Collinsville Boys conclude Indoor Season

By Mark Jurgena

COLLINSVILLE — Two meets wrapped up the indoor track campaign for the Collinsville High School boys squad last week.

“It was a good indoor season we added some meets in there to give them the opportunity to do a little bit more,” said CHS track coach Darryl Frerker. 

Champaign meet

On Saturday three Kahoks traveled to Champaign-Urbana for the 44th Annual Gene Armer Classic at The Armory on the campus of the University of Illinois campus.

Devin Habermehl won the shot put title at the meet with a heave of 15.92 meters or 52’ 2 ½”. He outdistanced Jordyn Beverley of Marion who threw a personal best of 15.48 or 50’ 7 ½”.

Aydan Gratzl set a new CHS indoor school record with a jump of 12’ 6 ¼”. 

“The big one for me was Ayden Gratzl,” began Frerker. “Gratzl jumped well at the Gene Armer but it wasn’t an all-time PR. But at least he cleared the 12-6 mark. At practice the other day he was over 13 feet.”

His record vault earned him a tie for fourth place at the meet with Cole Sowinski of Monticello. Riley Hogan of Champaign (St. Thomas More) hit 4.20 meters or 13’ 7 ½” to win the meet.

Andrew Gonski ran a time of 4:54.40 in the 1600 meters.

IWU meet

On March 14 the Kahoks traveled to Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington for the Pontiac Indoor Invite at the Shirk Center.

While the Kahoks came back without an event winner, several Kahoks had excellent meets.

Habermehl and KJ Thorps-Watt came back with second-place finishes in a total of three events.

In the shot put, Habermehl marked his best throw at 15.48 meters or 50’ 7 ½” to take second place behind Joe Atkins of Washington. The Panther won the meet with a heave of 18.18 meters or 59’ 6 ¼”.

Kahok Kaden Hearn took sixth with a toss of 14.18 meters or 46’ 5 ¼”.

Thorps-Watt took second in the high jump by clearing 1.96 meters or 6’ 5 ¼” to finish at the same height as Jeremy Melton of Pontiac. However, Melton had fewer attempts to win the title. 

He also took second in the long jump with a leap of 6.37 meters or 20’ 8 ¾” to finish just behind Metamora’s Nick Walker who marked at 6.38 meters or 20’ 11 ¼”.

Kahok Jalek Nelson took second in the 400 with a personal best time of 52.86 seconds. That time placed him number six on the all-time Kahok list.

“He’s just a good senior and working hard,” said Frerker. “He’s competitive and it’s exciting to watch him compete.”

Griffin Schneid of Lisle (Benet Academy) won the 400 with a time of 52.65 seconds.

Trey Peterson set a new CHS indoor record in the 600 meters with a time of 1:28.66. He took third place. Blake Dillman of Mahomet-Seymour ran a time of 1:27.31 to win the race.

Kahok Amari Rodgers-Parrott took fourth in the 60 meter dash in a time of 7.22 seconds. Javyon Irwin of Mahomet-Seymour finished in 7.10 seconds to win.

Gratzl was tied for seventh in the pole vault with a mark of 3.75 meters or 12’ 3 ¾”. He tied with Monticello’s Sowinski (just like he did two days later). That mark placed him number four on the all-time indoor pole vault list at CHS.

Isaiah Whitaker of Bloomington (Central Catholic) took the title by clearing 5.11 meters or 16’ 9 ¼”.

Loyal Patterson ran the 200 in a time of 24.43 seconds to set a new PR and move into the number five spot in CHS history for Frosh/Soph runners.

Andrew Gonski ran a time of 10:32.56 in the 3200 meters for a personal record which also ranks him number three on the all-time list.

Freshman Chase Cummings ran the 1600 in under five minutes at 4:58.63. It was the second time this indoor season for him under the barrier.

In other Kahok results, DeAndre Brown established the CHS Frosh/Soph record and the number two spot all-time with a time of 1:34.05 while Will Slaznik took the number three spot all-time in the 600 with a time of 1:35.58.

Daniel Gutierrez-Trejo set a personal record in the 60-meter hurdles and moved to number 10 on Frosh/Soph all-time Indoor list.

Ryan McIntyre set a new PR in the 60 as did Gutierrez-Trejo in the 400 and Nelson in the long jump.

Upcoming Schedule

Collinsville returned to action on Wednesday with a dual meet against Granite City however results were unavailable at press time.

Monday CHS hosts the Kahok Krayz Relays at Kahok Stadium.