets in which an athlete ran 3 or more events, and most of those involved a combination of 400s, 800s, and 1600s.

The other medal winner was a 5^th place finish from Joe Edozie. Joe ran a strong led off leg in the 4x200, and then came back an ran a PR and broke 23 for the first time in the 200. He took 2^nd in the 2^nd heat and finished 5^th overall.

Distance runners went PR crazy on the night. With Facio’s PR in the 800. He was also joined by sophomore Aiden Haughian who ran 2:07 in the 800. Ryan Bonomo who ran 4:47 in the 1600, and Javy Garcia who ran the best race of his season to nearly crack 4:40, running 4:41 on a negative split. Javy has been such an incredible asset to the team these past few seasons. As I reflect on Javy’s running career, his two best races were Sectionals in cross country this past fall and Sectionals in track this spring. Javy had hit a plateau for the middle months of the season but he turned it on late to leave a last impact on the program that he has meant so much to the last three years.

The throwers had some great performances as well. Cam Henderson ended his season with a PR, break 43 feet for the first time. Senior team leader Yazan Masri throw an 11 foot PR in the discus to make finals and finish 8^th overall. Yazan has been a great teammate and will leave his mark on the throws crew moving forward, a group that included Brodie McIntyre and Jack LaLonde who along Cam are all sophomores who threw as Sectionals. The future is bright for the throws crew.

Josh Cercone and Dustyn Perona both equaled their PRs in the pole vault, Josh took some great jumps at 12’2 and just missed.

The 4x200 took a crack at running a time out of the 2nd heat, but came up short. Even though they didn't qualify the team of Edozie, Nicholas Barner, Hunter Fuss, and Lawson did run a season best 1:31.68. 

The other story was underclassmen getting Sectional experiences, in both the 4x100 (Connor O’Leary, Aaron Larkins, Anthony Nieves, and Patrick Todd), and then along with senior EJ Brotarlo the 4x800 of Tommy Adelmann, Mike Forbear, and Paul DeAvila.