Kankakee Valley High School

Kankakee Valley High School boys' track and field team competed in the 85th running of the Hobart Little 5 Invitational on Saturday, April 18, 2026 placing second in the seven team field. The "Little 5" includes four schools from the original field (Hobart, East Chicago, Bishop Noll, and Griffith) along with KV, Boone Grove, and South Bend St. Joseph. KV's 142 points was runner up to St. Joe's 188. Senior Nolen Kooistra was runner-up for high point individual, winning the 200m and 400m dashes and running anchor legs on KV's second place 400m relay (Van Kooistra, Matt Ritchie, Tyson Whittington) and 1600m relay (Whittington, Owen Sharp, Ritchie). "We ran much better today than last Tuesday," stated Coach Adams. "The temperatures were cooler this year, which factored into some performances a bit slower than last year for some of our guys, but we hit our high water marks early last season and then struggled to equal them, so this is a good sign." Field events saw brothers Joey and Zach Patton take 3rd and 4th in the pole vault while Coach Mathley's throwers earned fourth and fifth place finishes in both implements: Dylan Adams and Max Lyskava in discus, Adams and Jackson Tomich in shot put. Junior Tyson Whittington, in his first long jump competition since his freshman year, placed fifth, while sophomore Ian Swart was fourth in the high jump. "We graduated some talent in the field events last spring, but we have some guys who are serious about leveling up, so I was pleased to see that translate to some scores today." In the first track event, the 4x800m relay squad of Luke Ehrhardt, Noah Knoerzer, Milo Herz, and Markus Terborg, placed second to start out the Kougars in good fashion. Other scorers: Van Kooistra -- 2nd place 110m high hurdles, 2nd place 300m intermediate hurdles Joey Patton -- 3rd place 300m hurdles Ritchie -- 3rd place 100m dash, 4th place 200m dash Whittington -- 7th place 100m dash Sharp -- 3rd place 1600m run, 5th place 800m run Ehrhardt -- 3rd place 3200m run Knoerzer -- 5th place 3200m run Herz -- 6th place 1600m run, 8th place 800m run Parker Harrington -- 6th place 110m high hurdles Boys' track and field now has a record of 5 and 3. They run at home, senior night, versus Munster on Tuesday, April 21st and then at the Twin Lakes Relay Invitational next Friday.