Current Honor Roll Meet Invitees

Entries by Team and Event

Sunday, May 20, 2007

BY BILL LIESSE

OF THE JOURNAL STAR

PEORIA - Honor Roll Meet fans, let us tell you about a young lady from Carthage.

Her name is not Katelyn Bastert. It's Amy Byers.

The junior has lived in the shadow of Bastert, one of the state's all-time great runners, a Duke-bound senior whose brilliant scholastic career will end at the track and field party Tuesday at Peoria Stadium.

Watching Bastert is relatively easy. Plop down in the covered grandstand a little before 5 p.m., watch the girls 3200 meters, and look in front of the pack.

Closer to the end of the fast-paced, three-hour, all-finals meet, watch her in the 1600 meters and figure an elite set of challengers will be hard-pressed to keep up over that mile. But keeping up with Byers' greatness takes a bit more work. Nothing like her training must be, but a trip out to the sand pit is required.

Byers on Saturday became a state medalist in the grueling triple of the 300-meter low hurdles (perhaps the toughest event out there), the 800 meters and the triple jump. And she wasn't overly pleased with her day, wanting more than a sixth-place in the triple.

Byers will be in all three events at the HRM, where girls have long cut loose in the aftermath of state, basking in the rare opportunity to have Class A and AA at the same place, boys and girls.

Such a confluence of elite area talent rarely if ever happens during the track season, and certainly not in temperatures as mild as late May tends to provide. Also never in front of some 3,000 fans, which the HRM has been known to attract to the venerable old stadium.

It's a convenient venue to bid adieu to amazing high school athletes, names you know from excellence on the track or from other sports, or both.

Take Garrett Barnas. He would be a multi-sport athlete even if he weren't a state-champion quarterback for Bureau Valley and the 2006 Journal Star Football Player of the Year.

He'd be one just for his odd double of the 110 high hurdles, where he's top-seeded at 14.4 seconds, and the shot put, where he's seeded No. 2.

A heavy Class A flavor this year also includes seniors Brady Hammon, the Illini Bluffs sprint sensation, and Cody Wisslead from West Prairie LaHarpe, another low hurdler who doubles in the sand. Both will defend state championships next weekend at boys state.

And a state-championship girls 4x800-meter relay from Monmouth/Roseville, anchored by four-time HRM qualifier Hannah Hottle.

The metro area will hardly be quiet. The powerful Richwoods girls provide the HRM its top performer in the shot put, discus, triple jump and high jump. (RHS editor note: also the 400 dash, 4x100 and 4x200 for top spots in 7 of the 18 events. The Knights currently anticipate 12 individual and 4 relay participants in the meet covering 13 total events.)

East Peoria's Blair Wyman will vie for a sprint gold for the third time in as many seasons.

On the boys side, Woodruff's resurgent program leads the 4x200 relay field, Dunlap the 4x4 and Galesburg the 4x8. A host of Mid-Illini schools are on the Streaks' heels in the latter.

And what about the fastest of all, the 4x100? Richwoods is fastest, followed closely by Metamora and IVC's sectional championship team and super-quick senior Kyle Prout.

Fourth on the list is tiny Peoria Christian, which gets a shot at Richwoods et al about three blocks from its school.

Only the HRM provides matchups like that.

Field events are easier to see at the Stadium than most tracks, with few strides needed to take in the throws, the sand, the high jump and the vault.

In her last prep performance in the latter will be Dunlap's Corrie Heine, fresh off a state medal in Charleston. Add that to her state medal in diving.

Have to love these athletes.