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Staying in track pays off for Princeton’s Casey Etheridge: 2026 BCR Male Track & Field Athlete Of The Year · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: Staying in track pays is off for Princeton's Ksey Ethridge
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  twenty twenty six BCR Mail Track and Field Athlete of
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  the Year. Written by Kevin Hieronymous. This article is being
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  read by an automated voice brought to you by Everlett Casey.
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  Etheridge wasn't going to go back out for track his
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  junior year after giving it a go as a sophomore
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  and go play baseball. He had gone as far as
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  ordering a baseball hat and was prepared to trade in
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  his track cleats for baseball spikes. Then Dave Moore was
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  named as the Tiger's head track coach, and Etheridge's plans changed.
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  After sophomore year, I told myself, I don't think tracks
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  for me. It's time to go back to baseball because
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  I did travel ball from third to the eighth grade,
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  Ethridge said. My mind was set on going out for baseball.
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  I even ordered a baseball hat and went to a
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  baseball meeting. But he found Coach Moore to be a
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  persuasive man. Every day by Tiger Eyes school door, I'd
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  walk by Coach Moore's bus and every day he'd ask me, Etheridge,
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  are you going to go out for track. I'd always
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  be ah coach. I don't know, Etheridge said with a laugh.
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  Then you quickly come to realize when you respect someone
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  as much as coach Moore, it's very hard to say
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  no to him. Then I was like, I'll do track.
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  I'll stick with it. I was very grateful I stuck
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  with it. I was able to have the experience of
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  going to State last year and then even showing more
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  growth this year. In the process, I've gotten a lot
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  faster too. Atheridge qualified for State as a junior and
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  made fast tracks back to Charleston this spring. In both
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  hurdles events and the four to four hundred relay. He
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  was the BCR Honor role leader in the one hundred
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  and ten hurdles fifteen point one five, the three hundred
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  hurdles thirty nine point seven six, and the one hundred
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  meters ten point five to eight, and ran on the
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  Tigers' top four x and four hundred three twenty nine
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  point five to five. All were personal bests for Etheridge.
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  He helped lead the Tigers to a second place finish
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  in the Three Rivers Conference with winds in both hurdles
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  and a third in the one hundred along with a
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  Blue Ribbon effort in the four x four hundred. For
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  all of his accomplishments, Ethridge is the twenty twenty six
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  BCR Mail Track and Field Athlete of the Year. Moore
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  remembers his daily encounters with Etheridge those days before his
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  junior track season. I told him, you know who's coaching track?
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  He said yeah, I said, well you need to come
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  out for track. It finally just wore off on him
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  and he said he was coming out. Moore said, I
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  don't know what the magic is, but I don't think
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  I could ever say no to him. Etheridge said the
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  two of Galesburg's section will proved to be a great challenge,
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  but Ethridge had on qualifying for state on time in
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  the one hundred and ten hurdles, the three hundred hurdles
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  and in the forur Act four hundred relay with Eiden Aguci,
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  Tyler Van Derventer and Gavin Lanham. Sectionals was really exciting
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  because I was able to qualify in every event I
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  knew I could. Ethridge said, our four x one was
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  really close, then the one hundred and ten s, the
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  three hundred s and even our four x four hundred.
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  I was able to run with my friends and go
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  to State with them. There was a great experience at State.
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  Etheridge had the closest of close calls, coming within three
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  hundredths of a second in meddling in the three hundred
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  hurdles three hundredths of second Pontiacs Caesar Gutierez clock to
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  three nine dot seventy nine Comma Etheridge at thirty nine
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  point eight two. I kind of burned out a little
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  bit and he was just able to get a step
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  on me and a good lean. Etheridge said he was
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  ahead of the kid until the last two steps. Moore
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  said that was the difference between going on to Saturday
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  and leaving Friday. The close call was hard for Etheridge
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  to register. On the way home. I'd start the Stopwatch
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  on my phone and stop it and the quickest I
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  could get was nine hundreds of a second. So that
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  show it's literally like that, he said, putting his thumb
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  and finger nearly together. That was a little tougher to
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  swallow at first because after the last heat they announced
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  who made it to the finals and they say the
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  kid's name who barely beat me. Last State was a
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  good experience. It wasn't exactly what I hoped for by
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  one hundred and ten s. I knew they were inconsistent,
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  and I didn't know what I'd do with them. I
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  didn't do my best. I think I placed a little
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  better than I was ranked. My three hundred s was
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  a little of a heartbreaker because I was three hundredths
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  of a second away from the finals. I was at
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  least happy my last race of my high school career.
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  I could run it with my friends in the forks
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  four hundred undred, and we could go out with a
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  good pr Moore said. Etheridge was a fast learner. You know.
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  He never ran the highs until his junior year, and
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  he qualified for state, he said. And then senior year
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  he brought his times way down. Fifteen point one five
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  was his fastest. If he would run that down at state,
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  he would have placed fifth or six. It was fun.
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  He had two years where he qualified for state. Probably
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  should have made the finals in the three hundred s.
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  Wasn't his day. Etheridge will be doing his next running
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  for the University of Wisconsin Platteville football team this fall.
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  He set the Bureau County all time rushing record last season,