Pekin wins again at home

For the second time in as many weeks the Pekin Panthers were able to dominate the field in a meet they were hosting. The Panthers rounded up 192 points between the 19 scored events, 10 of which they finished in first place on April 5.

    Among the 10 top finishes, several of them came long-distance and relay events. Colten Glosser finished first-place in the 3200-meter run with a time of 10:44.60 and was the only one in the field of six who was able to cut down on his average time. Prior to that, Glosser was runner-up in the 1600-meter run, finishing at the 5:07.83 mark. The one boy who beat him was teammate Brady Millikin, who finished up with a time of 5:00.07.

    Pekin ran the table in the relay events, picking up 60 points along the way. The Panthers got a time of 45.85 in the 4x100m, 1:34.00 in the 4x200m, 3:30.78 in the 4x400m, 9:13.16 in the 4x800m, 1:37.55 in the 800-sprint medley and 3:59.90 in the distance medley. Chandler Eckley helped the team by taking first in the 800-meter run (2:02.71) while Monico Requena continued to speed through the 100-meter dash in 11.48 seconds to take the top spot.

    “What we tried to do was pull one or two runners out of the relays and fill them in with other runners,” Pekin coach Davis Eidahl said. “This is how we develop new personnel that will help us down the line.”

    Outside of those results, the Panthers had many more finishes in the top-five in most of the track and field events. In the 200-meter dash Dayne Eckley finished runner-up (23.98) while Canyon Decker took fifth (25.86) in the event. Isaiah Wittrock followed that up with a second-place finish (52.99) in the 400-meter dash and Brayden Sobaski took fourth with a time of 58.02 seconds.

    Pekin had just as much success in the hurdle events with Jordan Hixon taking fourth (17.54) in the 110-meter hurdles, while Cole Earnest was second (1:01.98) and Levi Long finished fourth (1:06.59) in the 400-meter hurdles. Millikin had another big finish in the 800-meter run, taking fourth with a time of 2:22.46. The final event on the track the Panthers picked up points with was the 4x100-meter shuttle hurdle relay by taking third with a time of 1:05.53.

    Off the track, Pekin pulled in another 17 points from their field athletes. Devin Fraise finished third (18’-10.50”) and Earnest took fourth (18’-8.00”) in the long jump, while Slater Williams finished runner-up in the shot put (45’-8.50”) and discus (118’-5.00”).

    Other results are as follows:

    100-meter dash: Canyon Decker finished sixth (12.69)

    Shot Put: Skyler Juhl finished ninth (36’-0.00”)

    Discus: Logan Kealey finished 12th (82’-5.00”)

    The Pekin boys headed over to Fairfield for their next meet on April 10.