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Neuqua Valley has the most fun

The 400-meter run Friday at the Upstate Eight Conference boys indoor championship was one for the books.

Neuqua Valley senior Ty Moss was challenged the whole way by Batavia's Peyton Piron, right with the Nebraska-bound Moss.

Neuqua's Stanford recruit, Zac Espinosa, no fan of the tight indoor turns but a lover of the straightaways, surged out of the final turn. He caught Piron for a 1-2 Neuqua finish as all three seniors broke the existing indoor conference record set in 2012 by Neuqua's Jacob Bender.

"Fifty more meters and it would have been a fun race," said Espinosa, who completed the distance at Batavia's fine field house in 49.98 seconds.

Hey, this was pretty fun. Moss went 49.96, fastest on the Dyestat Illinois board, and Piron 50.14 to establish a new Batavia indoor record.

"We just did the best we could," said Moss, who also set a new conference 800 record at 1:56.78 and ran on the winning 1,600-meter relay.

"We didn't even think about (records), we just went out there saying, hey, let's each run our races," Moss said. "Obviously we all talked to each other and said, hey, just go out, do your thing, everything will fall into place."

It did. In its last year in the UEC before departing for the DuPage Valley in 2015-16, Neuqua Valley defended its 2014 indoor crown.

The Wildcats scored in 13 of 15 events and double-scored in seven to earn 130 points to River Division winner Batavia's 84. Geneva (58.5), St. Charles East (44), Waubonsie Valley (41.5), Metea Valley (40), Bartlett (37) and West Aurora (34) filled out the rest of the 16-team field.

"I think we had a great meet tonight," said Neuqua coach Mike Kennedy. "So many of our guys responded to challenges."

Junior Connor Horn won the 3,200 handily over Batavia's quality distance runner David Morrison for Horn's third conference track title. Wylie Anderson, Dominic Dina, Matt Horsley and Will Ackerman captured the 3,200 relay and Michael Duy and Kyle Bender joined Espinosa and Moss on the Wildcats' 1,600 relay.

Effervescent Waubonsie Valley junior Tyler Kirkwood won his second straight UEC 55-meter hurdles title, going 1-2 with teammate Jeff Penny, while Glenbard East's Karon Keyes and Ben Sullivan produced in the 55 dash and shot put, respectively.

West Chicago's James Kulik used four poles to match his personal best of 14 feet, 3 inches to take the pole vault title.

"It's definitely a progression," said Kulik, a 2014 state qualifier who went 13-9 two weeks ago.

"He's on a roll," quipped West Chicago coach Paul McLeland. "We'll have to call him Butter."

We can call Metea Valley senior Brett Boddy a UEC champion. Never having reached 50 feet in shot put before, he entered the finals at 50-6, threw 50-8¾ once there, and on his last throw surpassed West Aurora's Hunter Siler to win at 51-5.

"I knew if I came in with the last throw, going in there I knew that if I dropped down I'd be able to come back and win it," Boddy said. "That's how I've always been."

Who knew about Jaurice Thomas?

Certainly not the seeding committee. Mainly the South Elgin coaching staff and all his pals on the Storm track team.

"My teammates told me it was fun," he said. "All we do is run, get trophies and all that."

For most athletes it's not all that, but Thomas' debut in the 200-meter dash was a winner.

In his fourth track meet, running out of the slowest of the six heats with no recorded seed time in the event, he won the 200 in 23.60 seconds, ahead of such track veterans as Neuqua Valley's Zac Espinosa, Geneva's Justin Taormina and Streamwood's Brian Adkins.

"My teammates, from the freshmen to seniors, helped me out, said Thomas, a junior who joined not only to win trophies but to get faster as a football wide receiver.

"They pushed me to run faster," he said. "This is my first year, they just keep pushing me to run faster and do better. I just don't think about it, just have fun out there."

Thomas said he was in a zone, and so was Bartlett's Bryce Petty. He had to be, or else risk getting disqualified.

Twice in the finals of the 55-meter dash runners were disqualified for false starts.

"I've never been in a race like that where there was two false starts," Petty said. "My coach (Eric Kramer) kept telling me to focus and not worry about all the stuff that was going around me. Once I got going, I just tried to get a good start and tried to finish strong."

It worked on both ends, Petty claiming the 55-meter crown in 6.63 seconds, off Aaron Everson's school record by .01 second. South Elgin's William King placed sixth.

Petty also ran on a winning 800 relay. With usual leadoff runner Nolan Bernat out until next week with a leg injury, Petty moved into the leadoff leg, ahead of A.J. Santori, Tre Stagen and anchor Justin Sowinski. The Hawks won at 1:32.89, by a relatively healthy margin over Metea Valley.

"Our coach wanted us to get out to a comfortable lead, so he asked me to start us off and try to get that," Petty said.

"Last year we made it to state and we didn't do as well as we wanted, but since we have the same group of guys we're hoping to go back again and prove ourselves this time."

Other quality performers included Bartlett's Pat Karys, fifth in the 55 hurdles; Elgin's Logan Jostes, who scored in both the 800, and the 1,600; and Streamwood's field event trio of high jumper Jelyn Hill, triple jumper Brian Adkins and long jumper and sprinter Tae Reetz.

West Aurora's Chris Walker, second in Class 3A triple jump at the 2014 outdoor state meet, had yet to execute the maneuver so far this track season. Hamstring and hip injuries prevented it.

On Friday he gave it a shot. On Walker's first effort he soared 47 feet, 1¼ inches, the best mark in the state according to Dyestat. His next two attempts were 46-5 and 45-11, both of which would have earned top-four marks at last year's state meet.

Blackhawks jumps coach Chuck Hilby asked Walker to do the triple jump first, in case something went wrong.

"He didn't want to risk anything," Walker said.

Everything obviously went fine, so Walker eventually made his way to the long jump, where he won at 22-8½ with other efforts of 21-10 and 21-9 - the third mark matched by Geneva's second-place Justin Taormina.

"I was actually really relieved," Walker said. "Long jump, I haven't done that in forever so that was kind of a new thing for me, just to get back into it. I think it was a good experience."

A young athlete coming off injury needs to take care of himself, and Walker is on board with that.

"Technique is always good, but you have to eat right, get good sleep and you've also got to build up muscle, because otherwise you're not going to be able to do anything," he said.

Taormina did a little of a lot. He placed second in the 55 dash with teammate Donny Friedel in fourth, took second in long jump, was fourth in the 200 and competed in triple jump. Along with solid relays, Mitcheal Deamantopulos in the 3,200 and field event scoring from Zeke Buck, Tom Sweet and Scott Creger, Taormina anchored a solid third-place finish.

Evidently the boys basketball team playing in a Class 4A semifinal in Peoria didn't distract him.

"I knew coming out here was the right idea, it was the right thing to go. I feel great for our basketball team, like they're at state and everything, I know they're going to compete up there, but I felt like I had to do my job over here and compete down in Batavia tonight," Taormina said.

"I'm heading up there actually tonight."

St. Charles East was headed by hurdler Kyle Decker, third in the 55 hurdles, and the distance strength of J.B. Sandlund, Mark Sciurba, Michael Gerkin and Mike Skora. St. Charles North's Josh Pelock took third in the pole vault at 13-9.

Batavia's Jay Hunt followed West Aurora's Walker in the winner's circle, taking the second title awarded, a 6-5 high jump. With Peyton Piron a constant presence, Batavia also got big points from Peter Rudelich in high jump, 800-meter runner Shea Bastian, vaulter Ryan Fabian, long jumper Nick Stuttle and Ryan Wieties, who won the 1,600 in 4:27.54.

Wieties, the defending UEC indoor 1,600 champ, already has twice eclipsed Batavia's prior indoor record entering the season. On March 13 he ran 4:24 also at Batavia.

"I think it gave me a lot of confidence," Wieties said. "It's a (personal record) overall for my mile. It really helped me with my confidence. I've kind of neglected the 1,600 in past years and I think I have a lot of untapped potential in that event. It was good to PR so early in the season, and I think it really helped."

  Batavia's David Morrison in the 3200 meter run at the Upstate Eight boys track and field meet in Batavia Friday. Laura Stoecker/lstoecker@dailyherald.com
  West Aurora's Hunter Siler competes in the shot put finals at the Upstate Eight boys track and field meet in Batavia Friday. Laura Stoecker/lstoecker@dailyherald.com
  Batavia's Matt Fabian clears the bar (despite his grimace) in the pole vault event at the Upstate Eight boys track and field meet in Batavia Friday. Laura Stoecker/lstoecker@dailyherald.com
  St. Charles East's Colton Weber in the pole vault at the Upstate Eight boys track and field meet in Batavia Friday. Laura Stoecker/lstoecker@dailyherald.com
  Bartlett's Dan Danek competes in the shot put finals at the Upstate Eight boys track and field meet in Batavia Friday. Laura Stoecker/lstoecker@dailyherald.com
  Geneva's Mitcheal Deamantopulos, left, and St. Charles East's Michael Gerkin in the 3200 meter run at the Upstate Eight boys track and field meet in Batavia Friday. Laura Stoecker/lstoecker@dailyherald.com
  Metea Valley's Brett Boddy takes first place in the shot put finals at the Upstate Eight boys track and field meet in Batavia Friday. Laura Stoecker/lstoecker@dailyherald.com
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