Minooka boys track and field positioned to make run for state hardware

In order to win a state championship in track and field, you obviously need to amass more points than all of the other teams entered in the meet.

How do you do that?

It’s not a clearly concrete answer, as teams can take a number of different paths to that goal. One path might to be take the efforts of one individual athlete excelling in a number of events. Another might be to load up in the relays in a hope of piling up enough points. Another still might be getting stacks of points from across the event calendar.

And how a team hopes to do that usually is pretty clear heading into the event.

But the funny thing about Minooka’s potential path to a Class 3A title this weekend at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston is that it might come by using any of those paths or even a combination of all of them.

Here’s a closer look at how the local contingent stands heading into the state finals.

Class 3A

The sheer number of Minooka qualifiers with high seeds makes it the favorite going into the finals to come home with the big hardware.

But things rarely go exactly in order of how the seeds fall. Even so, Minooka is a top three seed in three relays, including the 4x800-meter relay squad of Adam Shaw, Zachary Balzer, Emerson Fayman and Vincent Van Eck, which enters the event as the top overall seed from sectional times.

Individually, Tyler Colwell is the top seed in the 200 and the No. 3 seed in the 800. Van Eck is the seventh seed in the 800.

If those seeds hold or some other combination of finishes that gives the Indians essentially the same number of points, they should have enough to fend off the other likely challengers for the title, which include Neuqua Valley, Homewood-Flossmoor, Evanston and Normal Community West.

In addition, Minooka has five other events where it has athletes or teams seeded in the top 15, and with a slight improvement, those entrants could sneak up and steal even more points for the Indians’ cause.

Other athletes to watch from the area are Plainfield North’s Ryan Maseman, who enters the meet as the No. 1 seed in the 800 after winning the race with a blistering time at a highly competitive sectional. Maseman also joins Jalyn Givan, Josh Bedford and Nate Simpson in the 4x200 relay, where they are the No. 4 seed.

Lockport’s Gabe Czako will be busy Saturday, as he enters the meet as the No. 2 seed in the 110 high hurdles and the No. 6 seed in the 300 intermediate hurdles. He’s also a part of the fifth-seeded 4x200 relay that also includes Will Orban, Wade Welke and Ethan Gallagher.

Lincoln-Way Central’s Jake Mackowiak will be in the mix in the long jump, entering as the No. 3 seed.

Plainfield South’s quartet of Owen O’Shea, Jayce James, Gabe King and Niko Schultz is the No. 2 seed in the meet’s final event the 4x400 relay, and Schultz independently is the No. 6 seed in the 400.

Joliet West freshman sensation Marcellus Mines will be getting his first taste, but certainly not his last, of the state meet as he enters as the 1,600′s No. 6 seed.

Class 2A

A relatively small area contingent looks to do its most potential damage at the pole vault pit.

Reed-Custer has a pair of athletes in Evan Pickard and Vander Dransfeldt seeded in the top 12 in the event, with Pickard seeded seventh.

Coal City’s Asa Cooper, an individual event qualifier in three events, looks to be in the thick of things in both the long jump and the triple jump.

Class 1A

Seneca’s Carson Collet is the area’s only athlete seeded in the top 10 in any event.

Collet is the No. 9 seed in the pole vault but easily could move up from that seed, as he won the event easily in sectionals.