High school track and field: Richmond-Burton’s 4x400 relay is ready for state

Richmond-Burton heads to the IHSA Boys Track and Field State Meet with an experienced group of sprinters and the fastest sectional time in the Class 2A 4x400-meter relay.

The Rockets’ Tristan Rockwell, Joe Miller, Sean Rockwell and Jack Verdoni took second in that race at the Illinois Top Times Indoor Classic. The Rockets would love to go one better than that this weekend at Eastern Illinois University’s O’Brien Stadium.

Class 1A prelminary heats and flights will be Thursday, with Class 2A starting Friday morning and Class 3A running Friday afternoon. Finals in all three classes will be Saturday.

“Even though we dropped a great [4x400] time, I think we can drop it even further,” Verdoni said. “We can all come together with our handoffs and get that down to low 3:20s and have a good chance to win that.

“The indoor season helped us a large amount. We had to practice inside, it was so cold. Being able to race on those tracks and race god teams from across the state like Kankakee. That 4x4 helped us jump into the outdoor season great. It helped us improve a lot.”

R-B’s 3:24.36 from sectionals was first, with Bartonville Limestone’s 3:25.03 second, although times can take a significant drop with the competition in a state meet.

R-B is seeded ninth in the 4x200 with the same group as the 4x400. R-B also won the 4x100 relay at the Belvidere Sectional with Landon Jacoby, Jack Martens, Dan Kalinowski and Sean Rockwell.

“We have a great opportunity in front of us,” Tristan Rockwell said. “We’re sitting pretty in the 4x4, but you can’t look past any team. At state, everybody’s fast. If we run the race we know we’re capable of running and have people right on us, pushing us, some very, very competitive times are going to be dropped by Richmond-Burton in the 4x2 and 4x4.

“Either race, if we run our race, we’ll be looking strong. We have to be humble and understand there’s other fast teams out there as well.”

R-B returned most of its sprinters from last season, when it was 12th in the Class 2A 4x200 and 13th in the 4x400. Miller was added to that lineup and made those groups even stronger.

Rockets coach John Osmanski thinks adding indoor competition for the first time has made a difference. The 4x400 was second to Kankakee and the 4x200 was fourth in the indoor state meet.

“Last year with the success we had and this year adding Joe Miller and adding an indoor season,” Osmanski said. “We’ve never had an indoor season and got into some quality meets at Lakes, Hononegah, and we were winning in those meets and that transfered over to outdoor.

“We hit our goals of being sectional champion in all three of (the relays). The 4x100 we thought would be the toughest. We just wanted to do our jobs and get through. We were very pleased with it. I thought they were realistic goals. The 4x1, the big surprise was we thought we could qualify, but to win it was just awesome for those guys.”

Now, all Osmanski wants is the Rockets to advance from Friday. R-B’s highest boys track state finish was James Kaht’s Class 2A runner-up 1,600 race in 2013.

“It’s a matter of keeping focus with that and making sure we do our job on Friday and give us a shot at winning,” Osmanski said. “We’re hoping we can make both [the 4x200 and 4x400] into the finals. That’s the most important thing, putting ourselves in position [to win] by making it to Saturday and do our best. The main goal is to win a state championship. We have to do our job and put ourselves in position.”

In Class 3A, Huntley’s Evan Gronewold will be one of the contenders in the 400 after finishing as runner-up last year. He had the fifth-fastest seed time out of sectionals, although he was unable to run that race five days before at the Fox Valley Conference Meet.

Gronewold had battled some sickness and had not run many 400s leading up to the FVC Meet. He missed practice more of the week before and ran in the 100, taking second, opted out of the 400, then came back and won the 200.

Gronewold felt better last week in winning the 400 at the Huntley Sectional.

Cary-Grove’s Zach Petko, who was fifth in the discus last year, will be trying to medal in both that and the shot put.

All 10 of the FVC teams are represented at the state meet and have competitors in 18 events.

FVC champion Burlington Central has entries in 11 events, with relay teams in the 4x100, 4x400 and 4x800.

Osmanski will get a bonus after R-B’s 4x400 relay team runs on Friday. The Class 3A meet will start right after that and his son, Zach Osmanski, will run in the first race, the 4x800 relay for Jacobs.

“I am beyond excited,” Osmanski said. “It’s been so much fun because it’s a different perspective as a parent. I get to see what other parents have experienced. I’ve been doing this 20-something years. There’s always an excitement as a coach with the athlete, but to share that with relatives.

“I can’t wait to watch [Zach] run out there. He has a fabulous [distance] coach with Kevin Christian and he kept improving and improving throughout his high school career.”

LOCAL STATE QUALIFIERS

Class 2A

Burlington Central: Gavin Sarvis (LJ, TJ, 4x100), Alec Zaccaria (4x100, 4x400), Dylan Stahl (4x100), Nolan Milas (100, 4x100, 4x400), Grayson Burton (PV), Zac Schmidt (400, 4x800, 4x400), Joseph Kowall (4x800), Adam Hinkelman (4x800), Leighton Dietz (4x400, 4x800), Yusuf Baig (1,600, 3,200), Ryan Kries (3,200).

Johnsburg: James Kaunas (TJ), Forrest Hull (400).

Marengo: Josh Holst (100).

Richmond-Burton: Tristan Rockwell (TJ, 4x200, 4x400), Jack Verdoni (4x100, 4x200, 4x400), Landon Jacoby (4x100), Sean Rockwell (4x100, 4x200, 4x400), Joe Miller (4x200, 4x400), Jack Martens (4x100), Dan Kalinowski (4x100).

Woodstock: Tim Maidment (LJ), Jack Novelle (HJ), Jared Kniola (110HH), Dylan Hanson (3,200).

Woodstock North: Landan Creighton (PV, 300IH), Mark Duenas (100, 4x100, 4x200), Chris Carreno (4x100, 4x200), Jacob McConnell (SP, discus), Devin Tumminello (4x100, 4x200), Jay Randecker (4x100, 4x200).

Class 3A

Cary-Grove: Zach Petko (SP, discus).

Crystal Lake Central: Jonathan Tegel (110HH, 300IH), Gavin Wang (110HH), Sam Schroll (PV).

Crystal Lake South: Nate Van Witzenburg (TJ).

Dundee-Crown: Henry Kennedy (4x100), Diego Farias (4x100), Kali Freeman (4x100), Alex Ledezma (4x100),

Hampshire: Aidan Gonzalez (4x800), Jason Schmidt (4x800), Owen Cuplin (4x400, 4x800), Mitch Dalby (800, 4x400, 4x800), Devin Yeats (4x200, Tyler Fikis (4x200, 4x400), Jack Rummell (4x200), Maddux Chanthaboury (4x200), Bryce Bannerman (4x400).

Huntley: Evan Gronewold (400), Tommy Nitz (3,200), Hayden Swim (SP), McKale Hood (HJ),

Jacobs: Isaac Pepin (4x800), Adam Lakeman (4x800), Zach Osmanski (4x800), Matt Andreano (4x800).

McHenry: Zach Galvicius (PV), Hayden Stone (HJ).

Prairie Ridge: Will Gelon (3,200).