CHARLESTON — Danville senior Matthew Thomas was admittedly very disappointed with his time of 15.05 seconds in the finals of the 110-meter hurdles at Saturday’s IHSA Class 3A State Track and Field Meet at O’Brien Field in Charleston.
It was his slowest time in nearly a month, but he still managed to take fifth — earning himself a spot on the school’s wall.
“This is just so frustrating,’’ he said. “I’ve been working all year for this and run 15 seconds at state is not what you are looking for. I was looking for another 14-second race and hopefully, something in the low 14s but I just ran terrible.’’
In Friday’s prelims, Thomas ran a personal best of 14.58 seconds — that would have been good enough for third on Saturday.
“I’m going to have to look at the film and see what I did wrong,’’ he said. “I know I hit a few hurdles and my start could have been better.’’
Still, he is the first Danville athlete to earn all-state honors in track since Quemarii Williams in 2019.
“Getting on the podium at state track has been a goal of mine since middle school,’’ said Thomas, who qualified for state the past two years. “Being able to get on the podium in Class 3A against the best competition does really mean lot.’’
Danville junior DeMarion Forman, who made the finals in discus, wasn’t able to crack the top-nine to earn a spot on the podium. His best throw of 44.97 meters came during Friday’s prelims.
Schlarman Academy freshman Jerrius Atkinson earned a pair of all-state finishes with a fourth in the 300 hurdles (39.62) and a ninth in the 110 hurdles (15.98).
“It was really important to me to come back in those 300s because I felt that I could have done so much better in the 110s,’’ Atkinson said. “I really wanted to show out in those 300s.’’
Atkinson not only became the school’s first state place winner since Jesse Hahne took 5th in the 1,600 and 6th in the 3,200 at the 2013 state meet.
“That feels really good and I know I have a lot of room to build upon as a freshman,’’ Atkinson said.
Making a big impression is what Bismarck-Henning/Rossville-Alvin junior Ayden Ingram did three weeks ago in a regular-season home meet.
That was the first time that Ingram competed in the long jump and on Saturday, he wound up collecting a fifth-place finish in the event with a jump of 6.34 meters of 20 feet, 9.25 inches.
“I’ve only done it like our last four meets,’’ said Ingram. “It was kind of a joke. Coach (Nathan West) said we do whatever event we wanted to do and I decided to do the long jump.’’
Ingram jumped 6.40 meters or 21 feet that day and his season best 21-2.75.
“Getting fifth place is a big surprise. I knew I could get to the finals and I was just hoping for a podium finish,’’ he said. “My overall PR would have gotten me second.’’
Other individuals earning state medals on Saturday included Westville junior Tyler Miller taking sixth in the 300 hurdles and Bismarck-Henning/Rossville-Alvin senior Murphy McCool with an eighth in the 400 meters.