Daily Chronicle 2024 Boys Track and Field Athlete of the Year: Sycamore’s Eli Crome

An injury to one of Sycamore’s top athletes derailed the Spartans’ Class 2A boys track and field team title hopes at the state meet, so Eli Crome and the members of the 4x400-meter relay team knew a lot was riding on their race.

To make matters worse, a storm blew in during the preliminaries at the start of the relay that affected only the final heat in which Sycamore was running, adding a ton of time to the Spartans’ seed time.

But the Spartans won the heat to qualify for the finals and won a state title the next day, the same day Crome posted a personal best in the open 400 to take third. The two medals were the cap to an outstanding season and high school career for Crome, who is the Daily Chronicle 2024 Boys Track Athlete of the Year.

“It definitely feels great,” Crome said. “Not every athlete out there can say they are a state champion, so knowing I’m walking around every day as a champion is pretty awesome.”

The medals were the second and third of Crome’s career after he was on the 4x400 team that took sixth at state last season.

He said he cherishes all of his medals, but his personal-best time of 49.5 seconds in the 400 to take third meant a lot.

“It’s definitely awesome to get a medal with a relay team,” Crome said. “But I feel like getting an individual medal is a little more special because you can say you did it yourself without the help of three other guys.”

The Spartans entered the state meet hoping for a team title, but instead took seventh. An injury to Aidan Wyzard limited him to one leap in the long jump, in which he still cleared 6.91 meters to take second. It also knocked him out of the 4x100, 4x200 and open 100, all of which were projected top-three finishes for Sycamore.

Then came the weather. The Spartans finished their relay in 3:27.73, way behind the qualifying time to get to the final day. But because they won their heat, they made it to the finals. In the prelims they had to deal with a high wind the other three heats didn’t have. Right after the race – the last of the day in 2A – the start of the 3A meet was postponed.

So Dylan Hodges, Matthew Rangel, Devin Karda and Crome went out on Day 2 and posted a 3:19.21, a time that Crome said may have surprised some of the other teams but not the Spartans.

“All the other teams thought they were going to be able to pass us,” Crome said. “We ended up all having clean handoffs, and we ran our best times of the season and ended up with a win.”

Sycamore coach Matt Kosecki said he was preserving the 4x400 for most of the season. Hodges, Crome, Karda and Rangel ran only twice before the Interstate 8 Conference meet.

He said Crome is a runner who has built himself up over the course of four high school seasons, and that kind of perseverance was evident at the state meet.

“We were looking at all those things ready to happen,” Kosecki said. “As the day didn’t go quite how we wanted so they had to refocus themselves, realizing we might not be in the team standings how we were working toward, but any championship is a great achievement. So those guys realized there was still so much for them to run for.”

As a freshman and sophomore, Crome mainly competed in the 100 and 200, both individually and in relays. He added the 400 late in his sophomore year, and ended up third at the Interstate 8 Championships.

Last year he finished his shift to mainly competing in the open 400 and relays.

“We knew Eli was going to be one of our top returning seniors,” Kosecki said. “He finished up strong his junior year, all-state in the 4x4. You could kind of see his dedication take off. He was so consistent day in, day out. He was so focused for himself to get a great mark in the 400 that what we thought was going to be a strong leg for us turned into him being competitive in the open 400.”

Crome won’t be competing collegiately. He will be enlisting in the Navy, shipping out July 2 for basic training.

His family has a long tradition of serving in the military. After graduating in 2023, his brother Gabriel joined the Marines.

“I was definitely conflicted between the two,” Crome said of choosing between running track in college and joining the Navy. “I’ve always wanted to join the military, but I didn’t know I was going to have such a great season this year. I just made the decision to join instead of running track in college because I feel joining the military was just the right thing to do for me and the next step in my life.”

He competed in six different events this season, winning all at least once, including one of his two forays in the 100 and two of his four times in the 200. He never finished lower than third in the 400.

Until the state meet, the 4x100, 4x200 and 4x400 relays never finished anywhere but first when Crome was on them this year.

“I really found myself in the 400, and it paid off really well,” Crome said. “I got some really good times, so I’m very happy with the way my season and career ended.”