Knight’s Men Run 3rd at Mt. Zion

The ALAH Knights high school boys track team traveled to Mt. Zion’s indoor track facility for the host school’s annual Invitational on March 9. Senior Trey Wardrip clears the high jump bar at the meet. Trey’s best jump was 1.60 meters or 5’ 3”.

The ALAH boys traveled to Mt. Zion March 9 to compete in their annual Invitational indoor meet.

Held on a fast 200 meter track in their beautiful fieldhouse, 16 teams gathered to compete, including Clinton, Decatur Eisenhower, Decatur McArthur, Flora, Springfield Lanphier, Meridian, Okaw Valley, Springfield SHG, Sangamon Valley, Shelbyville, Decatur St. Teresa, Sullivan, Taylorville, Warrensburg-Lathom, ALAH, and the host Braves.

The host win the event by 10 points over St. Teresa with our locals 1 point back in 3rd while competing on short rest after their opening efforts at EIU 3 days earlier. The Knights also were a bit short handed with an athlete or two not making the trip and several events not entered.

Senior standout Max Allen turns in the outstanding mark in the meet running a Class 1A State leading 400 time of 52.90 to win the event by an incredible 6 seconds. Max also places 8th in the 60 dash in 7.42.

Senior weightman, Austin Abercrombie goes 5th in the shot put at 41’6-1/2”.The 4 x 200 relay runs to 6th place with a time of 1:44.38. Participants were Mason Allen, Carter Pratt, Keaton Korando, and Austin Stutzman.

The Knight’s distance crew piled up a plethora of scoring efforts. Logan Beckmier led off with a victory in the 3200 in 10:15.30. He was followed by teammates Lyle Adcock (3rd) and Jake Adcock (4th) in 10:58.31 and 10:59.39 respectively.

Seniors Jace Green and Jacob Duzan toed the line next in the 800. Green trots to a PR of 2:10.45 to place 3rd. Duzan is not far behind placing 6th in 2:17.91

Hitting the line less than an hour after the 800, Green lined up with Beckmier in the fast heat of the 1600. Battling with excellent runners from Mt.Zion, Eisenhower, and Flora, Beckmier goes 4th in 4:51.97 and Green grabs 5th in 4:55.06. Freshman Caden Binder logs his maiden race of the year hitting the finish in a big PR of 5:38.67 to finish 19th of 34.

The last points scored on the night were in the meets final event, the 4 x 400 relay. Dealing with injuries and fatigue, the original lineup was unable to go to the starting line. After just completing the 1600 and as a group having logged over 7 miles on the night, Beckmier, Lyle Adcock, Duzan, and Green took the baton across the line first in their section in 3:58.51, fastest of the meet at the time. Anxiously waiting the conclusion of the final section, our guys finish 4th just behind St.T, Taylorville, and Mt. Zion.

Non scoring efforts include: Mason Allen/60 @ 7.90. Austin Stutzman /60@8.14. Carter Pratt/ 60@8.18 Gavin Mechling /200@27.89 Ryan Appleby /60HH@12.26 Jacob Tighe/SP@32’6 ½” Trey Wardrip/HJ@5’3” Garrett Casteel/LJ@14’3”

At this time, Several Knights have qualifying times/distances for the Illinois Top Times State Indoor Championships at Illinois Wesleyan on March 25th. They have one more opportunity to improve their marks on March 19th in the venerable U of I Armory at the highly competitive Gene Armor Invite where they again will go against teams from 1A,2A and 3A classes.

Pack a lunch and go to Champaign to support this outstanding group of athletes who proudly represent our communities!