Chester-East Lincoln leads the way in IESA State Track participants from Logan County

[May 10, 2018]  Chester-East Lincoln is sending 19 athletes to compete in the 2018 IESA Class A State Track and Field Meet this Friday and Saturday at EastSide Centre in East Peoria. 

The gates will open to the competitors at 9:00 a.m. on Friday. The general public gate opens at 9:30 a.m. The Parade of Athletes will take place at 10:15 a.m. The Field Events will begin at 11:00 a.m. and the Running Events will start at 1:15 p.m. and run continuously after they are started on Friday. 

Saturday the events will begin at 9:00 a.m. All information can be found on the IESA website. 

The CEL boys that are going to State in Track and Field include Chris Slack, Brady Crane, Timmy Lawal, Wyatt O’Donoghue, Jacob Lawrence, Garrett Slack, Wiat Miller, Tony Gandolfi, Sean Raffa, Bryton Fuchs, Konner Shaw, and Jaden Klopp.

Now back to the Panthers. The Chester-East Lincoln eighth grade boys finished in first place at the Sectional 17 last Saturday at Mason City. 

The Chester-East Lincoln seventh grade boys finished in a respectable fourth place at the Sectional. 

The Chester-East Lincoln seventh grade girls finished in fourth place and the Chester-East Lincoln eighth grade girls finished in sixth place at the Mason City Sectional. 

 “They are a pretty strong group of kids,” said Coach Crews of his eighth grade boys. They’ve been dominant all year. They lost to a couple bigger schools earlier in the year. They lost to Williamsville and Bloomington Evans. They took second place in the Williamsville meet and second place at the Clinton meet but only because they are outnumbered as far as those AA schools go. They have 30 plus athletes competing. I mean every little point counts with the eighth grade group. They know that. A lot of them run two or four events. They define the word team in my opinion. They are very deserving of that. They were waiting around after the meet because they wanted to see their hardware. They had a very good day. Again they are just a very talented group who works extremely hard and loves to compete.”

The CEL girls that are going to State in Track and Field include Keira Hoffert, Grace Curry, Kylie Durham, Ryleigh Schmidt, Dulcie Rickord, Nevaeh McCree, and (not pictured:) Santia Morgan.

Coach Crews also coaches the girls along with help from Erica Maynard and Kim Curry. The girls are a small group but again very strong strong athletes. “When you don’t have a lot of athletes competing in a lot of events, your points are going to be down,” said Coach Crews of the girls’ sectional finishes on Saturday. “Obviously Dulcie Rickord took first in hurdles. She actually got second in the 400 and just missed first by about a second. Then she qualified in the relay as well. They are just a great group of kids. It’s fun. They are self-motivated. They do stuff on their own and they are confident. They are not over confident but they are a group that knows their abilities and they help each other out in practice.” 

These kids are impressive. And when asked to talk, they don’t shy away. They all nod their heads when one of the girls says, "Track is what we are basically known for." 

Take Grace Curry. She is going to State in three events: 4x100m relay, 100m and 200m. This is Curry’s second time making it to State. “I am just very competitive and I like to be the best,” said Curry. 

Garrett Slack and Tony Gandolfi, eighth grade athletes who are repeating at State, were more than willing to speak up for an interview. Earlier Gandolfi had said of Crews, “He’s my favorite coach.” Gandolfi is going to State in two events (4x100m relay and the long jump) and he notes that the long jump is his favorite event because he doesn’t have to rely on his team. That draws some laughs and comments from his teammates. “Hey, no offense, no offense,” says Gandolfi smiling. Slack meanwhile will participate in three events at State (4x100m relay, 4x400m relay and 400m). Slack’s favorite event is the 400m because “no one else really does it.”

Sean Raffa, the quiet eighth grader of the bunch, lets his numbers do the talking. He placed first in the 200m at Sectionals with a time of 25.39. His father, Dan, was an outstanding track athlete a few decades before. Raffa also runs the 4x100m relay and the 4x400m relay. Raffa likes the 200m because that is his best race and he truly just loves running and meeting people. 

Then there’s Dulcie Rickord. An amazing hurdler who has worked hard the past couple of years breaking her own records. “I’ve been practicing the hurdles for a very long time and I like to watch myself improve,” said the eighth grader of her favorite event. “I used to be really bad,” she laughed. Not anymore. Rickord has had help from Coach Johnie Meisner in the past and his guidance has been key to getting her to this point in her career. He is one of those guys who goes above and beyond and clears his schedule to be there for the kids. He is dedicated to making a training plan with the kids and with his direction, Rickord heads back to East Peoria on Friday. 

Thanks to Coach Crews for providing the following information and congratulations and good luck to all the Panthers.

Here are the athletes who qualified for state and their events:

seventh grade boys 4X200m relay- 1:55.62 (first)

Chris Slack

Brady Crane

Timmy Lawal

Wyatt O’Donoghue

Jacob Lawrence 

eighth grade girls 4X100m relay-56.4 (1st)

Grace Curry

Kylie Durham

Ryleigh Schmidt

Dulcie Rickord

Santia Morgan

eighth grade boys 4X100m relay-50.6 (second)

Garrett Slack

Wiat Miller

Tony Gandolfi

Sean Raffa

Bryton Fuchs

eighth grade boys 4X400m relay- 4:06.09 (first)

Garrett Slack

Wiat Miller

Jaden Klopp

Sean Raffa

Konnor Shaw

Individual event state qualifiers:

seventh grade boys 800m 

Timmy Lawal- 2:26.47 (second)

seventh grade girls Discus

Keira Hoffert- 76’ 1 1/2” (first)

seventh grade girls Shot Put

Nevaeh McCree- 24’ 10” (first)

seventh grade girls 100m dash

Grace Curry- 13.59 (2nd)

seventh grade girls 200m dash

Grace Curry- 28.82 (first)

eighth grade girls 100m hurdles 

Dulcie Rickord- 17.22 (first)

eighth grade boys long jump

Tony Gandolfi- 17’ 3 1/2” (third)

eighth grade boys 400m dash

Garrett Slack- 56.22 (first)

eighth grade boys 200m dash 

Sean Raffa- 25.39 (first)

eighth grade boys 800m run

Jaden Klopp- 2:22.97 (second)

[Teena Lowery]