Talk about a thorough championship.
In winning the recent Concorde District boys indoor track and field high-school meet, the Oakton Cougars had point scorers, sometimes multiple ones, in 14 of 15 events and top eight finishers in all 15. Overall, the team won five events, placed second in seven and third in six.
Oakton amassed 164.5 points, considerably ahead of second-place Westfield with 93.5. Oakton finished second to defending state champion South Lakes in last season’s indoor district meet.
“Our boys team can score in all phases of a meet, distance races, sprints, field events and relays,” Oakton coach Ray Decker said. “We have multiple boys scoring in some of the same events and we are able to have entries in each event.”
The Cougars had many individual standouts, with probably the most significant being double-race winner Iyasu Yemane. He was first in the 500-meters (1:08.41) and 1,000 (2:37.09) and ran on the second-place 4x400 relay.
The other two individual champs were Wutikuer Kaiwusaer in the shot put (48-1) and Logan Ecton in the 55 hurdles (7.99).
The 4x800 relay won in 8:19.56.
Oakton’s Elijah Simpson had a busy meet, with a second in the long jump, third in the 55 dash and sixth in the triple jump.
Hyoseo Park was busy, as well. He was third in the long jump, fifth in the triple jump, sixth in the 55 dash and eighth in the 55 hurdles.
Brad Woodhouse was second in the 500 and 1,000. Also second were Andrew Kraden in the shot, Junior Allen in the 1,600 and Dylan Vu-Gia in the pole vault.
The Cougars’ Derek Lewis was third in the 1,600 and fourth in the 3,200, Connor Eklund was third in the 3,200 and Tyler Coleman was third in the 1,000 and seventh in the 500.
Fifth were Allen in the 1,000, Christian Crackdock in the long jump, Zack Noell in the high jump, Jalen Bunch in the 55 dash, Thomas Gannon in the pole vault and Jad Haichour in the 500.
Sixth were Siddarth Luthra in the 500, Nathan Obcemea in the shot and Sean Angell in the pole vault. Angell was seventh in the high jump and Ecton was seventh in the 300.
Oakton’s 4x400 relay finished second and the 4x200 third.
Decker is a full-time teacher at Oakton and often encourages students to join the track and field teams, as does assistant coach Matt Kroetch, Oakton’s head cross country coach during the fall. He’s also an Oakton teacher in a classroom close to Decker’s. The initial combined team size for the boys and girls programs when the current indoor season began was about 180, the coach said. Decker is an assistant Oakton cross country coach.
“We both are always talking up the Oakton teams, so interest spreads by word of mouth,” Decker said.
In the girls Concorde meet, Oakton also had a strong performance by finishing second with 105 points. South Lakes won with 123.
The Oakton girls won the 4x800 (9:43.28) and 4x200 (1:52.8) relays and the team’s three individual winners were Kylie Taylor in the shot put (35-01), Sitota Mesfin in the 1,600 (5:13.26), and she was third in the 1,000, and Aurora Ayala in the pole vault (9.3).
Other standouts for the Oakton girls were Samarra Allen with thirds in the high jump and 55 dash, Osakiodeme Ikhim was second in the shot, Raquel Lewis was second in the 3,200 and sixth in the 1,600, Anna Lewis was third in the 3,200, Victoria Huckabee was third in the pole vault and Lyric Kier was fourth in the 55 dash.
The 4x400 relay was fifth.
Sixth for Oakton were Chelsea Kodiaga in the long jump and Rhianen Eichelbaum in the 1,000. Seventh were Samantha Tyler in the high jump, Anna Quackenbush in the 3,200 and Makayla Kruzinski in the 1,000.
Eighth were Kodiaga in the triple jump, Brianna Nix in the shot and Elizabeth Kruzinski in the 1,600.
“We have had more girls on the team in the last couple of years and they have stepped up,” Decker said. “We have been building the girls team back up after a big graduating class a few years ago.”
