Three Mahomet-Seymour athletes win state medals
By Fred Kroner
Forty nine years ago, Mahomet-Seymour’s boys’ track and field team had its first state medalist in the modern era (post 1950).
Only four times in the succeeding years did the Bulldogs produce more state medalists in individual events (excluding relays) than the four who took the podium on Saturday (May 23) in the 2023 state finals at Eastern Illinois University, in Charleston.
Junior DeAngelo Hughey was a two-event all-state sprinter, running second in Class 2A in the 400 meters and fifth in the 200 meters.
Sophomore pole vaulter Ty Clark secured the final spot on the podium, tying for ninth in his specialty. Senior jumper Cole Marshall, who was just inches off his lifetime best, ended fifth in the triple jump.
All three Bulldogs are first-time All-Staters.
“This was a great way to end what was a really fun year,” M-S head coach Keith Pogue said. “This was a good way to finish things up.
“It’s beyond my expectations and sets the table for next year. We’re awfully young.”
Hughey has no peers at his high school when it comes to state success in the 200- and 400-meter races. No M-S athlete in the 131-year history of the IHSA state finals had placed in those two events in the same year. Ever.
In fact, the school’s only 200 placer took place before the event turned metric. In 1976, Steve Karr was sixth in the 220-yard dash. Hughey is now one of the school’s seven placers in the 400 (two did so when it was still a 440-yard race) and he matched the top M-S finish of all-time in the event. Cully Welter was also second in 1987.
“All the training all my coaches put me through paid off,” Hughey said. “I’m happy and proud of my accomplishments.
“I didn’t think I’d do this well. I am grateful and blessed.”
The two-day state meet, which started with prelims in Class 2A on Friday (May 26), was an emotional roller-coaster for the Bulldogs, and especially Hughey.
Hughey had the top time (48.98 seconds) in the disputed 400-meter preliminary race and subsequently ran more than a half-second faster in the finals (48.42 seconds) to garner his runner-up spot.
He also qualified for the finals in the 200 meters with the fourth-best time (21.83) and captured fifth in the finals in 22.22 seconds.
After Hughey ran the 400-meter prelim, Pogue was called to the IHSA dugout by state administrators. He said he was told that Hughey was being disqualified for stepping on the lane line while running.
“Coach (Jason) Franklin and DeAngelo looked at the film (of the race) and said, ‘That’s not even close,’” Pogue said. “It was awful. What a terrible mistake to make.”
After the prelims in the next event (300-meter hurdles) had been contested, Pogue was summoned to meet with IHSA administrators again.
The M-S coach was then told that Hughey was back in the finals, but no other details were forthcoming.
“I still don’t know what happened,” Pogue said.
Hughey, meanwhile, while in limbo about his status as he was preparing mentally for his preliminary heat race in the 200 meters.
“He had to take that into account and now try to qualify in the 200,” Pogue said. “I’m super proud of him.
“I’m not sure I would have had that much composure at his age. He got in the finals, and gave himself a chance.”
Officially, the story does not end there.
The defending 400-meter state champion, Urbana senior and University of Illinois recruit Jackson Gilbert, ran in the preliminary heat race that followed Hughey to the track.
Mysteriously, he was disqualified for stepping on the lane line in a race he won in excess of 10 meters. That decision was never reversed.
Hughey and Gilbert are training partners during the summer, fall and winter with the Champaign-based Vipers Track Club, coached by Kankakee’s Marques Lowe.
“That was a tough moment,” Lowe said. “I’m happy DeAngelo got in the finals, but it came at the expense of one of the best runners the state has ever seen.
“Jackson and DeAngelo took it as well as anyone could. Jackson handled it with a smile on his face. It was so unfair, and was a horrible call that shouldn’t have been made.”
Again, the story does not end there.
A third Vipers’ training partner, Kankakee’s Jayon Morrow, had the fifth-best qualifying time in the 400 meters, but later in the day needed to spend time in the training room nursing an injury.
“Jayon was willing to give up his spot (in the finals for Gilbert, who would have had the third-best qualifying time),” Lowe reported.
The IHSA said no to that request as well as to one to allow the nine qualifiers to run in the fast heat of the finals and to put Gilbert on the track by himself in a prior one-person, 400-meter race.
“Gilbert still would have broken the state record,” Lowe predicted.
Again, the request was denied.
When the 400-meter finals were contested, only eight of the nine lanes were filled. Morrow chose not to run.
“I told him, ‘ninth is better than no medal’ and that people will remember you for what you tried to do yesterday (with his sportsmanship gesture),” Lowe said, “but he said, ‘The medal don’t mean anything if they’re making calls that affect the entire state series.”
A year ago, as a sophomore, Morrow was the state runner-up in the 400 meters.
In the state finals, the top nine in every event are assured of medals and All-State status. However, an athlete must participate in the finals to receive that recognition.
“There’s a dark cloud over the event,” Lowe said. “It was a call made on the field, and like in football or basketball, you have to honor that, but the IHSA needs an appeals process.”
The controversy didn’t take away from Hughey’s focus and performance in the finals.
“I stayed in the right mindset,” Hughey said. “I knew I could go out and compete.”
A year after not qualifying for state in an individual event or even with a relay, he took home medals in two individual races.
“It’s an amazing story for that young man,” Lowe said. “I predicted last September that he’d be on the state podium.
“This is a testament to his hard work and character.
“These are the kinds of athletes you love, that put so much into the sport. He was a darkhorse and no one paid attention to who he was. He is getting stronger and faster and will have an amazing summer.
“He made a lot of people in Mahomet proud. His (high school) coaches have done a great job honing his skills and turning him into the athlete he will become. He’s ready to go to the next level.”
Hughey owns the all-time M-S school records in both the 200 meters (21.47 seconds) and the 400 meters (48.04 seconds).
“He’s disappointed he didn’t win (the 400) and that carried over to the 200, but he has made a quantum leap after not even qualifying for state last year,” Pogue said.
Hughey said the uncertainty concerning the 400 prelims was confusing.
“When I first found out I was DQed, I was shocked and in disbelief,” he said. “I knew I ran in my lane.
“Later, when they said it was a mistake, it was relief.”
That feeling was soon tempered by frustration when he learned about Gilbert’s status.
“That threw my motive off,” Hughey said. “He’s the one that was supposed to push me.”
Hughey, the national AAU runner-up in the 400 in his age group last year, will take a week off before starting practice with the Vipers on Monday, June 5.
He said there was less anxiety for him at state after having experienced a similar type of environment at nationals.
“I wasn’t nervous at all,” he said. “I had discovered (at nationals) what it felt like to be in a high-pressure environment.”
When Pogue said that Hughey has made a “quantum leap,” it was not an exaggeration.
Hughey did not run the open 200 last year as a sophomore. As a freshman, his top time in the race was 24.06. Now he is an All-Stater in the event and the M-S school record-holder.
As a freshman, Hughey didn’t run the 400 meters. As a sophomore his best time was 52.41 seconds. He shaved more than four seconds off that mark this year while breaking the school records and earning a state medal.
In the 100 meters, his times the past three years have dropped from 11.99 to 11.92 to 10.98 and he is one of the school’s all-time leaders in the sprint race.
Last year at the Apollo Conference meet, Hughey did not run in an individual race. He was a part of two relay teams that placed second and fourth. This spring, he won three individual events (breaking two conference marks in the process) and helped the 400-meter relay to a first-place finish in a conference-record time.
With the points earned by Hughey, Clark and Marshall, M-S accumulated 17 ½ points at state and placed 13th. A total of 72 Class 2A teams scored points at state, led by meet champion East St. Louis (72 points) and runner-up Cahokia (59 points).
Marshall, who also trains with the Vipers in the off-season, owns the sixth-best triple jump mark in M-S history (42 feet, 11 ½ inches). He was just off that mark at state, recording a leap of 42 feet, 9 inches that accounted for his fifth-place finish.
The senior is only in his second full year of triple jumping.
“He was average (in track) in junior high,” Pogue said, “picked up the triple jump and worked his rear off to get to state.
“Before last season, he decided he was going to go after it.”
Lowe said that Marshall is an athlete who didn’t need motivation to push in workouts.
“He is a power jumper and really trained in the off-season,” Lowe said. “To get on the podium is a special moment for him.”
Of the three M-S all-staters, Marshall was the only one who participated in an individual state event in 2022. He placed 14th in the triple jump.
Clark was one of 15 pole vaulters to make it to the finals in Class 2A. He cleared 13 feet, 5 inche to tie for ninth.
“That was a pretty great way to end his sophomore season,” Pogue said. “You worry when you’ve had a parent who has been successful in an event, but he knew what he wanted to do at an early age in life and what he needs to do to be successful.”
His dad, Bryan Clark, was the only three-time All-Stater for the Bulldogs in the pole vault (in 1993,’94 and ’95) and is now in his second stint as the Bulldogs’ pole vault coach.
Overall, M-S had state-qualifiers in nine events.
Two Bulldog athletes who advanced in individual events, opted out to focus on their school’s relay entries: Marshall in the 200 meters and Blake Dillman in the 400 meters.
First-year hurdler Travis Hoffman finished 17th in the 300-meter hurdles (41.93 seconds).
Robert Byron had matching 16th-place finishes in the shot put (47 feet, 6 inches) and the discus (144 feet, 1 inch). Byron was a state-placer in the discus as a junior.
Neither of M-S’ state relays advanced to the finals.
The 400-meter relay wound up in 14th place (43.36 seconds). Handling the baton were Hoffman, Jayvon Irwin, Marshall and Hughey.
The Bulldogs’ 1,600-meter relay foursome of Kaden Jackson, Dillman, Joshua Franklin and Hughey reached the finish line in 3:29.99 and wound up in 18th place. Jackson was a late substitution for a teammate who was ill (Hoffman).
“This was a very competitive meet,” Pogue said.
The years since 1975 that M-S has had more than four state-placers in individual events are 2018 (six), 2019 (five), 1995 (five) and 1987 (five). There were four other years with four Bulldog athletes earning medals in individual events besides this year: 2017, 2011, 1992 and 1991.
This year’s state success continued a streak of 12 consecutive years with at least one state individual placer (excluding 2020 when the state finals were canceled due to COVID-19).
In all, for the entirety of the season, the Bulldogs moved into the school’s all-time leaders’ list in 20 individual events as well as in three relays.
Besides his school records in the 200 and 400 meters, Hughey posted the third-best M-S time ever in the 100 meters (10.98 seconds).
Marshall not only earned a spot on the leaderboard in the triple jump, but also the 200 meters (fourth in 22.35 seconds), the long jump (14th at 20 feet, 3 ¾ inches) and the 100 meters (25th at 11.56 seconds).
Also securing top-10 berths on the M-S list individually were Byron (seventh in the discus at 166 feet, 5 ½ inches), Dillman (seventh in the 400 meters at 50.55 seconds), Hoffman in the 300-meter hurdles (eighth in 40.83 seconds) and Irwin (eighth in the 100 meters in 11.18 seconds.
Clark stands in a tie for 14th all-time in the pole vault (14 feet). Joshua Franklin had two entries on the board (17th in the 300 hurdles in 42.23 seconds and 24th in the 400 meters in 52.44 seconds).
Dillman, Byron and Hoffman all made an impact in a second event. Dillman ranks 18th in the 800 meters (2:02.04), Byron comes in 19th in the shot put at M-S (50 feet, 8 inches) and Hoffman stands 24th in the 110-meter high hurdles (16.68 seconds) and 25th in the 400 meters (52.52 seconds).
Also cracking the career list were Hayden Grotelueschen (23rd in the 3,200 meters at 10:07.97) and Auggie Gaudio (25th in the 1,600 meters at 4:35.67).
Three relays also made noise this spring, including what is now the top 400-meter unit in school history. The foursome of Hoffman, Irwin, Marshall and Hughey set the new standard at the sectional with a time of 43.07 seconds.
This year’s 1,600-meter relay now shares the No. 3 spot with a time of 3:24.63. The featured runners were Hoffman, Dillman, Franklin and Hughey.
The third top M-S relay from this spring to gain a spo on the all-time leaderboard was the 800-meter grouping of Irwin, Alex O’Brian, Brock Kellenberger and Ryken Kirby, who were timed in 1:34.72 and rank 17th all-time.
