Huntley's track season unprecedented
Track and field is alive and well at Huntley High School.
Both the Huntley boys and girls teams enjoyed banner 2015 seasons. The Huntley boys won the Fox Valley Conference indoor title, the McHenry County outdoor crown, the FVC Valley Division and overall FVC titles and a Class 3A sectional championship.
The girls team took second at the county meet, won the FVC Valley and overall conference titles and also took home a Class 3A sectional crown.
Huntley boys coach Jim Rolando noted no team in program history has ever won all five of those major championships (he added the division format and indoor title in the FVC has been around for less than a decade).
The Red Raider boys also went undefeated in 2015, never losing an indoor or outdoor meet or invitational.
Rolando also did extensive research on the boys state meet dating back to 1980 and came up with numerous interesting factoids about his program's performance last month in Charleston.
"To the best of my knowledge, no McHenry County/Fox Valley boys team (had) ever placed in a sprint relay (400 or 800) at state in the large school division," he said. "That's pretty cool for Huntley to be the first and to finish third in the 4-by-1."
Huntley's Connor Boos, according to Rolando's findings, is only the second area boys athlete to earn two individual sprint medals in the large school division at the state meet, joining McHenry High's Noel Figueroa (100 and 200 state medals in both 2004 and 2005). Chad Asprooth medaled for Cary-Grove in the 200 in 1997 and Rashad McDade in the 100 in 1998 for the Trojans.
Boos also won a medal in the relay this year, which Rolando believes would make him the first area athlete to earn three state medals in the large school division at the state meet.
Rolando acknowledged Jacobs distance great Evan Jager won medals in 2007 in the 3,200 relay and 1,600 relay and also ran in the 1,600 relay prelims to help the Golden Eagles qualify that relay for finals. Jager did not compete in the finals of the 1,600 relay.
"I'm sure Evan received a medal for running in the preliminary round, but Connor would be the only one to run in three finals on Saturday and win medals in all three," he said. "I also realize Evan's two events were both state championships, but that shouldn't diminish what Connor did this year, especially in light of the success of the other area distance and throws guys throughout the past 10-15 years."
Rolando also pointed out Huntley's 400 relay team set meet records at county, the FVC meet and placed third in the state. In each of those races, the Red Raiders ran different combinations.
The county championship 400 team featured Brennan Bell, Tim McCloyn, Aasem Awwad and Boos. The FVC championship team was comprised of Donnie Young, Brendan O'Donnell, Awwad and Boos, while the sectional and state team was made up of Young, McCloyn, Awwad and Boos.
"We had a unique and unprecedented season," said Rolando.