Through My Lens: An Inside Look at a Team on a Hunt for a Trophy

By Alec Holler

My dad is a prolific writer of hundreds of articles. People love to hear his perspective on any topic. For the last six years he has written an article after each state meet on how the meet looked from his point of view. The state meet is the perfect topic to write about your specific vantage point because everyone has their own experience with many parallels and distinctions. Sometimes it’s a Venn Diagram, sometimes it’s not.  

Hearing someone else’s perspective of the meet increases my love of the state track meet. My dad sees the meet through a very wide lens. In his 40 years of coaching, he has built a large network of coaches and their teams. I tend to view things from a more narrow lens. I am only 34 but I have been to over 20 state meets and have seen my teams win 5 state championships and 13 state trophies. I’ve experienced countless heartbreaks and triumphs. 

I love watching the team trophy race unfold and star athletes put on a show, but my focus has always been on MY TEAM. This article is through my narrow lens with the focus on the Edwardsville Tigers competing for a 2021 IHSA State Championship. 

Carson Bateman

We knew all year which events could make or break us in the team title race. We needed a relay or two to step up. Going into sectionals, all four relays were ranked top-10 in the state and in good position to score a few critical, game-changing, state points. At the heart of those relays was Carson Bateman. Carson (11.27 100m) was consistent, winning his leg of almost every relay he ran all year. He was also our most reliable exchange guy. Carson was the glue holding those relays together. On the day before Sectional, Carson pulled his hamstring on a routine high-speed handoff rep. We thought it could be a CNS-related hamstring shut down rather than an actual injury. We did a lot of RPR to try to reset his nervous system to no avail. Carson did not run at Sectional. 

Sectional Train Wreck

We had terrific depth in the sprints this year. We subbed a fearless freshman for Carson in the 4×1 and 4×2. Kellen Brnfre started at safety for our varsity football team as a freshman. He brought an edge to our team that we needed. Kellen is a guy that is willing to compete against anyone, anywhere, anytime. His best splits were close to Carson’s already and getting better every meet. He was our next most-reliable exchange guy. Our 4×4 needed to run a solid race, each guy coming close to their PR. 

If we could survive the 4×1, 4×2, and 4×4, then Carson might be ready to be reinserted at the State Meet. 

The gods of fate did not smile. Our three relays failed to qualify. No words can describe the heartbreak. 

The most outrageous disaster was our false start in the 4×1. 

Our 4×2 and 4×4 both placed third, failing to qualify. 

Our steady and consistent workhorse 45’6” (3A #13) triple jumper, Jordan Brooks, did not qualify.

Our hopes for a team state title had been broken into tiny pieces. Dreams die hard. The 140-mile bus ride back to Edwardsville took forever. 

Post Sectional Depression

Good track programs peak at Sectional, and we almost always did. We expect Sectional success. 

We had one critical objective at Sectional this year, survive and advance in the 4×1, 4×2, and 4×4. We struck out. All we had to do was take care of business and we didn’t. As Mike Tyson said, “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”

We put a lot of time, effort, and energy into this every year. Kids and coaches. With some of our kids, this was four years in the making. Four years of work and a false start ends it all. A false start doesn’t even disqualify an Olympian!

Why do we have higher standards for middle school and high school athletes than we do for professionals? Why does one bad race at sectional end a senior’s career when in college you can qualify in a number of meets? Why does it seem like the IHSA is actively trying to limit state qualifiers? I feel bad for the kids.

Moving Forward

Our coaching staff had to work at being positive and bringing good energy for our athletes who had survived the Sectional train wreck. 

After a weekend of soul searching, we came back with renewed purpose at practice. Our athletes were excited and focused all week. Great teams inspire their coaches. 

Rewatching Old State Meets

When I start to get excited about the state meet I like to go to YouTube and relive some of our glory years. I watched the 2017 state meet where our #1 4×1 and #1 long jumper didn’t make it and we thought all hope was lost only for other athletes to step up and win the team state title anyway. It helps to remember the good times. Visualizing success is a motivator and performance enhancer. 

Irrational Hope

As my mood started to improve I finally got around to taking a look at our possible team outcomes. I started to wonder. What if our 4×8 gets pulled along in the fast heat and squeaks out a point? What if our freshman triple jumper who seems to PR every meet pops a big one on the biggest stage? Maybe other teams will stumble like we did at Sectionals. If things went well, could we still win a trophy? 

Everyone hopes for breakout performances at state, but, in reality, for every breakout, there’s ten disappointments. As in life, high hopes will often lead to deeper sadness when things don’t go your way. As coaches, it’s our job to think big. 

I went to bed on the Friday night before the state meet with an implausible and irrational hope for a state trophy. 

Reconnecting with the IHSA State Meet

I hadn’t been to Charleston in over two years. I hadn’t seen all the teams and coaches I am accustomed to seeing during a season with a normal schedule. Usually, Edwardsville would travel north for a couple indoor meets. Northern teams would make the trek down to Belleville West and Edwardsville for April invitationals. 

It was surreal being back and seeing everyone again. This was always my favorite weekend of the year and it was finally here. 

As I was taking it all in and enjoying being back in my favorite place, I was hit with a comical dose of reality when I realized we did not qualify enough athletes for our whole coaching staff to get passes into the state meet. I just laughed and paid the $10. Of course, I tweeted about it thinking it might get a few laughs. The tweet ended up nearly going viral with over 20,000 impressions in less than 24 hours. Turns out a lot of other coaches experienced this through their lens. My athletic director quickly reassured me that I would be reimbursed. It’s all good. But how ridiculous is that?? Who came up with the idea to limit the number of coaches that get to attend their own state championship and thought it was a good idea? Regardless, Brandon Battle was worth the ten bucks. 

*Brandon Battle*

I bet you are probably wondering how I have been able to get this long into the article without mentioning Brandon. It wasn’t easy. It also wasn’t easy to try to spread around our “Meet MVP” this season. 

Brandon was the MVP of every meet, every practice, and every off-season speed training session. 

I have known Brandon since he was in my 6th grade PE class. He has always been a quiet, polite, nice kid. Brandon also has the ability to get excited and turn into a fierce competitor. 

I knew Brandon would be a good athlete but I had no idea that he would be THIS GOOD. His first love seemed to be basketball, but he had a great middle school track experience. Brandon was a solid state qualifier but got smoked by the Cahokia and East St. Louis middle school sprinters.

I remember seeing Brandon in a basketball practice his freshman year. He had shot up with a big growth spurt and was a blur running the court. I remember nudging our head coach Chad Lakatos and saying this guy might break our freshman 400 record. Our records are pretty tough to beat so that is saying a lot. It didn’t take long. In a short two week indoor season (late start due to basketball), he broke the freshman 400 indoor record (53.2). He then went on to break the outdoor freshman open 400 (52.9) and 4×4 split record (50.8). Brandon was our 4th fastest guy in the 4×4 as a freshman but was the only one to PR at the state meet (fastest split on the team). His 4×4 did not make finals.

Loading the bus for the state track meet, Brandon was so focused I thought he was going to spontaneously combust. I had to remind him to take his mind off of it from time to time. It could be a long day. But Brandon kept his laser-like stare into the back of the seat in front of him and the index cards he brought. He had calculated a precise to-the-minute schedule of his shake-out, pre-race warmup, the times of each race, and the times that he would report to the tent. He mapped out his hydration and pickle juice routine. He was 100% prepared. 

I accompanied him to the indoor facility for his 12:30 shake out. He did speed drills and accelerations. Brandon had me give block start commands on the straight and on the curve. All I could do was be there for him.  I wished I could do more, but it was in his hands. Knowing that we were all there for him was all that Brandon needed. 

Quickest State Meet Ever

When Brandon’s shake-out was complete, I hustled over to watch our freshman triple jumper who had just started. 

Malik Allen’s first jump was incredible and looked like it could score us a couple points, but he had missed the board by two feet. His second jump was .01m from his PR but he had once again missed the board by a couple feet. Reaching for the board on the third jump resulted in a wasted attempt. On his fourth and final jump, our jumps coach Carry Bailey moved Malik’s mark and told him to attack like he had nothing to lose. Malik probably had his best jump of the day, easily an all-state distance, but a scratch by a toe. What a great learning experience for our talented freshman!

Right after Malik’s last triple jump, I hustled to the stands to watch our 4×8. We had an outside chance at scoring. All four guys would have to run their best to have a chance to score. 4×8 is a tough event to survive when trailing. The lost time flaring out at the three exchanges is a killer. The three guys who will return for 2022 got solid state meet experience. 

The meet became a blur from that point on. I didn’t leave my seat for food, water, or a bathroom break until the end of the meet. 

We still had an outside chance to place top-three as a team. Every event had major implications. Neuqua upset Minooka in the 4×8. Minooka bounced back to win the 4×1. Our distance coaches’ son, Geordan Patrylak, who I watched grow up idolizing athletes that ran at the state meet, got to run in his first state meet in the 3200. 

100 Meters

Adding to our sectional disaster was the terrible 100m dash times across the board. At the Bloomington Sectional, 10.80 guys ran 11.10. 11.60 guys ran 11.90. It was like clockwork. Every single runner was .30 seconds slow. Sure enough, Brandon Battle, the top-ranked 100m runner (had wind-legal seed times of 10.63 and 10.66) ran a 10.95. I thought “well at least that will probably have him in the middle of the slow heat.” Nope. Worse. Brandon would draw the dreaded FAST HEAT LANE ONE. 

I was confident in Brandon, but the 100 was not the strongest of his three events and I have never seen someone win the 100 from lane one at state. I was pretty nervous. Not Brandon. Brandon Battle won the 100 in a photo-finish by only .002 seconds! For Brandon, it was business as usual. New school record, 10.61, and his first-ever gold medal at State. Leaving the competition area, he was mobbed by teammates and fans. Brandon gave them a stern look and said, “Not yet.”

Trophy Hopes

I thought Milesplit-Illinois did a great job of forecasting the competition for the 3A State Championship. It looked like Neuqua, Minooka, Homewood-Flossmoor, Batavia, and Normal West were pretty set as the projected top 5. 

The top teams looked like they could score into the 40s, with us scoring in the high 20s, sitting just outside the top five. 

My good coaching friends at HF dealt with some injury issues and had a rough day, only scoring 19 points. 

Batavia just missed out on a few key events. 

Minooka had a heart breaking false start in the 100, greatly hurting their team chances. Tyler Colwell had the #3 ranked time from Sectionals. Zero points. 

Minooka coach, Nick Lundin, had sent me a really nice text after our 4×1 false started at Sectional. I felt terrible for Nick. Coaches who have been in position to compete for a state title know it’s never as easy as it looks. The margin for error is small. I knew exactly how Nick felt. If you coach at this level in track and field for long enough, you are going to have disastrous state meets and some that go shockingly well. I learned this watching my dad’s Harrisburg teams growing up that had the chance to win 6-7 state titles and only won three (I know, ONLY??). I feel like we have had better teams finish 2nd than some that won state titles. You win some, you lose some. This state meet is cut-throat.

After Brandon Battle took care of business in his most difficult event and other teams struggled, I took a look at the team standings. I knew we had a great chance at finishing at 30 points. It also seemed like only Minooka and Neuqua had a chance at scoring over 30 points but needed a lot to go right. Normal West looked like they could be stuck at 29. I got chills and waved coach Lakatos over. We started looking through the program and determined we actually had a chance for a team trophy. A good chance.

400 Meters

I knew Brandon wanted to put on a show in his marquee event. He had the chance to break the state record of 46.24 set by Kahmari Montgomery in 2015. Ironically, Kahmari was the only runner in the history of the state meet to win the triple crown that Brandon was going for and was trained in a similar way, Feed the Cats. This always brings out the high volume lovers who want to point out that Brandon ran cross country in the fall. They try to make  the point that cross country was the key to Brandon’s endurance. What they don’t know is that our distance coach and cross country coach George Patrylak carefully designed a plan for Brandon to have a low-mileage speed focus during the fall, not the typical volumes of cross country runners. Coach Patrylak deserves a lot of credit for how he handled Brandon in cross country. After the fall, Brandon didn’t run over 200m in practice. Ever. We worked speed, and we worked speed endurance. We never ran slow and we never ran sub-max intervals. 

In the 400, Brandon knew he wanted to be sub 22.0 to the 200 mark. He was 21.8 at Sectional on the way to a 46.60. At state, he was a bit more methodical on the front end and I had him at 22.0. He did his patented “woosh” on the second curve and brought the crowd to their feet. He was under 45.0 with 10m to go and let up a tad but finished with an electrifying US #3 46.48, beating second place by nearly three seconds. 

We were now at 20 team points and our trophy hopes were still alive. 

200 Meters

The next race on the track after the 400 was the 300 hurdles. Normal West had the 9th ranked hurdler in that dreaded lane one position. If he scores two points (8th place), we can’t beat them. He ran a great race and finished sixth. Normal West is a great program. Coach Aubin and his staff won Normal West’s first-ever IHSA Sectional and first-ever state trophy for their school. Normal West had 33 points, making it impossible for us to outscore them. Our trophy hopes were now pretty slim. 

Minooka had a huge bounce back performance in the 4×2 (bronze medal) to put themselves back in the hunt.

This leads us to the 200 where Battle would try to complete the Triple Crown. Brandon had Tyler Colwell of Minooka to his inside who looked like a man on a mission since false starting in the 100m. Colwell ran like a mad man in that 4×2 (third place). HF star Marshall Ellis was to Brandon’s outside but scratched due to injury, giving Brandon no one immediately to his outside and his biggest competitors were chomping at the bit to beat him to his inside. 

I thought maybe Tyler Colwell would be a bit conservative out of the blocks after his 100m false start. Instead, he shot out of the blocks like a bat out of hell and closed in on Brandon. Javerious McGuinn of Wauconda, who lost by only .002 seconds to Brandon in the 100m, was hot on his tail as well. I almost got nervous, but I knew if Brandon was anywhere near the lead in any race, he would pull it out. Brandon had a slight edge with 100 to go and did what he always does, opened up the gap and was able to slow up a step before the finish to hold three fingers up on each hand celebrating the completion of his triple crown.

State Title Race

With one event to go, there was a three way tie for first place at 33 points. We were locked into 4th place. 

There was no way we could win a trophy but in a lot of ways our fourth place finish was just as rewarding as our trophy years. We were happy. We were done. 

Now I could sit back, relax, and enjoy the show. 

Normal West was done at 33 points. They did not have a 4×4. 

Minooka was a long shot to score and was not in the fast heat. 

Neuqua Valley was doubling back their stud, Max Mitchell, from the 200 with just a few minutes of recovery.

Minooka’s Tyler Colwell finished 2nd in the 200 and I knew they would lay it all on the track and put the heat on Neuqua. Minooka ran a huge PR (3:23.97) in the slow heat. The time was better than Neuqua’s seed time. 

I thought Minooka may have won the first place trophy. No way Neuqua has the gas in the tank to run faster than their seed time. Long story short, I was wrong. Max Mitchell of Neuqua Valley sealed another state championship for Neuqua Valley with a monster anchor leg (48.54) passing multiple teams and beating Minooka’s time by 0.52 seconds. 

The final team scores ended up Neuqua Valley 36, Minooka 34, Normal West 33, Edwardsville 30. 

Like Normal West, the trophy won by Minooka was their school’s first track trophy. No one is more deserving than Nick Lundin and his staff. 

Mike Kennedy’s Neuqua Valley program is a powerhouse, winning their second state title in the past three state meets. 

2021… one of the best team trophy races I have ever seen.

Letting the Emotion Out

The “Triple Crown” was four years in the making for Brandon. Believe it or not, Brandon might be the most unlucky track athlete in the history of the state. He went 49.54 in the open 400 as a sophomore and didn’t make the state finals. He ran a stellar 4×4 leg in the prelims but the overall time didn’t make the cut. Our sprint relays struggled to put quality pieces around him. When he was finally able to bust out and score high in all the individual events as a junior and we had pieces to put relay teams around him, Covid hit. Brandon was the hottest indoor sprinter in the state back in March of 2020 before everything shut down. I remember thinking later that spring, the potential best sprinter in state history will go into his senior season without a state medal. 

A lot of people ask why Brandon chose EIU over the bigger, warm-weather programs. There are a lot of reasons for that but one of them is that Brandon Battle  was completely off the recruiting radar going into his senior season. His senior season couldn’t have gone any better. No injuries. State indoor all-time 400 record (47.87). Dominated every meet and never lost a race. Undefeated. 

After the 200m, Brandon Battle’s fan club was once again waiting outside the gate for him to complete his dozens of interviews. His fan club mobbed him as soon as he walked out. Brandon’s motto all season has been #UnfinishedBusiness. And he was all-business all-season. When he got mobbed by his teammates and fans he was finally able to let out a loud scream, “THE BUSINESS IS FINISHED!”

We watched proudly from over the rail of the grandstands as Brandon was finally able to enjoy the fruits of his labor. 

When Brandon finally made it up to us coaches in the stands, he and coach Lakatos burst into tears during a long hug. They said thank you to each other and expressed how much they meant to each other. 

Coach Chad Lakatos was amazing with Brandon. It’s not easy to coach a prodigy. There’s a lot of pressure and a lot can go wrong. Chad Lakatos brought out Brandon’s talents masterfully. Chad cultivated Brandon’s love and passion for the sport.

We let Brandon know what he has meant to us as coaches, his teammates, the program, and the school. 

Seeing Brandon’s dreams come true was one of the most rewarding experiences of my career.

Eventually, Brandon sat down and let all the emotions of four years out for about 20 minutes. 

Brandon Battle is finally in his rightful place, a champion and winner of the “Triple Crown”.