Boys track & field: Johnson dominates 1600 meters, runs leg in 4x800 to lead Sterling

STERLING – The Sterling, Rock Falls and Dixon track teams were in action at the 70th Annual Friday Night Relays, hosted by Sterling High School at Roscoe Eades Stadium.

The Golden Warriors took third in the eight-team meet with 72 points, while Dixon finished fourth (52) and Rock Falls placed eighth (21).

Leading the way for Sterling was Dale Johnson, dominating individually in the 1600-meter team race with a time of 4:36.66 – a full 12 seconds faster than the second-place finisher, Reponse Muhoza for Rock Island, who ran 4:48.84 – and running a strong leg in the 4x800 relay to help his relay team run an 8:21.32 to win by more than 18 seconds.

“It’s not a perfect night for it. I feel like I did fine,” Johnson said. “I actually took the past few days off of running due to recovering from an injury. I ran like a 4:36, that’s decent.”

[ Photos from the 2022 Sterling Night Relays ]

Fellow Sterling runner John Cid posted the third-best 1600-meter time, clocking in at 4:53.27.

Johnson said he enjoyed the unique format of the 1600 team race.

“I think it’s fun. We don’t usually do this,” he said. “The only time in the season ever this year we’ll get to do it. It’s just a fun race, get to do it with my team. Usually, I don’t run with any of my other teammates, but it was fun like that.”

In the 4x800, Johnson, Jordan Britt, Thomas Holcomb and Cid finished in 8:21.32, well ahead of second-place Dixon (Jack Johnson, Jacksen Ortgiesen, Aaron Conderman, Jacob Gusse), who completed the run in 8:39.62.

Johnson, Britt, Holcomb and Dylan Doss took third in the 4x400, recording a time of 3:35.34.

In shot put, Dixon finished atop the podium, led by Dre Jackson, who recorded a winning throw of 44.15 meters. Jackson also won the discus with a toss of 14.93 meters.

“Today was definitely a trying day. It was the most rain we’ve seen while I was throwing. It was pouring, so it was really hard to get warm,” Jackson said. “Shot put, I definitely posted a lot more, because it was a lot longer wait for shot put, in the rain. It was definitely hard to get warm, causing my throws to not be as far. I had a good day, I won both, but I gotta hold myself to a higher standard. It wasn’t a personal best day, but I feel it was a successful day.”

Jackson said he enjoyed the chance to compete alongside his teammates for a change, but he typically prefers the regular individual events.

“I don’t prefer those because I like competing with my teammates. It definitely doesn’t bother me,” he said. “I love getting any chance to get out there and compete. It’s different, it’s like a breath of fresh air, doing something else. We got to go out there and compete together instead of competing with each other, so I do like doing these.”

Sterling’s Anthony Amezola took second in the shot put, recording a throw of 13.98 meters, while teammate Alejandro Arellano nabbed third in the discus with a toss of 40.94 meters.

The Dukes got another first-place finish in the 4x400, as Gusse, Johnson, Ortgiesen and Sky Goral completed the race in 3:30.95. Alec Fulton nabbed a third-place finish for Dixon in the high jump, leaping 1.78 meters, and a second-place finish in the triple jump, leaping 12.38 meters.

Matthew Marcum picked up one of two wins for Rock Falls in the 300-meter hurdles, running it in 40.41 seconds.

“It was a bigger meet, so I kind of knew not to have too high of expectations,” Marcum said. “But I’m still happy about this run, because it’s cool, it’s kind of windy, but it’s still good to win.”

Marcum had some mixed feelings on the team race format.

“I do and I don’t like it,” he said. “I don’t like it because sometimes it seems like I have to rely too much on [teammates], but at the same time I do like it, because it keeps it fresh and something new to do instead of just the same old, regular thing that you have.”

Sterling’s Andrew Bland took third in the 300m hurdles with a time of 43.67 seconds.

The Rockets also won the non-scoring 4x100 weightmen relay, as Keagan Hicks, Israel Alvarado, Aidan Kobbeman and Vincent Lombardo finished in 51.80 seconds. The Sterling relay team of Amezola, Arellano, Christian Beasley and Cole Stumpenhorst took second in the event, clocking a time of 52.56 seconds.

Kohle Bradley had the only other top-3 finish for Rock Falls in pole vault, clearing 3.20 meters to tie Sterling’s Brandeis Shore.

The Warriors also had the top two runners-up in long jump, where Ayden Schoon jumped 6.02 meters for second place, and Cale Ledergerber jumped 6.00 meters for third.

United Township won the team title with 96 points, and Galesburg was second with 84.