Sectional Recap

The end of any season brings with it many emotions. The IHSA Rock Island Sectional on Thursday night marked the end of the season for the Wildcats, as the team failed to qualify any events for the state finals.

Despite not qualifying any events, their were still some highlight performances. The relays stood out as the team ran season bests in 3 of the 4 relays. The 4 x 200 bounced back after a rough 4 x 100 to take 4^th and run a season best time, and the fastest time the Wildcats have in the last 7 years. The quartet of Aaron Larkins, Chris Fraizer, Scott Freishlag, and Ethan Obeng ended a great season with two strong relays and some great individual performances (Larkins PR in the 100, Freishlag FAT PR in the 200, Fraizer PR in the long jump). The other relay crew of Mike Forbear, Cam Mulyk, Alex Rojo, and Paul DeAvila ran season best in both the 4 x 800 and the 4 x 400. While those guys came up short of their goal the improvement that they have made has been remarkable, the have changed the idea of what good is for middle distance running at PHS.

The field events had multiple PRs with Fraizer in the long jump, but also Maaz Zaidi and Christian Martin both throwing PRs in the discus.

The other big highlight was PRs from Gavin Schnowske in the 400 and Bryan Underwood in the 300 hurdles, both of those guys are going to be back with a great future ahead of them. Tyler Wier was just off his PR in the 400, not bad for a freshman who was a late addition to the sectional line up. Logan Bown also came away with a PR in the 100.

We did have a few section winners on the day, Aaron Larkins won his section of the 100 and Paul DeAvila won his section of the 1600. Also, big shout out to Mike Forbear who took a risk and took the fast section of the mile through halfway in 2:09, while the race didn’t turn out the way Mike wanted, the 8 guys who hit the qualifying standard can be thankful that Mike set a steady pace up front and helped do the work so they will all get a chance to race on the big blue oval next week.

Finally, I want to personally give a shout out to the seniors who have made such a positive impact on this track and field program the last 4 years: Logan Bown, Jay Coyler, Paul DeAvila, Mike Forbear, Chris Fraizer, Patrick Kacena, Aaron Larkins, Henry Matson, Jayson Matula, Derek McClinon, Cam Mulyk, Ethan Obeng, Hunter Porn, Alex Rojo, Kyle Schick, Nick Syron, Aaron Wyckoff, and Jason Zigmant. It has been a true pleasure to get to work with such a remarkable group of young men. From the entire coaching staff thank you for what you have meant to PHS.