Amos Rules 400 At Minooka Invitational

Stuck in the same qualifying heat in the 400 meters at the Illinois High School Association state track finals last year with New Trier rival Tucker Angelmeyer, Dallas Amos made the mistake of focusing on the wrong someone outside of his own running lane and was left on the sidelines when he lost to both Dontrell Young of Oswego and Angelmeyer.

Odds are that the Evanston senior won’t make the same mistake again.

And the rest of the quarter-milers in the state of Illinois might have to shift their own focus to just trying to outrun Amos when postseason competition heats up at the end of next month.

Amos established himself as one of the state’s elite with his performance Saturday at the Minooka #SmithStrong Invitational, sprinting to a meet record (and winning time) of 48.74 seconds in the 400 and defeating Young, who finished fifth at State in 2024.

The confident senior also anchored Evanston’s victorious 1600-meter relay team and led the Wildkits to fifth overall in the team standings with 61.5 points in their first serious outdoor test of 2025. Oak Park-River Forest claimed the team title with 112.5 points, followed by Batavia (93), Homewood-Flossmoor (70), and Neuqua Valley (66) in the 16-team field.

Amos erased the previous meet mark of 48.81 by Neuqua Valley’s Max Mitchell with his personal best clocking and now seems poised to challenge Evanston’s school record of 47.72 by Brad Garron in 2016. He led almost the entire race Saturday, although Young (48.92) didn’t go down without a fight.

“I ran under 49 in a time trial (in practice) last week, so I’m actually a little disappointed, because I wanted to go 48.2 today and get the meet record ,” Amos said. “At least I got the record.

“When I looked at what the record was last night and saw 48.8, I knew I could get it. I’m very proud to get it, and now my name will be up there (on the scoreboard) next year. There’s always a lot of great competition at this meet. I raced against Young last year in the (3A State) prelims and lost because I was too focused on the guy from New Trier. Now I have the mindset where I recognize what the competition is, then block it out and do my own thing.”

Amos had plenty left in the tank at the finish of the meet, with a team best split of 50.29 in the 1600 relay to complement relay mates Deshawn Preister (51.22), Milo Porter (51.96) and Amani Christian (52.0) on their way to a winning time of 3:25.80. The Wildkits were only seeded fourth in the race, but used a strong second leg from the pink-shoed Porter to hold off the rest of the field, including runnerup Lockport (3:26.81).

“That school record is definitely within reach for Dallas,” said ETHS head coach Don Michelin. “He’s just as determined and just as strong as Brad (Garron) was. Dallas has the mindset where he’s willing to pay the price and take the pain, whatever’s necessary. He’ll always battle a guy in a race and give himself a chance to succeed.

“There’s no secret to this. He’s a good character kid who works hard. This kind of competition shows your championship character. Kids with high level character like Dallas always do well here.”

“Coach Mich said I’d run a 48 here, so I said yes, I will,” added Amos. “I had faith in my workouts and faith in what he said to me. And whatever time it takes to win State, that’s the time I want to achieve.

“This year I’ve been working especially hard on a stronger start in my first 200. I try to come off the first curve as hard as I can now, and I’m definitely going to try to break that school record.”

Sophomore Justin Johnson contributed a second in the 100-meter dash --- in 11 flat --- and settled for sixth in the 200 at 22.50. Also scoring top six individual finishes for the Wildkits were Enijel Shelton, third in the shot put at 16.62 meters; Priester, fifth in the 400 at 50.48; Jordan Harvey, fifth in the 300 hurdles in 40.67; and Evyn Bell, sixth in the shot put at 14.77.

In the high jump, Nelson Heck and Jaden Jean-Paul both cleared 1.85 meters. Heck tied for third place overall and Jean-Paul was ninth after missing practice all week due to a bout with the flu.

“It’s still just April,” Michelin pointed out. “The kids have to keep grinding and keep believing. Let’s just keep improving, let’s just see if we can do better.”