By Fred Kroner
Senior Hayden Knott continued his unbeaten streak on Saturday (May 1), winning two events and setting one meet record in the fifth 12-school Rantoul Invitational.
Knott hurled the discus 176 feet, 2 inches, breaking the meet mark. He also holds the freshmen-sophomore meet record at Rantoul, 152-4, set in 2019.
Knott captured top honors in the shot put with a season-best 56 feet, 2 ¾ inches.
SJ-O won seven individual events and two relays while securing team honors, with a meet-record point total of 178. Runner-up Monticello totaled 162 points and third-place Rantoul had 106 points. SJ-O was a first-time team champion at the Rantoul meet.
Spartan senior Brandon Mattsey was the 1,600-meter winner (4 minutes, 53.12 seconds) and the SJ-O varsity 3,200 relay was victorious in 8:45.42.
Five of the Spartans’ wins were in the freshmen-sophomore division, including a sparkling 3:48.54 clocking in the 1,600-meter relay. The time not only won the frosh-soph category, but was faster than Kankakee posted in winning the varsity 1,600 relay (3:48.91).
Sophomore Aidan McCorkle was the frosh-soph 400-meter winner (53.31). Sophomore Tyler Burch took top honors in the frosh-soph 100 meters (11.61).
Freshman Brock Trimble prevailed in the frosh-soph discus (130-4). Sophomore Hunter Ketchum won the frosh-soph shot put (39-10 ¼ ) and was the runner-up to Trimble in the discus (112-0).
Senior Brady Buss was a two-event placer. He ran second in the 200 meters (23.13) and placed fifth in the 100 meters (11.66).
Trimble and McCorkle also placed in a second event. McCorkle finished fourth in the varsity long jump (19-0 ½ ). Trimble took sixth in the varsity triple jump (35-5).
Two Spartan relays ended second in frosh-soph races. The 3,200-meter relay took the runner-up spot (9:34.69) as did the 800-meter unit (1:45.94).
Elijah Mock (800 meters, 2:12.25) and Spencer Wilson (400 frosh-soph, 57.47) added third-place finishes.
Other Spartans in the top 10 individually were: Braden Clampitt (300 hurdles, fourth in 46.06); Luke Stegall (3,200 meters, fourth in 10:49.99); Charlie Mabry (800 meters, fifth in 2:14.82); Lukas Hutcherson (1,600 meters, seventh in 5:16.44); Isiah Mock (1,600 frosh-soph, seventh in 5:15.06); Ethan Blackburn (1,600 frosh-soph, eighth in 5:16.36); Mitchell Wright (shot put, frosh soph, eighth in 35-4 ¼ ); Evan Schmitz (discus, ninth in 118-10); Max Shonkwiler (shot put, ninth in 41-2 ¾ ) and Justice Wertz (100 meters, frosh-soph, 10th in 12.84).
Other placing SJ-O relays were 400-meter frosh-soph, fourth in 49.98; 1,600-meter varsity, fifth in 3:56.46 and 400-meter varsity, sixth in 44.99.
SJ-O returns to action on Friday (May 7) at the Monticello Invitational.
