By SCOTT RICHEY, Staff Writer
MATTOON – Confidence in its abilities is one thing not lacking for the Mattoon boys’ track team at this point in the track season.
That confidence stems from early success in the outdoor season coupled with a third place finish at Saturday’s Urbana Open. Mattoon’s tie for third place with Fenwick came behind two much larger schools — Zion-Benton and Minooka.
Paired with similar sized schools for today’s Mattoon Invitational — including Coles County rival Charleston — Green Wave coach James Hood likes his team’s chances.
“I think they’re ready to go to be honest with you,” Hood said about his team. “They believe in everything that they can do. Performance wise they know what they can do. They know if they do that they have a good shot at placing well at this meet.”
Even with a run of confidence and momentum of Saturday’s strong finish against tough competition, Hood said there is no clear cut favorite for today’s invitational. The Green Wave competed against Decatur MacArthur (fifth Saturday at Urbana), Rantoul and Urbana, and Hood said Marion always has a strong program.
“I think a lot of the teams coming in are pretty solid,” Hood said. “I don’t know how deep they go, but by some of the times I’ve seen coming in it’s going to be a nice meet. Everybody has, in some event, somebody that’s performing well. It really looks like it’s going to be a real competitive meet on all levels.”
Mattoon isn’t the only team with momentum and confidence headed into today’s meet. Charleston is coming off its first invitational win in at least four years after topping Teutopolis by one point in the Wooden Shoe’s own meet Saturday.
“That was a big deal for them,” Charleston coach Blain Mayhall said. “Any time they win anything like that hopefully it will carry over. We haven’t really talked it about it much since. We talked about it Monday a little bit and then focused on getting their workouts in to be ready for (today).”
The distance races could be where the Wave and Trojans come head-to-head to see which team really has the momentum. From the 800-meter run to the 1,600-meter and 3,200-meter runs, Charleston and Mattoon have strong runners in each event.
Charleston’s Aaron Smith won the 800 at Teutopolis with a personal best 2 minutes, 2.66 seconds, and Mattoon’s Joe Calio finished second at Urbana with a time of 2:01.34. Calio and Blake Flood are the Green Wave’s top mile threats, while freshman Riley McInerney marks the Trojans’ best shot at the 1,600.
“Off the track, they’re all friends,” Hood said. “When we get on the track, it’s competitive and it helps them push each other. It helps my guys and Charleston guys to have guys next door to compete with. What it really has done is enhance the distance programs for both teams. If they’re doing that over there, we’ve got to do the same.”
The 3,200 could be a showdown between the two programs’ up-and-coming freshmen. McInerney won the 3,200 at Teutopolis with a time in 10:35.86, and Mattoon freshman placed third at Urbana in 10:15.38.
“(McInerney) and Jon Righter have been going at each other since seventh grade,” Mayhall said. “I’m impressed with (McInerney), with his times even with him being a freshman.”
Both Hood and Mayhall said they expect to place well in several field events as well. Hood said the Green Wave should be strong in the triple jump (Dillan Miller and Andrew Daily), the shot put (Ben Harrington) and discus (Zane Chapman). The Trojans’ top field events could be the pole vault, high jump and long jump.
“We have a real good shot of possibly going 1-2 in the pole vault with Joe Coyle and Jason Shores,” Mayhall said. “Those two guys have put in a lot of work with the vault. (Long jumper L.J. Welsh) kind of thrives on the competition too. Seeing the stronger competition, I’d like to see him get into the 20s (past 20 feet). He hasn’t gotten there yet this year.”
Mayhall said he hoped the stronger competition at today’s invitational would both push his team and give the Trojans an idea of where their times and distances stand against some of their sectional opponents (Champaign Central, Mattoon, Rantoul and Urbana).
“It definitely could be a confidence booster depending on how they compete against these guys,” Mayhall said of getting an early look at other sectional teams. “In the (100-meter dash) I’ve got Chidi Obia and L.J. Welsh, who have been going head to head all year long and taking first and second. My (undefeated 400-meter relay team) hasn’t really been challenged this year, so maybe bigger schools will push them.”
Hood said he’s simply looking for his team to do what it’s done all year — be competitive in every event and score points with multiple athletes placing in multiple events. The Green Wave will have its chance to do just that as long as the weather holds.
“If there’s no lightning, we’re going because it looks like Saturday is going to be even worse,” Hood said. “I’m going to see if i can find ways to speed the meet up. The word I got is we’re going as long as we can.”
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