Boys track and field: Records fall at Top Times meet

Few records were safe at the Illinois Prep Top Times boys track and field meet at Illinois Wesleyan's Shirk Center on Saturday.

In what is considered the unofficial indoor state meet for Illinois, the field events in the Class AA session provided the early signs of what was to come the rest of the day.

In the Class 2A high jump, Vernon Hills senior Noah Agnew helped to break the Class AA record by clearing a school-record 6-10 along with Darryl Sullivan of downstate Marion.

In the end, Sullivan tied the meet record by clearing 7-0.25 but the day couldn't be considered a disappointment at all by the Tennessee-bound Agnew.

"I've been messing around with 6-8 since last year and I was always getting looks at it but never finishing like I would live," Agnew said. "I was over 6-10 by a good amount before and couldn't close it out. But for me to get it today was huge for my confidence going outdoors."

On the track and in the field, six records were set between Class 2A and 3A.

Two were broken by Cahokia senior standout Jamari Ward while Galesburg senior Josh Eiker closed out the meet breaking a 20-year-old meet record by winning the 200 in 21.57.

While it wasn't a meet record, the performance by Grayslake Central junior Jack Aho was good enough for a school indoor mark.

Aho did make it interesting as he took home top honors in the 3A 1,600.

Trailing West Aurora senior Connor McCue the entire race, Aho turned on the after burners with 150 meters remaining in the race to win in a personal best 4:17.49.

It was all part of Aho's pre-race strategy.

"I've been in this situation before and I am confident in my kick," Aho said. "I felt good and with 150 to go is when I usually turn it on and I did that today."

Aho wasn't the only Ram to hit the winner's circle. Senior Connor Gosell admittedly wasn't feeling himself on Saturday.

But his performance in the high jump was good enough to win an indoor state title.

Gosell cleared 6-6 and had fewer misses than runner-up Sebastian Gutierrez of Belvidere North to win the tiebreaker.

"I just wasn't feeling all that great today," Gosell said. "I am ready to get outdoors and get going."

Tradition for the Lake Park Lancers is coming to this meet and winning the shot put and the Lancers did one better than that on Saturday.

Senior Dylan Scheirich and junior Chago Basso finished 1-2 in the event as the Lancers again showed off their field event depth that have made them among the elite programs in the state.

Scheirich won the event throwing 57-10 just ahead of Basso who came in second with a toss of 57-9.

Other top performances on the afternoon came in the pole vault in both 2A and 3A.

Burlington Central junior Jared Trupp cleared 14-3 - 3 inches better than his season best to finish second in the 2A event. Teammate Keegan Whitmer was third clearing 13-3.

In the 3A pole vault, Grant senior Nick Peterson cleared a personal best 14-6 to finish fifth in the event.

The Bulldogs also brought their 1,600-relay team to the meet and nearly pulled off a wild come-from-behind win.

Octavian Wells, Kemar Miller, Timmy Brundidge and Ben Schram dropped two full seconds from their seed time and placed second to top-seeded Minooka running 3:25.93.

Vernon Hills junior Tim Krashevsky looked like he is ready to medal again in the 800-meters as he ran second in the 2A event. Krashevsky ran 2:01.06 just behind Danny Rosen of Northside Prep.

Lakes senior Robert Kuhlmann also was a second-place finisher in the 3A 800-meters running 1:58.26 to finish just behind Evan Radomski of Whitney Young.

Antioch junior Landon Keefover had his best performance of the indoor season finishing second in the 60-meter hurdles running a season-best 8.33.