Coal City Middle School’s track and field teams made its mark at the Illinois Elementary School Track and Field State Finals this past weekend, breaking records, capturing medals, and bringing home championship hardware in a show of athletic excellence.
Coal City is the 2025 Eighth GradeClass 3A Girls State Champion. The team was led by Marina Figge who ended the weekend with three individual medals including a first place in long jump, a team medal in the 4x100 meter relay that she earned with teammates—Kenslee Baldauf, Norah Minuth, Kinsley Novak and alternates Avery Male and Angelise Stevens.
The Eighth Grade Boys Team finished third overall and was led by the state champion 4x400 meter relay team of Levi Marshall, Kenny Tazelaar, Jonah Micetich and Maddox Meents and backed by alternates Nick Pfeiffer and Frank Roehr. The team holds the school’s seventh grade record and set a new eighth grade record at state with a running time of 3:42.51. They finish the season undefeated.
The 4x200 relay team of Jonah Micetich, Alex Duran, Maddox Meents and Kenny Tazelaar ran a 1:39.01 to take second place. They were backed by alternates Levi Marshall and N. Pfeiffer.
The Boys 4x100 meter relay of Nick Pfeiffer, Spencer Vaira, Levi Marshall and Frank Roehr came in 17 place. The relay was assisted by alternates Ryder Meyer and Rylan DeMichele.
In individual events, Rylan DeMichele set a personal record of 14.57 meters in shot put to finish the meet in second place.
Maddox Meents posted a best of 5.61 meters to finish fifth in long jump. Jonah Micetich finished sixth in the 110 meter hurdles with a time of 16.10—a personal record that beat his preliminary qualifying time of 16.38.
Two Coalers—Nick Pfeiffer and Levi Marshall— advanced to the finals in the boys 400 meter. Nick had a run time of 54.61 to set a personal record and finish in sixth place overall. Levi ran a 58.34 placing him 18th overall.
Spencer Vaira and Jonah Micetich finished back-to-back in the pole vault at 3.06 meters. Vaira entered the state meet seeded eighth and that is where he finished. Micetich entered with a 14th seed and wrapped up his middle school career with a ninth place finish.
Kiptyn Dearth represented the Coalers in discus with a throw of 32.57 meters to put in 26th place overall. And, Coaler Frank Roehr posted a prelim time of 16.57 in the 110 meter hurdles setting a personal best.
As noted, eighth grader Marina Figge had an outstanding weekend placing within the top three in all four of her individual events. Not only did she win the long jump, her jump of 5.26 meters set a new IESA Class 3A state record.
In her other events, Marina posted a time of 26.62 setting a personal record in the 200 meter and second place overall finish, and she was third in the 100 meter with a time of 12.78
The seventh grade boys 4x200 meter relay team was also on the track this weekend and finished 14th overall with a run of 1.50.71. The seventh grade relay was composed of Brayden Brncich, Kason Bluth, Zack Babcock, Evan Kozlowski, and alternate Ryder Sorensen.
The athletes were welcomed back with a parade through the village of Coal City and recognition at the school upon their return.