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Team effort gives Batavia County crown

As a father and as head coach of Batavia's boys track team, Saturday was a proud day for Dennis Piron.

One day after poor weather postponed the Kane County Meet the Bulldogs returned to Geneva to claim their fifth county title in the event's 97 years, and first since a 2001-03 three-peat.

Scoring in 17 of 18 events and double-scoring in seven with three event winners, Batavia's 121.5 points unseated three-time defending county champion Kaneland, which placed third with 82.5 points.

"A complete team effort," said Batavia graduate Piron, the 1983 county champion in the 400-meter dash, who saw his son, Peyton win that event in 49.09 seconds.

"As a dad these are all my boys, and to have my son part of this group, what a fun year I'm having," Dennis Piron said.

Peyton Piron's 400 time was fourth fastest in meet history. During the week the elder Piron had pointed out his name on that list as motivation.

"This race meant so much for him just because of that funny thing," said Peyton Piron, also second in the 200 to St. Charles North's Brad Dawrant. "And I was like, 'All right, I'll go give my all, see if we can get two Pirons in the books.' I guess we did, so it was pretty cool."

Batavia's Jay Hunt won high jump and Jordan Birkhaug, Zach Majka, Jon Shubert and Reggie Phillips teamed for an 800 relay win. A cavalcade of scorers from Mitch Krusz to Shea Bastian to Will Akers to Matt Cuartero and beyond provided the winning margin.

"I'm proud of them and they're going to get to go home with a trophy. We can celebrate a county title. That's a pretty special thing," Dennis Piron said.

West Aurora took second with 92.5 points and St. Charles East and St. Charles North tied for fourth place with 70 points. Burlington Central was sixth with 66.5, Stanford-bound Lucas Ege setting new county records in both the 110- and 300-meter hurdles.

As usual West Aurora made hay in field events, Rashaud Jeffries winning discus and Hunter Siler the shot put, DaVion Cross and Chris Walker racking up points in the long and triple jump events.

The Blackhawks' Connor McCue looked strong in the 800, winning at 1 minute 55.24 seconds, but the next two distance events went to Marmion runners - Brady Bobbitt in the 1,600 and Andrew Burroughs in the 3,200.

"That's a ton of confidence," said Bobbitt, who ran 4:19.31. "We'll be really pumped and excited to go for it at sectionals."

As he did to win Class 2A long jump a year ago, Kaneland's Ben Barnes claimed victory on his last attempt in the finals of both long jump and triple jump. He surpassed Batavia's Nick Stuttle in former at 21 feet, 5¾ inches; he moved past Dundee-Crown's Kiwi Seals in triple jump at 44-11½.

"I don't like waiting for the last jump, but I guess it just happens," the Illinois-bound Barnes said.

He insisted it's not a mental thing: "It's just a matter of speed and keeping my core tight."

Kaneland also won the 400 relay with Aaron Olson, Isaac Swithers, Tanner Robertson and Barnes. Knights coach Eric Baron also noted Matt Richtman's third-place 3,200 finish in a freshman program record of 9 minutes, 53.66 seconds.

"Scored as a freshman in the county meet. That's pretty cool," Baron said.

Geneva rallied behind such program staples as Justin Nebel, Nick Carlton, Tom Sweet, Tyler Dau and Mitcheal Deamantopulos. The latter two chased St. Charles East in the 3,200 relay, won by the Saints' Hunter Klose, Mike Skora, Jack Rzpecki and J.B. Sandlund.

St. Charles North's Josh Pelock broke Caleb Kirby's school record in pole vault, winning at an even 15 feet with attempts at 15-4.

Eight vaulters cleared 13-3 and Batavia's Tyler Mansfield, Burlington Central's Jared Trupp and Kaneland's Mike Rinella all cleared 13-9.

"That's state qualifying," said Pelock, ready to break out a new, stronger pole, "so I'm proud of them."

Burlington Central's Lucas Ege became the fifth 300 hurdler since 2005 to repeat as Kane County champion. While shy of Ege's Class 2A record time of 37.34 seconds last year in Charleston, his 38.08 eclipsed the 38.23 county mark of Batavia's Rob Mohr in 2011.

Ege also repeated in the 110 hurdles, pushed hard by St. Charles East's Kyle Decker to win in a personal-best 14.24 seconds. That broke the adjusted manual time of 14.34 set by East Aurora's Patrick McGhee in 1984.

Ege, whose 48.9-second anchor leg in the Rockets' winning 1,600-meter relay bolstered teammates Drew Kries, Kyle Neubauer and Nick Harvey, used the lure of county records as motivation.

"For the 110 prelims I was like, 'OK, I can get this,'" Ege said, clocking a preliminary time of 14.60. "So that definitely pushed me to go faster. And in the 300s I always try to beat my state record. Haven't gotten there yet, but that's what I'm going for."

Rockets coach Mike Schmidt was impressed with Ege's record-setting Saturday.

"That's phenomenal," Schmidt said. "Two separate kids, too. It's not like there was one great hurdler before him, there's several great hurdlers that came before him and he was able to get (them)."

The honorary title of the fastest man in Kane County went to senior Milik Dunner of Dundee-Crown, another repeat winner.

The Ball State football recruit sliced .10 seconds off last year's winning time in the 100-meter dash, going 10.90 to edge South Elgin's Shawn Griffin at 11.19. St. Edward's Dwayne Allen was fifth at 11.53 seconds.

"In the prelims I had a pretty bad start but I still came in first," Dunner said. "After that I just wanted to work on the start and I got out fast, and that's what helped me win. If I don't get out fast I probably won't win. That's the key to it."

  Burlington Central's Zach Gorman in the discus throw during the Kane County boys track and field meet Friday at Geneva High School. Brian Hill/bhill@dailyherald.com
  Geneva's Matt Weston in the discus throw during the Kane County boys track and field meet Friday at Geneva High School. Brian Hill/bhill@dailyherald.com
  Kaneland's Connor Peterson in the high jump during the Kane County boys track and field meet Friday at Geneva High School. Brian Hill/bhill@dailyherald.com
  Batavia's Tyler Mansfield in the pole vault during the Kane County boys track and field meet Friday at Geneva High School. Brian Hill/bhill@dailyherald.com
  Burlington Central's Jared Trupp in the pole vault during the Kane County boys track and field meet Friday at Geneva High School. Brian Hill/bhill@dailyherald.com
  Dundee-Crown's Kiwi Seals in the triple jump during the Kane County boys track and field meet Friday at Geneva High School. Brian Hill/bhill@dailyherald.com
  Dundee-Crown's Malik Dunner in the 100 meter dash during the Kane County boys track and field meet Friday at Geneva High School. Brian Hill/bhill@dailyherald.com
  St. Charles North's Josh Pelock in the pole vault during the Kane County boys track and field meet Friday at Geneva High School. Brian Hill/bhill@dailyherald.com
  Larkin's Eric Gorman in the triple jump during the Kane County boys track and field meet Friday at Geneva High School. Brian Hill/bhill@dailyherald.com
  Burlington Central's Lucas Ege in the 110 meter hurdles during the Kane County boys track and field meet Friday at Geneva High School. Brian Hill/bhill@dailyherald.com
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