ALAH Jr. High Knights Track and Field Close Home Season with Tuscola East Prairie

By Editor | April 29, 2025 |

In the last home meet of the ALAH jr. high season with Tuscola East Prairie, eighth grade Knights from right to left, Nolan Bartley, Jase Kingery, and Donovan Vanausdoll race with Tuscola’s Cohen Jones in the 110 meter hurdles. Kingery took first in 16.7, with Vanausdoll, second in 18.5, Jones, third in 19.9 and Bartley in fourth in 20.4. The eighth grade Knights took first place in all thirteen events at the meet and won with 82 points.

By Sally McCarthy

On Thursday, April 24, the jr. high boys and girls track and field teams wrapped up their 2025 home season in a dual meet with Tuscola East Prairie. This meet also finished the small meet portion of the jr. high schedule as the rest of their meets will be multi-team events.

The boys won both the seventh and eighth grade portions of the meet with the seventh grade winning 70 to 34 and the eighth grade topping Tuscola 82 to 22. The girls’ teams each took second in the team standings.

Winning events for the girls were: in the seventh grade, Kyndall Crist who captured two first place finishes in the 100 with a PR time of 14.1 and in the 200 in a PR of 30.1 and Kylan Hall who won the 800 meters with a PR of 3:01.9. The seventh grade girls recorded twelve PRs in the last meet on their home track.

For the eighth grade, Gwen Herring took first in the 800 with a time of 2:56.1; Zoey Mendoza won the high jump at 4’ 6” and those two along with Payton Tinkle and Macee Boddy combined to win the 4 X 4 relay in 4:51.4.

In the seventh grade boys’ division, the Knights finished first in nine of the thirteen events contested. Abel Lat was a double winner taking first in the 110 meter hurdles in a PR time of 19.1 and the 200 meters in 28.3. Gabe Brown also won two events, both PRs. His shot put toss was 25’ 6” and he threw the discus 70’ 1”. Other individual winners in the seventh grade were Camden Casteel in the 1600 at a PR of 5:49.6; Brodie tied for first in the high jump with a leap of 4’ 2”; and Kael Ward won the 400 meters with a PR of 1:05.9. The seventh grade swept the relays with Eli Burket, Noah Albright, Griffin Ponder, and Bowyer McGrath running a 1:02.7 to win the 4 X 1. Eli Burket, Ward, Carter, and Lat, winning the 4 X 2 relay with a PR time of 1:56.5 and Micah Burket, Carter, Lat, and Ward taking first in the 4 X 4 with yet another PR of 4:39.2. All told the seventh grade boys had fourteen individual PRs and two relay PRs at the meet.

The eighth grade boys took first place in all thirteen events in the meet! Three Knight were double winners, Bentley Hutson, 100, 12.5, PR and 400, 55.9, PR, Donovan Vanausdoll, shot put, 42’ 7” and discus, 137’ 1”; and Beau Green with PRs in both of his signature events, the 800 at 2:13.2 and the 1600 meters with a near jr. high record time of 4:49.6. The record stands at 4:48.34 and Beau will have more opportunities to lower that mark. Other individual winners for the eighth grade were: Jase Kingery, 110 meter hurdles, 16.7; Griffin Hilton, 200, 26.5; Carson Lane, long jump, 17’ 2.5”, PR; and Nolan Bartley, high jump, 5’ 0”. The three winning relays were the 4 X 1 with Bartley, Greyson Yoder, Brian Hadley, and Denton Marner running 55.6; the 4 X 2 of Kingery, Hilton, Vanausdoll, and Hutson, in a time of 1:42.2; and Kingery, Hutson, Vanausdoll, and Green running 3:57.4 in the 4 X 4 relay.

Left on the schedule for the ALAH jr. high track and field teams are the Mt. Zion Invitational on Saturday, May 3, the Jr. High Okaw Conference meet at Cerro Gordo on May 5, the IESA Class 2A Sectional on May 10 at Tuscola, and the IESA Class 2A State Track and Field Championships on May 16 and 17 in East Peoria.

Other seventh grade boys’ results from April 24

100M: Eli Burket, 2nd, 14.0; Bowyer McGrath, 3rd, 15.0; Noah Albright, 15.0, PR; Donovan Graham, 17.4, PR

200M: Eli Burket, 2nd. 30.1; Noah Albright, 32.2, PR

400M: Micah Burket, 3rd, 1:11.4; Brodie Carter, 1:12.7; Bowyer McGrath, 1:16.7; Nate Blaudow, 1:22.0; Griffin Ponder, 1:26.0

800M: Camden Casteel, 2nd, 2:40.5, PR; Cody Miller, 3rd, 2:41.9, PR

1600M: Cody Miller, 3rd, 5:55.3, PR

110M Hurdles: Nate Blaudow, 2nd, 22.0, PR

Shot Put: Micah Burket, 21’ 2”

Discus: Donovan Graham, 36’ 5”

High Jump: Nate Blaudow, 3rd, 4’ 2”

Long Jump: Bowyer McGrath, 2nd, 12’ 6”; Kael Ward, 3rd, 12’3”; Griffin Ponder, 11’ 0”

Other eighth grade boys’ results from April 24: