Boys track and field: Dale Johnson set for distance double, leads Sterling’s large group of state qualifiers

Dale Johnson doesn’t often get to race against elite runners of his caliber, but the Sterling senior welcomes the competition.

He’ll get it this weekend in Charleston.

Johnson, a five-time state track medalist and South Dakota State commit, will be participating in his final state meet this weekend at Eastern Illinois University. Johnson, the defending Class 2A 3,200-meter runner-up, is back in the 3,200 and 1,600 and leads a large contingent of Sterling athletes at state.

Class 1A preliminaries are Thursday, Class 2A and Class 3A prelims Friday with finals for all three classes Saturday.

Johnson, who ran the seventh-fastest 1,600 time of 4:24.67 at sectionals, is part of a loaded field in the metric mile at Charleston led by defending champion Gavin Genisio of Benton.

“There is going to be a huge amount of competition, arguably more than any other that I have participated in,” said Johnson, fourth in the 1,600 as a junior and ninth as a sophomore. “I think it’s going to be fun. I don’t often get to compete against people like that, given that they’re many hours away from me. I’m excited because I don’t see that often.”

Sterling coach Kel Bond said Johnson’s sectional time isn’t particularly indicative of what he is capable of when pushed.

“Look at it on paper, it’s easy to think it’s not all that fast. Watching the race, it was him and the rest of the pack,” Bond said. “He was five seconds ahead of everyone, running alone. Those are time trial races, hard to judge on.

“I think the 1,600 finals will be pretty sick. The top of the field is loaded, the bottom end of the field is loaded. It’s a pretty deep mile field compared to years past.”

Johnson ran the second-fastest 3,200 sectional time of 9:25.45. His season best of 9:17.47, run at Distance Night at Palatine, is the fifth best in the state this spring. Marion senior Dylan Nalley, fourth at state last year, ran 9:00.57 at sectionals and has gone 8:53.55.

“The nice part is not having the prelims in the 3,200, not having that difficult double both days,” Bond said. “The time gap between the two races is going to be longer at the state meet than the conference and sectionals. A lot of times at those meets, it’s harder to hit that double.”

The weekend is the capper to quite a career for Johnson, also a two-time cross country all-stater. Bond pointed out that the worst Johnson ever placed in a cross country race was sixth, freshman year.

“It’s pretty impressive to think about how dominant he has been and the consistency across the board,” Bond said. “Not many distance runners run the 800 in 1:55 and under 9:10 for the 3,200. It shows great range and depth, and I think there’s still untapped potential.”

Sterling will have only three races in Charleston without an entry. The 4x400 relay comes in with the fifth-fastest sectional time of 3:24.14 and will be adding Maurice Delacruz this weekend from the team that ran 3:23.81 at the Night Relays. The 4x200 relay ran the 12th-fastest sectional time of 9:30.01.

In field events, Sterling’s Kaedon Phillips cleared 1.90 meters at sectionals, tied for fifth best, but teammate Andre Klaver has gone higher this spring, 1.95 meters (6 feet, 4.75 inches), tied for 10th in the state.

In Class 1A, Morrison will have six athletes competing in Charleston across seven events, with serious medal hopes in the sprints and sprint relays.

Morrison’s 4x400 relay of Zach Milder, Camden Pruis, Chase Newman and Brady Anderson posted the state’s fastest time of 3:24.43 in sectionals, and that group’s time of 3:24.20 at the conference meet is the second-fastest run statewide this spring. The 4x200 relay of Pruis, Levi Milder, Zach Milder and Anderson ran the second-fastest time at sectionals of 1:28.74 and own the fastest time this spring of 1:28.49. And the 4x100 relay with that same group ran the fifth-fastest time at sectionals of 42.83, their season-best of 42.59 third-best in the state.

In open events, Anderson has the fifth-fastest 100 sectional time of 10.88, and seventh-fastest of 10.81 this spring and fellow sophomore Levi Milder the third-fastest 200 sectional time of 22.24, and fifth-fastest this spring of 22.13.

Morrison is coming off a sectional in which it took second to Lena-Winslow in the team race. Anderson took fifth in the 100 as a freshman, but none of Morrison’s relays made it out of prelims.

“We got decently lucky to get in a good sectional and run against some good teams,” Morrison coach Chandler Gilbraith said. “Our big focus this year is not repeating last year. We went in with top times last year, and it was everybody’s first time at state. We return pretty much everybody this year. We’re not letting state scare us; just stay locked in and get it done.”

Confidence comes from that state experience last year and this year during indoor season. Morrison won the Class 1A 4x200 and 4x400 relays at the Top Times Indoor Classic in March, with Anderson taking fifth in the 60-meter dash.

“We have not been pushed since indoor state in any relay we have,” Gilbraith said. “We know we’re fast; other teams are fast. Winning the indoor championship showed guys themselves that we can get it done. I don’t think we’re going to get scared down there, knock on wood.”

Also in 1A, Newman has the second-fastest 4x800 relay time of 8:15.72 from sectionals, the fourth-fastest this spring of 8:12.49 at conference and also won the Top Times race. Newman’s Wyatt Widolff, who runs on that relay, has the fourth-fastest 800 sectional time of 1:58.44, Millegeville’s Parker Krogman has the 12th-fastest 300 hurdles time of 42.16, Forreston has the sixth-fastest 4x200 time of 1:30.96 and the fifth-fastest 4x400 relay time of 3:27.45.

In field events, Bureau Valley’s Landson Hulsing has the sixth-best discus throw of 45.85 meters from sectionals, Oregon’s Leo Cardenas is seeded 12th in the pole vault with a 3.85-meter sectional vault, and Morrison’s Rylan Alvarado had the ninth-best sectional long jump of 6.61 meters.