Illinois High School Track & Field Weekend Highlights – February 9, 2025
By Michael Newman
The start of the Illinois High School Track & Field season traditionally starts at the beginning of February with some smaller meets ending the indoor season at the end of March at the Illinois Top Times Championships on the campus of Illinois Wesleyan University. Two months later, the top athletes will meet again at Eastern Illinois University for the IHSA State Track & Field Championships with one weekend for the Girls and the following weekend for the Boys.
The track season may have started a little earlier in January with a few meets at Gately Park. With a mind-blowing performance, the start of the indoor season started on January 31 in the Circuit Meet of Chicago, Maybe it started with Mia Sirois of Barrington discovering what her potential is when she set the Detweiller Park course record and winning her second state title in her career and then finishing sixth at the Nike Cross Nationals. Sirois stayed with the front pack in the race passing through the first mile in 5:04, then ran a negative split to take the lead briefly with three laps to go. The sophomore ended up running 10:04.11 to finish second and the second fastest indoor time for the 2 Mile run this season.
We are going through a golden age of Girls Distance running in this state and across the country. It started with Judy Pendergast, followed with Katelynne Hart, and then Tatum David and Ali Ince. Now it is Sirois to take Illinois distance running to another level. Her 2 Mile Run time converts to 10:00.61 for the 3200 Meter Run which currently makes her the fifth fastest all time in this state. I use the word currently loosely because her time will continue to drop.
Sirois did not “peak” for the Circuit. She took a week over after Nike Cross Nationals and started her mileage back up mixed in with cross training. She is aware that Tatum David has run the fastest time in the 3200 Meter Run (8:48.94). David holds the IHSA State Meet record (9:53.96) while Katelynne Hart holds the Class 3A State record (10:12.96) set seven years ago and well within the grasp of this sophomore. She has three years to get a hold of David’s all-time best.
We could see big things from her in March at Nike Indoor Nationals where she is entered in all three distance events but has not decided what she will run in that meet.
The meets the past weekend were smaller but will grow in team…
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