Area boys on track to make up for lost time

The boys of the track and field are back after a year taken away by the pandemic.

The 2019 season produced 13 state qualifiers and three state medalists, including a pair of Hall Red Devil relays.

There just three returning state qualifiers from the 2019 season, St. Bede senior Zach Roebuck (110 hurdles), St. Bede junior Duncan Lawler (high jump) and Amboy-LaMoille-Ohio junior Brock Loftus (3200).

“This season is going to be very unique after missing last season. I am looking forward to just seeing kids compete. Our practices so far have been more about knocking off the rust than anything else,” Princeton coach Dan Foes said.

Princeton

There are just four seniors out in the Tigers camp, including four-year members Caleb Haring and Grant Foes, who are valuable in the throws.

Ronde Worrels, best known for football, is out for a second year after having his first year cut short by COVID, having what Foes called “one great meet” before the shutdown. Another footballer, Cael Davis, is a versatile athlete who can be good at several events, Foes said.

There are seven juniors, including sprinters Logan Glancy, Keegan Fogarty, Drew Harp and Ethan Thompson. Jake May and Mack Williams are leaders of the distance crew while Pierce Miller will man the throws.

Foes said he is still learning about his five sophomores who had their freshmen year end abruptly. Teegan Davis, Ethan Wallace and Gabe Glass will do some sprinting along with trying some field events while Chris Ossola and Christian Yepsen will run distance.

The 2021 season brings in freshmen Bennett Williams, Jack May and Payne Miller in the throws with Evan Driscoll, Ashton Bland and Andrew Peacock sprinting and jumping.

“All in all with this season, anything goes,” Foes said. “We will be sharing athletes with both wrestling and baseball this year, so we are just looking for the kids to compete and have fun. Any successes we have will just be icing on the cake.”

Bureau Valley

The Storm will aim for quality, if not quantity this season with a squad of just 11 competitors. Drew Spencer (sprints) is the lone senior on a squad including five juniors, three sophomores and two freshmen.

“We’ve got a pretty small group this year, but they’re willing to try whatever they need to for the team to succeed,” BV coach Dan DeVenney said. “Our junior class is a pretty strong class that has some versatility to it. They can cover a lot of events for us. They’ve also had some talented classes in front of them that they’ve had to sit and wait behind, and now they’re really getting an opportunity to show their stuff.

“The sophomore and freshman classes should really be grouped together since they’ve never had an entire high school track season before.

Team members are juniors Nevin Bolin (sprints/jumps), Davey Dietz (distance), Noah Harris (sprints/jumps), Brady Higgins (sprints/throws), Elija Kruse (throws/sprints), sophomores Elijah House (distance), Ben Roth (distance) and Beau Spencer (sprints) and freshmen Eli Attig (sprints/throws) and Evan Entas (sprints/throws).

DeVenney said the freshmen and sophomores will have early opportunities to gain some experience and contribute to the team.

“This group might be a little smaller than what we’ve had in the past, but they are driven to see the blue track at EIU. They’ve really had to adapt this past year, and I think that will pay off for them this season,” DeVenney said.

St. Bede

The Bruins return a pair of state qualifiers in Roebuck and Lawler.

Roebuck won the 110-meter hurdles at the Orion Sectional, while Lawler placed second in the high jump.

Coach Marty Makransky thinks the Bruins could put together 400-meter and 1600-meter relays that have a chance to qualify for state. Junior Austin Godwin and Roebuck are potential legs of the 400 relay.

Junior Tyreke Fortney will split time with the baseball team.

“He’s available, but he’s also a starter on the baseball team,” Makransky said. “When he’s with us, he’s everything you’ve seen in football.”

Makransky hopes to see progress from his athletes throughout the season.

“We want to always strive for performance improvements from the first practice to the last meet,” Makransky said. “We want to qualify as many athletes to the state meet as we can. Therefore, along the way, competing well against our conference in duals and in the conference track meet is extremely important.”

Hall

The Red Devils have a small squad with only 10 athletes out this spring after losing a lot to graduation, including two-time state champion Marshall Walk.

“What I have seen so far is they work hard at every practice and work at making improvements,” Malerk said.

Hall returns senior Kaden Crowther (distance) and juniors Zack Bosi (sprints, triple jump), Tanner Englehaupt (hurdles, high jump) and Caleb Savitch (pole vault, relays), while newcomers to watch are junior Dominic Guerrini (sprints) and freshmen Caleb Bickett (sprints), Anthony Fiocchi (sprints), Gage Szymovic (mid-distance, distance) and Luke Bogatitus (distance, mid-distance).

Malerk expects Bosi in the triple jump and Savitch in the pole vault have a chance to qualify for the state meet.

Malerk said he’s looking for improvement throughout the season.

“(Our goals are) to go to each meet and be competitive, but most importantly to have fun and consistently improve,” Malerk said.

Amboy-LaMoille-Ohio

Loftus, a junior from Ohio, qualified in the 3200 as a freshman, ranked second on the BCR Honor Roll with a time of 10:54.19