Aurora, IL — PNTRACK GETS 2ND IN SPC BEST TRACK CONFERENCE IN THE STATE Joliet West ranked #6 in the state, finished 6th in the SPC. Minooka ranked #7 in the state, finished 5th in the SPC. Congrats to the underrated Plainfield South team, ranked 9th in the state, SPC Champs. For Jason Crowe and South, this is a continuation of an amazing year: State Champs in XC, SPC Indoor Champs, and their first outdoor SPC Championship since 2011. We are proud of our 2nd place finish, but, as competitors, we suffer from the disease of MORE. Our throwers (Sniko, Mescioglu) have had a terrific year (junior and sophomore), but did not score for us. They were projected to score 13. We welcomed Gerald Floyd back and he was seeded 2nd in the HJ based on his 6’4” jump indoors (SPC Indoor HJ Champ). Gerald did not place. 2nd would have scored 8 points. We ran without our fastest guy, Victor Patterson (injured foot May 3rd), and we did not score in the 100 or 200 which has never happened in our SPC history. Victor’s absence cost us approximately ten points. Getting shut out of those five events cost us 31 points which would have won the meet for us (South beat us by 26, 117 to 91) SCHOOL RECORD 17 GUYS ALL-CONFERENCE We won the SPC in 2018 and 15 athletes achieved all-conference status. Here’s our 17 2023 ALL-SPC athletes. Alex Brennan 💥💥💥 Owen Stahl 💥💥 Paul McCormick 💥💥 Easton Miller 💥💥 Evan Gavras 💥💥 Demir Ashiru 💥💥 Quinn Davis 💥 Aidan Connors 💥 (Fr) Omar Coleman 💥 Zander Pauly 💥 Ray Vanichtheeranont 💥 Keith Cyracus 💥 Nik Cardillo 💥 Kwame Amoo-Otoo 💥 Thomas Czerwinski 💥 (Fr) Ryan Tracey 💥 Ewan Farnum 💥 Next year we will RETURN 11 all-conference track athletes. CAPTAIN CARDILLO Team captain Nik Cardillo tripled a two-foot PR to become our only conference champion. No one is more deserving. 44’5” ranks Nik #2 Pntrack All-Time, #18 IL 3A. 43’10” is state qualifying in the triple jump. Congrats Coach Capezio RAY: NEW SCHOOL RECORD Ray Vanichtheeranont may be the most improved vaulter in the history of track and field. Last year, Ray’s best vault was 7’5”. Ray no-heighted at SPC last year. This year, Ray vaulted 14’2” to place 3rd in SPC 2023. 13’8” is state qualifying in the vault. AMAZING ASHIRU Demir Ashiru sprained his ankle in March, wore a boot for a long time, and was not allowed to run through the entire month of April. I had given up hope for a return for Demir. I had to enter Demir as “NT” (no time) because he had not run in a meet outdoors this year. Stuck in the slowest of heats would provide no competition… Demir would basically be running the hurdles solo. 15.33 and 41.49 Two PRs, ranked #7 and #13 Pntrack All-Time. Demir’s times rank him #4 and #6 going into next week’s Sectional. 15.40 and 40.84 qualifies for state. All-Conference in both hurdles for the second year in a row. And, like Demir showed in football and basketball, he makes everyone around him better. FREAKY THOMAS Freshman Thomas Czerwinski has had a monster year. Thomas ran 1:59.9 in the 4x8. Then, he doubled back and set a new Pntrack freshman 800 record. 2:00.75 2:00.75 would have easily broken the SPC FS record of 2:02, but Thomas ran varsity. Thomas now holds Pntrack freshman records in the 800, 1600, and 4x8. Czerwinski’s 4x8 split ranks him #10 Pntrack All-Time. His 800 ranks him #12 Pntrack All-Time IL #4 among all freshmen. GAVRAS CLOSE TO WINNING BOTH HURDLES Evan Gavras looked like he could win the 110s and 300s but finished 4th in each. Evan’s ten points was 2nd best on the team (Demir 13) 15.58 and 41.42 are not PRs for Evan, but… last year he ran 16.46 and 45.01 at SPC. 4x8 EN FUEGO 🔥🔥🔥 Our 4x8 ran 8:01.62 without our top 800 runner, Owen Stahl. ONLY TWO SECONDS FROM SCHOOL RECORD Three big PRs: Ryan Tracy 1:59.2 (Pntrack #9 All-Time), Thomas Czerwinski 1:59.9 (Pntrack #10 All-Time), and Ewan Farnum 2:01.4 8:04.23 is state qualifying. IT’S ALMOST A MIRACLE Our 4x1 finished 3rd. If you add up our 100m PRs (11.31, 11.41, 11.56, 11.70), we are at 45.98 We graduated all four of our 42.27 4x1 team from last year. Our fastest guy (Victor) is out with a foot injury. Our lead-off guy, Omar Coleman, had lisfranc surgery in the fall. Our 3-runner, Alex Brennan, was a distance runner last year. Paul McCormick, rookie senior, has now run one 4x1 in his entire life. Still we ran 43.60 and placed 3rd. KEITH SOARS Keith Cyracus long jumped 22’5”, only four inches from our FS record. Keith ranks #4 Pntrack All-Time #4 IL among all FS athletes in Illinois #3 best at PN Sectional next week. State qualifying is 22’2” Congrats Coach Capezio! THE RETURN OF KWAME Kwame Amoo-Otoo has been plagued with pesky soft-tissue injuries all through April. As our only junior captain, to say April was tough on Kwame is an understatement. In his triumphant return, Kwame tripled a PR 43’4” placing 3rd. OMAR IS REPEAT FS 100 CHAMP Omar Coleman is the first guy in SPC history to repeat as FS winner. Omar also ran great leadoff legs in our 4x1 and 4x2. CONNORS ALL-SPC AS A FRESHMAN Aidan Connors ran 9:51.12 to place 6th in the 3200. Aidan joins fellow freshman Thomas Czerwinski on the all-conference team. For perspective, in Pntrack history, only Kevin Capodice and Marquis Flowers were all-conference all four years. BRENNAN ALL-SPC IN 3 EVENTS 💥💥💥 Alex Brennan ran the 3-leg on our 4x1 (3rd) Placed 5th in the 400 Ran anchor on our 2nd place 4x4 (51.1) Who would have thought the d-crew guy who last year ran 2:14 in the FS 4x8 and 54.1 in the FS 4x4 at the SPC Meet would grow into the sprinter he’s become? 4x4 NOW IL 3A #14 Our best event got a little better, running 3:25.09 We got PRs from Owen Stahl, Easton Miller, and Paul McCormick. But our PRs aren’t good enough to make the state finals. We need to run faster: Stahl 50.5 Miller 49.5 McCormick 50.5 Brennan 49.5 We can do this. PNTRACK RESULTS All-Conference athletes in bold. 100m Gramley 11.46 Coleman 11.51 (1st FS) Armstrong 11.62* Bownes 11.98 200m Cyracus 23.42 Morris 24.42* Anderson 24.98 Clark 26.03* 400 Brennan 51.76 (5th) Ulrey 53.02* (2nd FS) Seifert 56.81* Pantaleo 57.17 800 Stahl 1:56.80 (6th) Czerwinksi 2:00.75* New FR SR Schmauderer 2:08.48 (4th FS) Kyrychenko 2:17.12 1600 Burns 4:28.62 (8th) Tracey 4:28.84 Hall 4:40.72* (4th FS) Alexander 4:58.02 3200 Davis 9:39.55 (5th) Connors 9:51.12 (6th) Maso 10:28.38* (7th FS) Araiza 10:28.39 (8th FS) 110 HH Ashiru 15.33* (2nd) Gavras 15.58 (4th) Connelly 18.86 300 INT Gavras 41.42 (4th) Ashiru 41.49 (5th) Connelly 47.42 4x1 Pntrack 43.60 (3rd) Coleman 11.6 Pauly 10.5 Brennan 11.0 McCormick 10.6 Pntrack FS (3rd FS) Jones 11.6 Cyracus 10.8 Bownes 11.2 Anderson 10.9 4x2 Pntrack 1:31.07* (4th) Coleman 22.9 Pauly 23.1 Cyracus 22.5 Gramley 23.1 Pntrack FS 1:35.50* (4th FS) Bownes 23.7 Jones 23.6 Singh 24.9 Anderson 23.4 4x4 Pntrack 3:25.09* (2nd) Stahl 51.5* Miller 50.3* McCormick 52.0* Brennan 51.1 Pntrack FS 3:44.51 (4th FS) Ulrey 54.2 Kyrychenko 56.6 Schmauderer 55.8* Jones 57.5 4x8 Pntrack 8:01.62* (3rd) Tracy 1:59.2* Miller 2:00.6 Czerwinski 1:59.9* Farnum 2:01.4* Pntrack FS 8:37.43 (3rd) Schmauderer 2:07.5 Hall 2:07.2 Kyrychenko 2:08.6* Damini 2:13.8* SHOT Mescioglu 13.27 Wilson 13.26* (2nd FS) Pena 12.04 (7th FS) Snitko FOUL DISCUS Snitko 36.80 Wiencek 34.40 (5th FS) Mescioglu 32.30 Fuller 31.35 HJ Floyd 1.70 Kuye NH Clark NH PV Vanichtheeranont 4.30 (14’2”)* (3rd) LJ Cyracus 6.79 (22’5”)* (2nd) Coleman 5.81 Anderson 5.56 Wiers 5.56 TJ Cardillo 13.55 (44’5”)* (1st) Amoo-Otoo 13.20 (43’4”) (4th) Bownes 12.23 (41’1”) (3rd FS) Singh 10.79