Behind Brady Anderson and Levi Milder, Morrison romped to the 2025 IHSA state title in Class 1A track and field. With both sprinters returning, the Mustangs have positioned themselves for another championship run after Thursday’s preliminaries.
The highlight for Morrison was a new 1A record in the 4x200 meter relay. With Milder leading off to Josh McDearmon, third leg Kolton Swaim got the baton with a 20-meter lead. Swaim held that before Anderson rushed down the straightaway with the meet announcer alerting him to a possible meet record.
With the crowd at O’Brien Field cheering him on, the defending 100-meter champ broke the finish line at 1:26.47. Anxiously looking back at the scoreboard after finishing, Anderson knew immediately it was a record, as his Mustangs held the record of 1:26.87 in winning the race during the 2025 finals.
The time of 26.47 ranks No. 3 in Illinois for all three classes this season. Only Evanston (1:24.94) and Homewood-Flossmoor (1:26.00) from 3A have run faster.
The 4x100 relay of McDearmon, Swaim, Milder and anchor Anderson were only 0.12 off a state record (Herrin 2010) with a 42.25 clocking to lead all qualifiers.
The 100 meters on Saturday promises to be quite the race, with the top three finishers from 2025 (Anderson, Milder and Alec Schlichting of Le-Win) qualifying, along with Kamden Flenner of Tuscola, who has the overall best time in 1A this season. All were between 10.64-10.67 in the prelims. Last year, Anderson won the championship at 10.74.
Milder is the defending 200 champ and bested a 42-year old meet record of 21.36 in the prelims. The only problem was that Flenner beat him 21.12-21.13 in their heat.
Moments later, it was Anderson blazing to a 21.10 finish. None of those times will go into the record book, though, as all were wind-aided.
Running against top seed Landyn Mitchell of Centralia Christ of our Rock (14.25) in the 110 hurdles, McDearmon added another finalist for Morrison with a 14.80, good for seventh best time out of the prelims.
Last year, Morrison scored 60 points in the finals and are on target to approach that mark again. In forecasting prelims results, it will be difficult for any of the other contending teams (Tuscola, Bismarck-Henning, Pleasant Plains, Dwight, Auburn, Colfax) to attain that many points.
As has been a tradition for them, Forreston-Polo will be sending multiple relays to the finals.
In the 4x200 relay, third-leg Mercer Mumford brought F-P from third place to first in their heat. Anchor Brody Schwartz increased that lead further in a 1:29.37 win. Hayden Vinnedge led off, followed by Jonathan Milnes.
Coming in as the top seed in the 4x1,600 relay, F-P advanced with a 3:26.15 to win its heat. Eli Ferris joined Mumford, Vinnedge and Schwartz. Favorite Auburn will go into the finals with the top time of 3:22.
Fulton finished in with the fourth-best prelim time in the 4x100 relay with a 42.98, as third leg Mason Bray put his team in position for the win. Anchor Brody Glazier has a 5-meter lead and held it for the win. Wyatt Connor and CJ Struckman ran one and two.
Oregon’s Daniel Gonzalez is in position to place again in the 800 meters with a 1:57.88 clocking, good for sixth best. He has familiar running mates in the finals with Rockford Christian’s Evan White and Winnebago’s Daniel Hodgdon joining him. All three seniors placed last year.
Freshman Ian Hassler of Amboy had a big day with qualifications in the discus and shot put.
He hit a 15.72 (51-foot-7) personal best on his last throw of the shot prelims to advance to the finals, where he is 10th out of the 12 finalists. His previous best was 50-3.
In the discus, he sits in fourth place headed into Saturday with a mark of 48.40 (158-9). He also had a 156-5 to start the day.
The distance to beat in the discus is 51.10 (167-8) by Graham Meister of Dwight, who set a 1A record in the shot put at 19.88 (65-3).
Erie-Prophetstown, long a pole vault power, had sophomore Carson Eyrich and junior Nathan Punke make the cut for the finals with 3.95 (12-11) clearances. Both were without any misses.
Sophomore Lane Decker gave E-P another finalist with a heat win of 40.81 in the 300 hurdles. Another area sophomore, Damian Bender of Amboy, will join him in the finals with an at-large berth of 40.77.