Burlington Central has productive night at Sterling

The Burlington Central boys track team accomplished its goals Friday night at the Class 2A Sterling sectional.

The Rockets qualified three relay teams and two individuals for next weekend’s state finals in Charleston.

“We’re real pleased,” said BC coach Mike Schmidt. “We got everyone down we were hoping to. We’re real happy.”

Rocket senior Ryan Olsen won the 400-meter dash in a time of 48.72, breaking his own school record in the process. Schmidt said a check of all other Class 2A sectionals in the state showed Olsen’s time tying for the best in the state on Friday.

Olsen will also run on Central’s 1,600 and 400 relay teams at state. They finished second Friday in the 1,600 in a time of 3:26.57. Olsen, Alex Johnson, Lucas Ege and Kyle Neubauer ran the race for the Rockets. The 400 relay team of Olsen, Johnson, Jason Berango and Casey Matthews qualified by finishing third in a time of 43.31.

BC’s best relay effort was the 800, where the team of Johnson, Berango, Matthews and Travis Paniriello won the race in a time of 1:30.68.

Ege also qualified in both hurdle events, finishing second in the 110 highs in 15.37 and second in the 300 intermediates in 39.71.

Central finished third in the team standings with 66 points. Kaneland won the sectional title with 151 points and Winnebago was second with 68.

Class 1A: St. Edward junior John Danner ran the 3,200 in a time of 9:56.284 at the Class 1A Seneca sectional to advance to the state finals next weekend. Danner finished third in the race.