Top 10 Storylines from Indoor Season

As the indoor season wraps up here are 10 storylines from the Wildcats indoor campaign.

10. Strong Team Effort to Finish the Indoor Season

The team used point scorers in nearly every event at the Proviso East Pirate Classic to take home a 3^rd place finish. Luke Adair won the 1600. Torrance Freeman finished 2^nd in the 200 and 3^rd in the 60. Ubaldo Rodriguez finished 3^rd in the 800. Cobey McGregory finished 3^rd in high jump. Jake Michel finished 2^nd in the 200-meter hurdles. Curtery Clark finished 2^nd in the triple jump. A true team effort across the board.

9. Senior sprinters transitioning to high hurdles.

A track team needs athletes to fill numerous roles and often that means stepping up and trying new events to find a best fit. Last year, Jake Michel and Christian Ndegoe tried their hand at 300 hurdles and they found a great fit and an event their can find success in. This year Christian has stepped up a few notches on the hurdles to try out the high hurdles, he has been joined by Saaranash Amin in taking on this new role. Both guys have taken quickly to the event. Their willingness to try a new event is going to be a big step for the team moving forward.

8. Throws group growing in size

Coach Ibarra has started to build a strong pipeline from the freshman football team to the throws crew, this year the weight-men have a growing group that is driven by a majority underclassmen. With the leadership from senior throwers like Tyler Ibarra, Justin Bannister, and Anil Rampersaud the group is a great place to have some breakout performances.

7. Young distance crew takes big steps forward

Spencer Kazak ran 5:33 in his first 1600, 3 weeks later he ran 10:57 for 3200. Spencer is a newcomer to the team, and he represent a trend with the young distance newcomers. Sam Napoleon has also taken some big steps, dropping from 2:40 and 5:49 in his first 800 and 1600 down to 2:26 and 5:30. Joey DesGarennes has been a huge upside for the distance crew, despite battling injuries he has played a big role with the young crew. With sophomore veterans Dom Barrios, Aiden Churchill, and Ezequiel Ocegueda leading this young crew, the future is bright.

6. New faces join veterans to bring sprint performances

Filling in the slots for sprint relays is always an exciting exercise for any coach. This season has been no different. A few new faces have stepped up and build some great chemistry with our veteran sprinters. Torrance Freeman has been a rock on the sprint crew for 2 seasons, just like Scott Freischlag, and Kalib Smith, these three have done a great job mixing and matching with newcomers like sophomore Na’Varyian Junior, freshman Greg Togle, as well as AJ Lopez who is now tearing up the baseball diamond for the Wildcats. That natural chemistry will pay dividends with the always fun 4x100 relay outdoors.

5. High jump steps up

Freshman Jake Joseph jumped at the chance to try a new event in high jump, and has made steady progress in the new event. Cobey McGregory made some big improvements leading into this season and when he made his season debut at York, he left the fieldhouse disappointed because he knew he had more. At Proviso he ended his indoor season with a huge PR of 1.75. Cobey will be a big factor for the team heading into the outdoor season as an athlete to watch as a state qualifier.

4. Freshman sprinters want to rock the 4x4

The 4x4 is the best event in track and field, but often times athletes are afraid of the event. The 400 is hard and it takes toughness to race with well. The Wildcats have a group of freshman who want to run this event and they want to run it bad. Stanford Moss is a beast and is a name to keep an eye out for. Emiliano Ramirez has gone from running 65 at the start of the season to being a sub 60 guy as a freshman. Brayden Lane has been Mr. Consistent in the middle-distance races. Jacob Trawicki is sneaky fast and brings the heat every day at practice. Izaiah Gaytan has filled in with strong performances in the 4x4 on a few occasions already. Joey DesGarennes drops down to the 4x4 whenever he can. This group is strong, but more importantly they are tough and love to compete.

3. Senior distance runners drop big PRs

Luke Adair has built the engine the last 12 months, his training has gone to another level and his racing is starting to show. Ubaldo Rodriguez is arguably the toughest athlete on the Wildcats, he balances so much but whenever he toes the line, everyone knows the performance will reflect that toughness. Adrian Castillo has dropped some big PRs as well. Michael Kazak and Aden Veljacic have seen huge gains in their performances this season, both guys ran great in the 3200 to close out their indoor season.

2. Tyler Weir record runs

At the beginning of the season the team was given a list of school records…the list had 1 typo. Tyler Weir has stepped up in a huge way this season. He is a man on a mission, and the consistency with training has been a game changer for him. When Tyler crossed the line at the Raptor invite, we thought he had broken the record in the 400, only to learn that he missed it by .2. Fast forward two weeks and another chance at the 400 and Tyler left no doubt smashing the record by half a second. The help of a true mid-distance training group has been a big part, with athletes like Diego Arce and Jake Michel joining forces with Tyler they can feed off each other’s energy. Tyler will be a name to watch in the 400 and potentially the 800 this outdoor season.

1. Horizontal jumps break records and bring the energy

No place has been more fun this season than the horizontal jumps pits, the slow clap has been engaged to the tune of massive PRs. Creating an environment that has rivaled 4x4 energy on multiple occasions. Jakob Banka has used that energy to set a F/S school record in the triple jump (he finished 4^th at SPC and 10^th at Illinois Indoor Championships). Curtery Clark has improved by nearly a meter in the triple. Prince Jones has launched out to over 6 meter jump. Frank Gibson has landed some monster jumps, and late in the indoor season Greg Togle threw his hat in the ring. The horizontal jumps are trending to potentially produce a few state qualifiers.

Now it is on to outdoors where the Wildcats will build off this momentum.