Issac Guerendo is slated to compete in the 60m and 200m at this weekend's UK High School Invitational.
The first big surprise on the entries comes on the boy's side of things, Isaac Guerendo is NOT entered in the long jump, he is only in sprint events. Just last week at the Indianapolis Team Invite at UIndy, he placed 2nd in the long jump. So, to not see him competing in what would seem to be his best event is a shock.
First order of business, the field events.
Boys
This will be Darius Price's second indoor meet of the year, throwing 47-10.5 at last weekends Indiana Track Club Open at IU. That's the best he's ever thrown for the shot, so hopefully, he's got something good up his sleeve for this weekend to top that. Last year he took over 58ft to win this event, a top 4 finish would be great this early in the season for Price.
Now Peyton Haack, the senior out of Westfield, is an all-around athlete. He competed at USATF Junior Olympics last summer, in the Decathlon, finishing 3rd in the nation. But tomorrow he's entered in the pole vault and 60m hurdles. He was 14th at state last year with a 14' 3" vault. He's jumped 14' indoors this year so far. He's got some pretty good competition in this event, so I think if he wants a top 3 finish he's going to have to pull out a new PR.
Girls
We've got three girls throwing it down from Hamilton County in the Pole Vault come Saturday morning. The defending state champ and 3rd place at New Balance Outdoors, Kennedy Drish of Hamilton Southeastern. Her teammate, Jessica Bray and the state runner-up Kara Deady of Carmel. Out of these three, Drish looks to be the top competitor and has a real shot at topping the rest of the competition. She won the Indiana State Meet after only vaulting in her first meet ever in May. She had just taken up pole vault a few months before that. This girl is one to keep your eye on Saturday and all season. Both Bray and Deady will be looking for that first huge jump of 2018, hopefully, both of them can get some good jumps in and find a spot in the top 5 finishers.
On the Track
We'll see our first of hopefully many match-ups between Guerendo and Justin Becker, in both the 60 and 200. They are both pretty equal in the sense of times, so they will both be pushing for the run(s) of their careers. The man to beat though in both these event will be Eric Allen out of the ever-dominant Bullis HS. Top blood from IL, Marcellus Moore, will be their other huge competition.
Spencer Gudgel out of Carmel looking like he could hold his own with some of the top talents in the 400. He's also racing in the 800 with top names like Brodey Hasty and Dustin Horter Having top guys like that to race against will greatly help to push him to a top time.
The man, Matt Schadler is making his indoor debut with the mile. He'll get to race with Horter for the first time since Nike Regionals in November. His indoor mile PR is only 4:22, so if he wants to prove why he earned that Gatorade Runner of the Year, he's going to have to hang with Horter as long as he can and drop a big time.
Maddie Dalton will face some of her biggest competition of her career on Saturday
We'll get to see our first matchup of the year between Semira Killebrew and Mikeisha Covington in both the 60 and the 200. Covington is slated to race once more in the 400, where she'll get to face top HSE talent Tierra Sydnor Killebrew comes into this competition as a US #5 in the 60 and US #15 in the 200, earning her major props against the field. Killebrew will be battling fellow US #5 Abby Steiner (Dublin Coffman) as they both look to cross that line first.
In the 800 if any girl could drop under 2:10, the day would be done. No girl has dropped below a 2:10 on the leaderboards this season. The depth going on this weekend could provide for that first one. Both Mikayla Gallagher and Maddie Dalton are in the same section final and will more than likely lead the race together. They're both used to running out towards the front and tomorrow will be no exception.
Both girls race a little earlier in the day against top IL talent Katelynne Hart, who is the defending mile and 2-mile champ. With the speed of Hart, Dalton, Gallagher, as well as Katherine Modrall, will need to find a comfortable groove not far behind her if they all want to drop a nice time. Modrall and Dalton are used to leading cross country races, so it'll be good to see what they can do when they have some big competition to hold them steady.