The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
The Southern Junior High Boys Track & Field team competed in the I.E.S.A. Sectional Meet held at Bushnell on Saturday, May 3rd.
The 8th grade boys from Southern took the team championship this year by a huge margin!
The final score was Southern 120, Bushnell Prairie City 65, Yorkwood, 62, Roseville 50, Northwestern 30, LaHarpe 24, Warren 23, Dallas City/Nauvoo 22, Union 14, and Monmouth ICS 0.
Darick Clark led the way to victory with first place finishes in the long jump (18'5 1/4"), the 800 m run (2:21), and the 400 m dash (56.0). His 400 time is a new SJH school record!
Jerry Morris shook off the pain of a nagging muscle injury to pull out first place in both the discus (140'3") and the high jump (5'5"). Both the 4x200 relay (1:48.6) team of Abe Chockley, Adam Corzatt, Morris, and Clark and the 4x400 relay (4:19:8) team of Blake Fox, Tanner Hartman, Ross Gullberg, and Ryan Utter took top honors in their races! In fact, the Raiders placed boys in every event of the meet except the pole vault, which they are not allowed to compete in at Southern.
Eight different 8th grade boys qualified for State in a total of ten different events by either taking first or second place or by making the rigid state qualifying standards! It was quite an impressive showing for a hard working bunch of boys!
8th grade results
110 m hurdles: Adam Corzatt- 2nd place (16.7)* Ryan Utter- 4th place (16.8)*
100 m dash: Abe Chockley- 4th place (12.9)
1600 m run: Adam Corzatt-2nd place* (5:29) Tanner Hartman -4th place (5:42)
4x100 relay: Blake Fox, Ross Gullberg, Tanner Hartman, Ryan Utter -3rd place* (52.5)
400 m dash: Darick Clark- 1st place* (56.0)
200 m dash: Abe Chockley- 4th place (27.0)
800 m run: Darick Clark- 1st place* (2:21)
4x200 m relay: Abe Chockley, Jerry Morris, Adam Corzatt, Darick Clark- 1st place* (1:48:6)
4x400 m relay: Blake Fox, Tanner Hartman, Ross Gullberg, Ryan Utter- 1st place* (4:19:8)
High Jump: Jerry Morris- 1st place* (5'5")
Long Jump: Darick Clark- 1st place* (18'5")
Shot Put: Adam Corzatt- 3rd place (33'9 1/2")
Discus: Jerry Morris- 1st place* (140'3") Abe Chockley- 3rd place (115'4")
* denotes state qualifier
The 7th grade squad from Southern, loaded with lots of 5th & 6th graders, still managed to tally 29 points in the meet and qualify five boys for the State meet!
Brice Jack was the first qualifier, taking second place in the shot put! The 4x200 m relay team of Andy Chockley, Taylor Hoover, Cameron Hartman, and Sean Webb finally put things together for a personal best and state qualifying finish!
Layton Housman, only a 5th grader, ran a personal best in the 1600 m run to take third place against the 7th graders! The 4x400 m relay team of Andy Chockley, Tyler Keane, Cameron Hartman, and Brad Buss had to run in a two team slow heat of the 4x400 m relay because of poor seeding, but ran hard against little competition to finish in fifth place overall based on time!
They weren't even awarded ribbons, as the judges assumed that all of the top six finishers must have come from the eight team faster heat and awarded the ribbons to slower teams from the heat.
It was a super effort by the young boys from Southern.
7th grade results
110 m hurdles: Andy Chockley- 4th place (18.8)
1600 m run: Layton Housman- 3rd place (6:03.4)
4x200 m relay- Andy Chockley, Taylor Hoover, Cameron Hartman, Sean Webb- 2nd place* (2:05.9)
4x400 m relay: Andy Chockley, Tyler Keane, Cameron Hartman, Brad Buss- 5th place (5:18.9)
Shot Put: Brice Jack- 2nd place* (32'11") Josh Harkness- 6th place (28'4")
* denotes state qualifier