State awaits for SJO boys’ track and field team

Running and competing at O’Brien Stadium in late May is always the end goal for track and field teams.

Several members of the St. Joseph-Ogden High School boys’ track and field team will get to do so on the campus of Eastern Illinois University starting on Thursday at the Class 1A state meet.

Preliminaries take place Thursday before Saturday’s finals commence.
“Many of our athletes have been there before as competitors or alternates,” SJO coach Jason Retz said. “As an alternate it allows them to go through the motions and experience the excitement. Being on the stage with experience is very important.  We don’t just show up happy to be there. We show up competing to win.”

SJO will have three relays — the 400-meter relay, 800-meter relay and 1,600-meter relay — in Charleston. The 400 and 800 relays won sectional titles last Friday in St. Joseph and the quartet of Brady Buss, Aiden Meyer, Dwight Colvin and Lane Gaskin posted the top sectional time in the 800 relay.

“Having relays at state shows the depth of our team,” Retz said. “It’s one thing to be lead by one or two kids, but it’s another when there are many parts that contribute to the team success.”

The 800 relay ran a time of 1 minute, 31 seconds flat at the sectional meet, the same time Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley’s quartet compiled in sectional action last week.

“Our 800 relay had great exchanges and competed to win,” Retz said of the sectional performance. “They are a great group of men that are ready to go down to Charleston and run even faster. Coach Umbarger and Coach Steffen do an amazing job with our sprint crew having them run their best when it matters most.”

The 400 relay team, composed also of Buss, Meyer, Colvin and Gaskin, compiled the sixth-fastest sectional time in 43.49, setting up both sprint relays in a great position to bring home state medals this weekend. SJO will also have its 1,600 relay competing on Thursday.

And three individuals will get a chance to keep their respective seasons going past Thursday. Gaskin, a senior, qualified for state in the 200, junior Nolan Peacock will compete in the pole vault and sophomore Hayden Knott will do so in the shot put.

“As a senior, Lane has learned through experience how to take care of his body and run well in all of his races,” Retz said. “Hayden is just now starting to figure out shot put, and he has improved nearly 7 feet this year. He has a chance at finals if he can focus on going out, having fun and enjoying the moment. Nolan is coming back from an injury. He only started back vaulting a week ago and has been trying to shake the rust off. This state meet will be a great experience for him as he hopes to build on his performance in the future.  He had had a great junior year prior to injury that will hopefully fuel him into an amazing senior year.”