January 24, 2025
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The Times Area Roundup: Kody Danko, Caden Eller, Nathan Grant run to Saturday at IHSA State Meet

By Shaw Local News Network
Ottawa’s Noah Gross returns the ball as doubles teammate Adam Gross (left) looks on during the Class 1A Boys State Tennis Meet at Hoffman Estates High School on Thursday, May 25, 2023.

Ottawa’s Noah Gross returns the ball as doubles teammate Adam Gross (left) looks on during the Class 1A Boys State Tennis Meet at Hoffman Estates High School on Thursday, May 25, 2023. (Sandy Bressner – sbressner@shawmedia.com)

Boys Track and Field

Eller, Grant, Danko move to Saturday: At Charleston, Marquette senior Caden Eller will compete Saturday in the Class 1A state finals after placing seventh in Thursday’s long jump preliminaries at Eastern Illinois University.

Eller cleared 6.28 meters, just less than a quarter of a meter from Class 1A leader K.J. Davis of Oblong-Palestine-Hutsonville’s 6.52 jump.

Seneca junior Nathan Grant also advanced to Saturday, clearing 1.85 meters in the high jump. Eight high jumpers finished at 1.88 meters.

Seneca’s Collin Wright placed 19th in the long jump with a distance of 5.62 meters, while Alex Bigner-Kidwell added a 19th-place finish of 13.62 meters in the shot put.

Seneca placed 35th in the 4x100-meter relay (45.18 seconds), and Chris Poyner was 30th in the 400 (53.23).

Fieldcrest’s Calen Krischel was 31st in the 1,600 (4:43.75).

In Friday’s Class 2A preliminaries, Streator middle distance ace Kody Danko advanced to Saturday’s finals.

Danko placed sixth in the 800-meter run with a time of 1 minute, 56.61 seconds, less than a second off the pace of preliminary winner Patrick Hilby (1:55.70) of Aurora Central Catholic.

The Streator 4x200 relay team of Quentin Goforth, Isaiah Brown, Collin Jeffries and Ford placed 17th (1:30.99), and Ford placed 12th (11.06) in the 100-meter dash and 26th (22.74) in the 200 to complete their state-qualifying seasons.

Also Friday in Class 2A, Sandwich’s 4x400 relay of Dayton Beatty, Wyatt Miller, Luis Baez and Simeion Harris advanced to Saturday’s finals with a time of 3:26.13, placing seventh.

Miller (14th, 1:58.15 in the 800), Max Cryer (28th, 4:34.66 in the 1,600) and Daniel Reedy (21st, 14.14 meters in the shot put) competed for Sandwich, but did not advance.

Boys tennis

Ottawa team’s run ends at state: In suburban Chicago, the Ottawa state-qualifying team of Adam Gross and Noah Gross saw their seasons ended at the IHSA State Tournament, going 0-2 in play Thursday.

The Gross brothers lost 7-6 (3), 6-3 in their morning opener to Hinsdale South’s Rithik Selvaraj and Rohan Bansal, then lost in consolation play 6-4, 6-3 to the Rock Island Alleman team of Lincoln Dorsey and Chase Baird.

The La Salle-Peru team of Andrew Bollis and Daniel Santoy also saw their seasons end Thursday, going 1-2.