Track and Field: Batavia sprinters are poised for big spring

St. Charles East boys track and field coach Tim Wolf is enough of a realist to understand his team will suffer growing pains in the DuKane Conference.

“You can’t argue about how good our conference is in track,” Wolf said. “The [other schools’] sprinters are so deep. Lake Park is loaded in the field events like always. We are super young. We don’t have any guys who are in [that caliber of] the [conference] sprint scene.”

Batavia, the indoor league champion, may have the deepest collection of sprinters in the state in Class 3A.

“We have great versatility in the long sprints,” Batavia coach Dennis Piron said.

Bulldogs seniors Scot Parker, Jacob Hohmann and Jonah Fallon put on a collective tour de force during the indoor season.

Parker and Hohmann are returnees from the Bulldogs’ defending state champion 4x200 sprint relay quartet.

“Hohmann has been such a wonderful leader,” Piron said. “He is so consistent. Parker is somebody who has quietly done his job. He is a relay specialist. We have fantastic depth in the 200 and 400.”

Hohmann and Fallon were members of the Bulldogs’ state runner-up 4x400 relay.

Fallon, fifth in the 400 dash last June, posted the fastest indoor time in the state this season.

“He is probably one of the premier 400 runners in the state,” Piron said.

Batavia opens its outdoor season Friday at home at the Les Hodge Invitational.

Batavia is ranked behind only defending state champion Minooka in the state.

“It’s going to be insane outdoors,” Parker said. “We’re already rocking some really good [sprint relay] times.”

With Quintin Lowe joining the Bulldogs’ three returning all-state sprinters, Batavia produced a time of 3 minutes, 23.78 seconds in its final appearance indoors in the 4x400 relay.

The time bettered the championship effort by Plainfield North two days later at the Top Times Meet.

“I think this team can be No. 1 in the state and overtake Minooka,” Hohmann said.

Wilson makes Arcadia debut this weekend

Micah Wilson has been conspicuously silent since conquering his fellow DuKane Conference distance runners at the indoor league championship last month at Batavia.

The St. Charles East senior has made the pandemic-altered athletic landscape in recent years look like a temporary blip.

In three competitive seasons with a state series payoff, the Wisconsin-bound Wilson began his personal run to glory by leading the Saints to their first boys cross country state championship in the fall of 2019. Last June at the modified single-day Class 3A boys track and field state finals, Wilson took the gold medal in the 3,200-meter run. Five months later, Wilson dominated the Class 3A field to become the individual state cross country medalist.

“I couldn’t have any more confidence than I do right now,” Wilson said after sweeping the 1,600 and 3,200 runs at the DuKane Conference indoor championship in mid March.

After eschewing an invitation to the Top Times Meet, the unofficial indoor state championships in Bloomington, Wilson will make his outdoor season debut this weekend in suburban Los Angeles at the Arcadia Invitational, a premier national meet.

“I am just going to do the two-mile,” Wilson said. “I have been getting my [training] mileage in [since indoor season ended].”

Wilson has one overriding goal.

“I just want to break nine [minutes],” Wilson said. “I have been trying to do it for three years.”

Surtz in prime shape for outdoor

Rosary senior Lianna Surtz returned to her roots on the last day of the indoor season at the Top Times Meet.

As a freshman, Surtz captured the 1,600 run in the Class 2A girls state finals.

The Toledo-bound Surtz ran a commendable 5:07.55 in the 1,600 in Bloomington to beat the field.

The Royals were third in the state last June.