Arcola High School boys and girls track has a total of 40 on the 2026 roster

By Editor | April 1, 2026 |

By Mike Monahan

ARCOLA – The Arcola High School boys and girls track team has had one outdoor meet, March 24 and are scheduled to host Okaw Valley, Tri-County, Villa Grove and Shiloh Thursday at 4 p.m.

The boys, coached by Tommy Eddleman, have 23 on the roster, including four seniors, four juniors, nine sophomores and six freshmen. The girls, coached by Hugo Garza have 17 on the roster, including five seniors, three juniors, four sophomores and five freshmen.

“I’m pretty happy with the numbers,” said Eddleman. “We do have a lot of guys doing baseball and track this year so we will be sharing quite a bit.”

Garza, who is in his first year as head coach is happy with his numbers as well, but added, “There is definitely room to grow and potential track athletes in the building that did not come out this year. With that being said, the group I have now has been awesome and I can’t wait to see how much growth as the season progresses.”

Boys

Returning lettermen are seniors Nic Alanis, Dawson McMillan and Miguel Trevino along with juniors Tony De La Garza, Brody Philips and Remi Roberts-McGeehon as well as sophomores Laison Barron, Emmett Langley and Ronnie Vega.

“I think our field events will be pretty strong this year,” said Eddleman. “We have a lot of people returning in the field events from last year who scored us points at a lot of meets. I also think we have the opportunity to have a good 4x100m relay again this year.

Roberts-McGeehon was second in the LPC meet in the 400 last year with a time of 52.50 and was seventh in the long jump at 19-9, while Phillips was second in the triple jump at 42-5 ½ as Arcola earned fourth place out of 12 teams.

We start every year by just doing some general conditioning to get everyone kind of back in shape,” said Eddleman.” Then we start to split everyone up based on what events we think they might be doing. We have been doing a lot of speed training inside because we don’t have a lot of places where we can do longer sprints. We also have been doing some drills inside for long jump which I hope helps when we can get outside more often.”

The team lost Gale Elizondo, Jayden Henson-Stice, Braden Phillips and Tanner Thomas due to graduation.Despite that Eddleman is happy with the leadership on this year’s team.

“Phillips and Roberts-McGeehon are currently the leaders of the runners. They do an excellent job in practice and always give it their best so they are good leaders by example. The throwers are all good leaders and help each other out a lot when one of the coaches can’t be with them. Emmett Langley has been very vocal in practice trying to help out the other throwers if he sees something they may be doing wrong or need help with.”

The relays will change depending on baseball. Edelman feels the 4×100 will be strong again. On days when the baseball players are present the 4×100 will consist of Phillips, Roberts-McGeehon, Canton Wesch and Vega otherwise it is likely to be Roberts-McGeehon, Barron, Emilio Feuents and Cesar Rivera. The 4×200 will be the same, but Blake Pilkington will also be thrown in the mix when he is healthy. Another person that could be in the 4×200 is Jaxson McCullough. The 4×400 is likely to consist of Barron, Pilkington, Rivera and Cortez or Max Lyons. Phillips is the lone returner from the state 4×100 which finished fourth in 42.96. The relay also consisted of Henson-Stice, Braden Philips and Thomas.

As for the indoor season, Eddleman thought it went well.

“I thought it was a great experience for the freshman to get a feel for a high school meet and to go up against some great competition,” said Eddleman. “We had some injuries people were dealing with coming off of the basketball season so not everyone got to run. We are starting to get back to full strength so I will be excited to get everyone healthy. We had a lot of PRs during field events this indoor season so I’m hoping that can spring us into the outdoor season with some good performances.”

Girls

The girls have Mykah Gomez and Ema Simpson back as seniors along with juniors Aymara Leal and Jaiden Miller and sophomores Olivia Gisinger, Keyla Hernandez and Aubrilla Moreno.

Last season the girls placed fifth in the LPC meet, which saw Simpson earn second in the 400 (1:01.77) and seventh in the 200 (27.85). She was also in sixth place 4×100 (54.14) along with Herndadez and Leal and the second place 4×400 with Moreno (4:30.41). The 4×800 which returns Wright and Gisinger ran a 13:01.71, good for sixth place and the 4×200 has Hernandez and Leal and Moreno back from last year. They finished sixth in 1:58.83.

“It has been great,” said Garza of being the head coach. “I get to have a lot more responsibility and work with a lot more athletes and not just the throwers (was the throw coach last season) which is great. I get to have Eddleman teach me the ropes on some things from a head coach perspective.”

Simpson placed 21st in the Class 1A state track meet last May in the 400 with a time of 1:02.10.

The girls lost Hayden Gauna, Crystal Ramirez, Shelby Roberts-McGeehon due to graduation.

“The leadership has been pretty good,” said Garza. “We have some upperclassmen who have been in the program for 3-4 years now so they understand what goes into it to be successful; Simpson is one of them.”

Garza feels they have the 4×100 and 4×200 relays that could be very good as well as “The 100, 200 and 400 who will be looking to make some big jumps as the season goes on,” said Garza.

Although Gisinger, Scarlett Montano, Aymara Leal and Simpson ran the indoor 4×200 Garza said there will be plenty of opportunities to find the four that best fit that relay. Jaiden Miller, Anahi Cooper and Hernandez are three others that could be in the 4×200.

“It is going to be rough to see who the best four will be, but It is going to be fun to see who wants to compete,” said Garza. “However things could be tentative with some girls in softball.”

Garza was happy they got to practice outside many days saying, “It has been very beneficial to what we are trying to accomplish.”

As for goals Garza said,”I would say as far as extrinsic goals, that would be to try and score in our conference meet and to send as many athletes as possible to state. The biggest intrinsic goal would be for these girls to see their overall growth from the beginning of the season to the end, not just PR’s (personal records). That way they see all of the work they put in was not for nothing.”

ARCOLA GIRLS TRACK ROSTER

Coach: Hugo Garza

Seniors: Anahi Cooper, Mykah Gomez*, Delia Leal, Marina Neutzling, Ema Simpson*

Juniors: Aymara Leal*, Jaiden Miller*, Jalena Oyervides

Sophomores: Olivia Gisinger*, Keyla Hernandez*, Aubrilla Moreno*, Willow Wright

Freshmen: Stevee Griffith, Averi Kutz, Reese Miller, Scarlett Montano, Ellis Wilson

*-returning letter winner

ARCOLA BOYS TRACK ROSTER

Coach: Tommy Eddleman

Seniors: Nic Alanis*, Dawson McMillan*, Miguel Trevino*, Canton Wesch,

Juniors: Tony De La Garza*, Roman Moreno, Brody Phillips*, Remi Roberts-McGeehon*

Sophomores: Laison Barron*, Jahel Galaviz, Blain Helmuth, Emmett Langley*, Blake Pilkington, Cesar Rivera, Jayden Smith, Connor Truex, Ronnie Vega*

Freshmen: Alex Cortez, Emilio Fuentes, Lucas Janes, Max Lyons, Jaxson McCullough, Trevin Plank

*-returning letterman

ARCOLA BOYS AND GIRLS TRACK SCHEDULE 2026

(all meets start at 4 p.m. unless noted)

Thursday OKAW VALLEY, TRI-COUNTY, VILLA GROVE, SHILOH; Tuesday TUSCOLA, WESTVILLE, ACADEMY HIGH; April 11 at Arthur Lovington Atwood Hammond Invite, 10 a.m.; April 14 at Salt Fork; April 16 at Paris Tiger Relays; April 21 at Sullivan Tri-County meet; April 24 at Tuscola Invitational

May 1 at Cumberland Invitational, 4:30 p.m.; May 4 at Tuscola, 4:30 p.m.; May 5 at Sullivan Invite; May 8 at Lincoln Prairie Conference meet at Cerro Gordo, 2 p.m.; May 13 girls Class 1A sectional at TBA; May 15 boys at Shelbyville Open, May 20 boys Class 1A sectional at TBA; May 21, 23 Class 1A state meet at Eastern Illinois Universities O’Brien Stadium in Charleston, TBA; May 28, 30 Class 1A state meet at Eastern Illinois Universities O’Brien Stadium in Charleston, TBA

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