A Trip to State on the Line

Sectionals brings some big emotions, both high and low and the Wildcats performance at Minooka for the 2023 IHSA Sectional was no different.

The big highlight of the night was in the 800 meter run. Tyler Schick just snuck into the fast section off his 2:02.11 from Bill Jackson earlier this month, but was ready for a big break out race. Last week at the SPC Championship when Tyler saw his teammate Arnold Arce dip under the state qualifying standard he knew he could do it this week. The plan for Tyler and Arnold was to get out well and come through the halfway point in 57-58 seconds. Both executed very well and then Tyler made a strong move on the backstretch with Arnold waiting to go until 200 left. Tyler closed very well to take 5^th and an hit qualifying standard, unfortunately for Arnold he didn’t have the legs the last 50 meters and he just missed qualifying by a second.

In the 300 hurdles we knew Bryan Underwood had a chance to qualify for the state championship, and Bryan got out in his aggressive style and then had a tough hurdle on the curve, but he fought back and mounted a very strong charge the final 3 hurdles to move back into position to steal the 2^nd qualifying spot. Bryan’s 2^nd to last hurdle looked great and he had (unfortunately) a little too much speed coming into the final hurdle that he clipped and went down. Bryan got up and got across the line disappointed but as a coach I was so proud of the way he fought back and gave himself a chance to do something special. Bryan will be back next year with a chip on his shoulder.

Gavin Schnowske has been a leader both on the track and off this season and he was able to finish out his high school career with a PR in the 400. Gavin’s improvement as an athlete has been so fun to watch the last 4 years.

Both the 4x100 and 4x200 ran season best times, with the 4x100 taking a section victory and finishing 7^th overall. Those relays were both lead off by Nigel Osei Asare who also ran a great race to take a section victory in the 100, running a new PR. Michael Kabore ran relay split PRs in both the 4x200 and 4x400. Alex Haberkamp took a section victory with a new PR in the 200.

Ubaldo Rodriguez and Luke Adair both battled all the way to the finish line in the 3200 first section to finish 2^nd and 3^rd and both end the season with new PRs.

The 4x800 had 3 guys run relay split PRs, Harlan Matson who is still coming back into shape after a month off due to injury had a PR split, Raymond Churchill and Diego Arce also contributed relay split PRs.

To the seniors who had their final meet wearing green thank you for all you have meant to the program, it has been an honor to watch you compete.

Tyler Schick will represent the team next week at EIU as he races for a state championship.