Knights Track and Field Compete at Annual Rantoul Indoor Invite – More Records Fall

By Editor | March 17, 2026 |

The 4×2 Relay broke the record, previously held by the 2025 team, with a time of 1:53.88. The relay consisted of Grace Romine, McKenna Blaudow, Summer Melton, and Bella Romine.

By SALLY McCARTHY

The Arthur Lovington Atwood Hammond track and field teams, for the third week in a row, took part in a meet held at the University of Illinois Armory. The meet on March 14 was the annual Rantoul Invite. The competition featured thirty-four schools from all three IHSA track and field classes.

The Knights’ girls took fifth place with 33 points out of twenty-four teams that scored in their division. The boys finished nineteenth out of thirty scoring teams.

As in most meets this season, new ALAH school records were established most likely helped by the strong competition with the larger schools. The boys’ 4 X 200 meter relay of Payton Warrior, Cruz Hale, Easton Frederick, and Daylon Doggett took time off their old mark of 1:36.8 set last year by running 1:35.76 on Saturday. The girls continue to set new records in bunches! They came home with five new records from this meet. All three relays set new marks with Grace Romine, McKenna Blaudow, Summer Melton, and Bella Romine taking their 4 X 200 meter record of 1:55.55 down to 1:53.88. The 4 X 400 meter record time of 4:31.57 set by Emmalee Reel, Norma Mendoza, Lily Vanda, and Sophie Johnson was lowered to 4:27.67 by Reel, Vanda, Johnson, and Ruby Burton. Finally, Embrey Reardon. Kimberly Krutsinger, Johnson, and

Burton broke their own record of 10:58.17 set last year in the 4 X 800 meter by dropping almost twenty seconds off that time to 10:37.36. The girls also set two new individual records with Kimberly Krutsinger, for the third time this season, lowering her 1600 meter record to 5:49.77 from the 5:52.21 she set last week which was also good for a seventh place finish in that event. The fifth record to fall for the girls was in the triple jump. Bella Romine jumped 33’ 6.5” to break the old ALAH mark of 33’ 5” that was set by Alexa Miller in 2022.

The girls scored in all the relays, taking seventh in the 4 X 2 and 4 X 4 and were fifth in the 4 X 8. Bella’s triple jump was good for a second place and she took third in the long jump with a leap of 15’ 7.5”. Leighton Poulos also scored in the long jump finishing eighth with her jump of 14’ 9.75”. Ruby Burton was fourth in the 800 meters with a time of 2:32.47. Rounding out the scoring for the girls was Alex Clark in the shot put placing sixth with a throw of 33’ 11.25”. in addition to all the new records several athletes for both the boys and girls recorded personal records in their events.

Freshman distance runner Beau Green was the top finisher for the boys with his third place finish in the 3200 meters with a time of 10:07.88. This was Beau’s first time running the 3200 and he ran a very good time for his initial outing. Just have to mention that his fellow freshman Colton Snyder also had his first 3200 race and he just missed placing by finishing ninth with a very good time of 10:34.05. The aforementioned 4 X 200 meter relay took sixth in their record setting performance and that same foursome of Warrior, Hale, Frederick, and Doggett also finished in sixth place in the 4 X 400 meter relay with a time of 3:39.98.

A couple of corrections to last week’s track and field article need to be made. Daylon Doggett’s triple jump of 40’ 1.25” set a new school record. The old mark of 39’ 8” was held by Landon Waldrop since 2023. The other correction that needs to be made is in addition to Cooper Shoemaker tying the high jump record of 5’ 10” set by Kobe Wells in 2017, last year Cash Hale tied that mark also. So, now three athletes hold the ALAH indoor high jump record of 5’ 10”.

Next up for the Knights is the MTZ Final Qualifier at Mt. Zion on Saturday, March 21. It will be the last indoor meet before the Illinois Top Times Championship meet also known as Indoor State. That meet will be held at the Shirk Center on the campus of Wesleyan University. The Class 1A events are on Friday, March 27. Prior to that meet ALAH will open their outdoor season at a six team meet at Sullivan on Tuesday, March 24.

Girls’ Team Scores from the Rantoul Invite:
1. Normal University 117, 2. Eureka 97.5, 3. Troy (Triad) 59, 4. Sherrard 49, 5. Arthur Lovington Atwood Hammond 33, 6. Urbana 30, 7. Morton & Shelbyville 29.5, 9. Bloomington Central Catholic 27, 10. Monticello 15, 11. Pontiac 14, 12. Rantoul 13, 13. Stanford Olympia 11, 14. Villa Grove 10. Granite City 7, 16. Salt Fork, Oakwood, Paris, Riverton 6, 20. Heyworth, Madison, Bloomington Cornerstone Christian Academy, 5; 23. Champaign Centennial 3.5, 24. Decatur Eisenhower 1

Boys’ Team Scores from the Rantoul Invite:
1. Winnetka New Trier 69, 2. Troy Triad 53, 3. Normal Community 43, 4. Eureka 35, 5. Pontiac 32, 6. Bloomington Central Catholic 31, 7. Shelbyville, Springfield 30; 9. Morton 26, 10. Heyworth 22, 11. Paris 21.5, 12. Bloomington, Clinton, 21; 14. Granite City 19, 15. Monticello 18.5, 16. Urbana 17, 17. Rantoul 16, 18. Bartlett 13, 19. Arthur Lovington Atwood Hammond 12, 20 Bismarck Henning Rossville Alvin 11, 21. Champaign St. Thomas More 10, 22. Oakwood 9.5, 23. Salt Fork, Madison 7, 25. Bloomington Cornerstone Christian Academy 4, 26. Villa Grove 3, 27. Decatur Eisenhower, Herscher, Riverton, 1; 30. Stanford Olympia 0.5

Other Knights’ Girls’ Results:
60M: Keely Simpson, 8.80, PR
200M: Grace Romine, 28.37, PR; Skyler Graham 31.52
400M: Lily Vanda, 1:07.61, PR; Norma Mendoza, 1:07.77, PR
60M Hurdles: Emmalee Reel, 10.82, PR; Gwen Herring, 12.36
Shot Put: Rylie Ward, 32’ 5.75”, PR
High Jump: Zoey Mendoza, 4’ 7”
Triple Jump: Leighton Poulos, 29’ 3.75”
Other Knights’ Boys’ Results:
60M: Carson Reed, 7.92, PR
200M: Anthony Graham, 25.37, PR; Justin Schrock, 25.65
400M: Ismael Corona, 56.26, PR; Coby Drake, 58.22, PR
800M: David Briseno, 2:21.69, PR
1600M: Tristan Keagle, 5:39.16, PR
60M Hurdles: Jase Kingery, 10.26
Shot Put: Alex Olivero, 37’ 1”; Elijah Van Scyoc 36’ 11.5”
High Jump: Cooper Shoemaker, 5’ 8.75”; Nolan Bartley, 5’ 5”
Long Jump: Cannon Doggett, 18’ 0.5”, PR
Triple Jump: Daylon Doggett, 37’ 8.75”; Tristan Keagle, 38’ 8.5”