Kaneland runs away with Peterson Prep title
After graduating from Kaneland this spring Nathaniel Kucera, Kyle Carter and Luis Acosta will run for, respectively, Stanford, Southern Illinois and Western Illinois.
Then there's Andrew Lesak. The junior is the leadoff-leg successor to graduate Conor Johnson on the Knights' defending Class 2A state champion 3,200-meter relay. The newcomer and his pals were in late-season form Saturday at Kaneland's own Peterson Prep Invitational.
Each runner broke 2 minutes in his 800-meter portion of a 7 minute, 50.27-second outing, smashing Yorkville's 25-year-old meet record by 5 seconds and coming within .01 second from Kaneland's mark set last year in Charleston.
"We're always working together at practices and pushing each other," said Lesak, whose 1:59.9 split time was a 3-second season best, Kucera's 1:53.8 also tops this year.
"And we always, like, are the pack in the front, always encouraging everyone to come with us," Lesak said.
Initially, though, Yorkville then Batavia - on David Curnock's good lead leg - set the pace before Acosta, Carter and Kucera closed in record time.
Peaking too soon? Perish the thought.
"We have full trust in our coaches, they know what they're doing," confirmed Carter, also 2-3 with Kucera in the 400 dash behind Mike Delaney of Oswego East. "We're not worried about peaking too early. They've got this down to a perfect system, so that's not a concern in our minds."
The 3,200 relay was among seven events Kaneland won to reap 140 points, room to spare over runners-up DeKalb (66 points), Sycamore (63), Batavia (61), Geneva (44), West Aurora (43) and Dundee-Crown (42). It was the Knights' first outdoor invite win and their third straight Peterson Prep title.
Kaneland's Brock Robertson won both the 110- and 300-meter hurdles and fellow Knights' senior Nate Dyer won shot put and discus, the latter in a personal-best 162 feet, 9½ inches.
"Just a good day, another day in the office, I guess," Robertson said.
Good day, different office for Batavia. The Bulldogs entered the Peterson Prep for the first time in more than a decade.
"It's a lot of fun for an old Batavia guy to come and run against teams that he had rivalries with as an athlete and as a coach most of his career," said coach Dennis Piron. "I'm glad we came back here, it's a lot of fun. It's just a classy event, they really care about track and field out here."
Batavia closed the meet in style, the 1,600 relay of Blake Crowder, Peyton Piron, Jorden Berendt and Curnock beating the host. Individually Dennis' son Peyton took second in the 300 hurdles while the duo of Mark Majka and Mark Rudelich each high-jumped their highest, following only Sycamore's Logan Wright.
"We've been working a lot on bar mechanics, so that kind of helped with our arches, and our knee drive," said Majka, who went 6 feet, 5 inches with Rudelich at 6-3.
Geneva senior Tim Roels, a 2013 3A qualifier in the 100 and 200, competed for the first time since pulling a hamstring at Batavia's Les Hodge Invite April 12. He made the finals of the 100, his only event. Roels finished third, not entirely successfully.
"It hurt a little bit," said Roels, joining Kaneland hurdler Dylan Nauert among the walking wounded. "Not horrible, but there is some pain there, that's for sure."
Geneva's Sam Urben was strong in the 800, third behind DeKalb's Jared Smith and West Aurora's Joe Chavez; in the 3,200, Blaine Bartel ran what Vikings coach Gale Gross called "a huge PR" of 9:54.66.
West Aurora's Davion Cross and Connor McCue are part of a youth movement. The former, a freshman, won triple jump at 44 feet, 4½ inches, ahead of Blackhawks sophomore Chris Walker and Kaneland's Dalvell Triplett.
McCue, a sophomore who saw his senior brother Brady place fifth in the 400, won the 1,600 at 4:27.08. Connor said he's just trying to prove himself.
"I had a surge from the start of the third lap all the way down to the 200, about a 300-meter surge," he said. "And I held it, and I didn't look back."