Burlington Central's Ege turns heads at Batavia
Batavia boys track coach Dennis Piron knows of hurdles.
His son Peyton has made vast improvement in the event, and Dennis Piron and Batavia program fixture Mike DiDomenico have trained several excellent hurdlers.
So Piron can admire the great ones when he sees them - like Burlington Central's Stanford-bound Lucas Ege.
"I thought he was the star of the show," Piron said after Ege won the 110- and 300-meter hurdles and anchored a winning 1,600-meter relay Saturday at Batavia's Les Hodge Meet.
Though timing was by stopwatch rather than the computerized fully-automated timing done at the state meet, Ege's times weren't far off what he recorded in finishing third in the 2014 Class 2A 110 hurdles and first in the 300s. Ege ran 14.95 seconds in the former, a very quick 38.70 in the latter.
Even adding .24 seconds to Ege's 300 mark, the standard conversion from manual to FAT time, it would have been sufficient to place fourth in last year's state meet, in his first outdoor invite this season.
"The reigning state hurdles champ looks to do it again," Piron said.
In a meet designed for maximum participation with multiple heats, Ege was followed by Batavia's Nick Stuttle (16.04), running in a separate heat, then by Peyton Piron (16.52). In the 300s it was Ege, Piron (40.23) and Geneva's Nick Carlton (41.98).
No team scores are kept at the Les Hodge, but each of the five teams - Burlington Central, Batavia, Geneva, St. Charles North, East Aurora - had something to smile about.
St. Charles North showed expected distance strength with Steve Lewandowski and Chris Suda going 1-3 in the 1,600, Geneva's Mitcheal Deamantopulos taking second. St. Charles North's Brad Dawrant followed only East Aurora star Devonte Weathersby in the 100-meter dash.
Deamantopulos, a junior, again was runner-up in the 3,200, squeezing between Batavia runners Shea Bastian and Ryan Wieties. Wieties showed his range by returning to win the 400 dash.
Geneva got a win in the 800 from sophomore Tyler Dau, at 2:03.59, and the Vikings' Don Friedel finished second in the 100 and third in the 200.
Burlington Central's Jason Berango was the sole long jumper over 20 feet, at 20 feet, 5 inches. Batavia went 1-2 in high jump with Jay Hunt and Peter Rudelich, who edged Geneva's Tom Sweet.
Both Burlington Central's Jared Trupp and St. Charles North's Josh Pelock pushed in pole vault, but Batavia's Tyler Mansfield went 6 inches higher to win at 14 feet.
"That was pretty sensational," Piron said.