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Kane County meet hard to handicap

Kaneland has won the last two Kane County boys track invitationals and shared the 2012 title with Geneva.

Knights coach Eric Baron sees this meet, Friday at Geneva, as too close to call.

"That's probably a really good question," he said when asked to name a favorite, "and I'm not really sure I could answer that question."

On the face of it, Burlington Central and Batavia are very solid with individual standouts, West Aurora doesn't necessarily have depth but brings individuals that can rack up big points. St. Charles East, Geneva and North can make a dent.

"Really, it's going to come down to who makes the fewest mistakes Friday night - if we do get it in Friday night," Baron said.

Weather.com lists thunderstorms and a 90-percent chance of rain on Friday. Baron, a St. Charles High School graduate, recalls running the mile at midnight after three weather delays. We can only hope that doesn't happen.

It would appear Burlington Central, headed by Stanford-bound superstar hurdler Lucas Ege, has the edge to secure the Rockets' first Kane County title since 2007. Kaneland's graduation losses from last year's Class 2A runner-up squad were severe, Illinois-bound jumper Ben Barnes is regrouping from injury and sprinter Brandon Cruz, pivotal to the Knights' sprint relays, is out with a broken clavicle.

Despite all that Baron runs an A-plus program. When the two teams met May 1 at Crystal Lake Central, Kaneland won the meet with 96 points, Burlington Central third with 83. Chances are neither Baron - who after crunching the seed number predicted the surprising Knights to score 55 points last Friday - nor Burlington Central coach Mike Schmidt showed their full hand.

"I think what we have is a very healthy respect between Kaneland and Burlington Central," Baron said.

Baron offered pole vault as a pivotal event. Junior Mike Rinella went 14 feet, 6 inches at Crystal Lake Central, tops on the Dyestat board in 2A, and sophomore Danny Walker has gone 13 feet. Burlington Central's Jared Trupp went 14 feet at Geneva, the county host. St. Charles North's Josh Pelock hopes to dust them both, coming in at 14-10.

Ryan Wieties, Peyton Piron and the boys of Batavia finished fourth Saturday at Glenbard West. Considering the top three were Edwardsville, Evanston and Oak Park, that's not bad. Kyle Decker, Joe Komlanc, Mike Skora, Devon Kelly and the rest of St. Charles East finished 4 points behind Batavia.

Weather permitting, Baron thinks county records in the 110-meter hurdles (14.34 seconds), 300 hurdles (38.23), long jump (23 feet, ½-inch), triple jump (46-6) and 1,600 (4 minutes, 18.67 seconds) could be up for grabs.

Aside from Barnes, who went 23-5 in long jump to win the 2A title on his final attempt, West Aurora's Chris Walker surpassed that triple jump record last season in his 3A runner-up finish, and DaVion Cross is not far away.

As far as the 1,600, while Prospect deserved kudos last Friday for a race that had 10 runners under state-qualifying time, in Orland Park West Aurora's Connor McCue ran 4:13.15. It'll be interesting to see how Marmion's Brady Bobbitt, who has run 4:26, deals with that.

Baron also noted Geneva, which has Justin Taormina back from injury and running fast, has an advantage. "I would never count out their team, especially at home," he said. "There's a lot of balance in the county, that's what I would say. Nobody is head and shoulders above anybody else."

Heavy loss:

In track there always are fall-offs from one year to the next, graduation notwithstanding. Kaneland's Nicole Sreenan is one of the most conspicuous, and unfortunate.

As a freshman Sreenan finished third in the Class 2A 400-meter dash and 8th in the 100. She ran the second leg of the Knights' seventh-place 1,600 relay and ran the third leg of a sixth-place 400 relay to total four all-state medals.

Individually, in 2014 Sreenan followed only West Aurora senior Emma Spagnolo among Kane County's fastest 100-meter runners. Spagnolo is now at Minnesota. Sreenan was the seventh-fastest 200 runner, and among area 400 runners only Notre Dame freshman Jordan Shead, of St. Charles East, was faster.

Now, Sreenan appears out for the season with a back injury. The Athletic.net website has her running indoors on Feb. 26 at Wheaton Warrenville South, but that's been it.

Kaneland coach Doug Ecker noted the sophomore has had back issues the past several years.

"The main concern is to get her healthy for the future," he said.

Here's a spin:

Batavia senior Johnny Robinson has yet to challenge the state's top discus throwers, but track and field isn't necessarily about that.

It's about doing the best with what you've got, and Robinson has moved along nicely since shifting focus from triple jump.

A 6-foot-3, 205-pound defensive lineman on the Bulldogs football team, Robinson had success as a triple jumper. Then he grew 3 inches and gained 30 pounds, Batavia throws coach Bill Kettering said while standing outside the discus cage last Saturday at Glenbard West.

As a sophomore, Robinson went 40 feet, 11 inches in triple jump. That distance diminished to a little over 38 feet as a junior, when he also picked up the discus. His top throw last year was 110-3.

This spring Robinson has emerged as Batavia's No. 1 discus thrower. He entered the Jim Arnold invite with a top throw of 138-4 and surpassed that by more than a foot at 139-8 to finish ninth of 27 throwers.

"He's long and he works at it and he handles the pressure, which is so much of it," Bulldogs coach Dennis Piron said.

  St. Charles East's Kyle Decker, left, and Batavia's Peyton Piron, right, are two of the athletes to watch Friday at the annual Kane County meet. Laura Stoecker/lstoecker@dailyherald.com
  Illinois-bound Ben Barnes is pictured in the long jump for Kaneland, who has won the last two Kane County meet titles and shared the 2012 championship with Geneva. Laura Stoecker/lstoecker@dailyherald.com
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