Neuqua Valley wins DVC indoor meet
Newcomers fared well at Friday's DuPage Valley Conference Boys Indoor Track & Field Championship.
Neuqua Valley won with 105 points followed by defending champion Wheaton North (72 points), Glenbard North (55), Waubonsie Valley (52) and Wheaton Warrenville South (50).
Metea Valley finished sixth with 46 points, easing ahead of Lake Park's 45.50 at North Central College's Al B. Carius Track in Naperville. Naperville Central and Naperville North rounded out the talent.
"These are great coaches, these are great programs and I have a lot of respect for them," said Neuqua coach Mike Kennedy, earning his third straight indoor title spanning Upstate Eight Conference competition. "Certainly it's nice to win the championship, but it's even better when you're competing against people you respect and like."
Neuqua's distance strength equaled titles with Isaiah Robinson in the 800-meter run, Scott Anderson in the 1,600 and Connor Horn in the 3,200. Wildcats sprinter Chris Muoghalu also set a program record with a winning 6.60 seconds in the 55 dash.
Shelved by injury during cross country season, in Horn's first race back his short stride ruled the field. He won his sixth individual conference title at 9 minutes, 23.74 seconds.
"For him to do that is really impressive," Kennedy said.
"I wanted to finish, number one," Horn said, "and then maybe win if I could. And then run a fast time, thirdly. I was able to do that today. It's because of everyone that helped me."
Jordan Cagigal and Metea Valley won the 3,200 relay with Wheaton North winning the 800 and meet-ending 1,600 relays.
The Falcons' Adam Terrini came on to nip WW South's Brandon Bell in the latter. Earlier Terrini ran a meet-record 400-meter time of 49.72 ahead of a surging Cagigal, whose 49.77 also eclipsed the 2012 record of 51.06.
"Honestly, there's just a voice in my head that tells me, just kick it in, just run. Also I'm a man of faith, I do a lot of praying," Terrini said.
Per usual, Lake Park went 1-2 in pole vault with Ethan Kovall at 15 feet, 1 inch, and Kyle Brown at 14-7; and in shot put with Lancers Chago Basso and Dylan Scheirich. Basso earned a new personal best at 58 feet, 0¼ inch.
"In practice early in the week I had a few monster throws and so I was hoping something big was coming," he said.
Wheaton Warrenville South senior Blaze Barista wasn't ecstatic over his winning triple jump of 42-6¼ since he's gone farther, but he found it "awesome" to add it to his 2015 outdoor DVC crown.
Waubonsie Valley's Tyler Kirkwood, third in the 2015 Class 3A 110 hurdles, looked clean in beating Glenbard North's Jace James and Paris Miller in the 55s on Friday.
"After three years in the Upstate Eight Conference and now in the DuPage Valley, I'm like, Oh, I wanted that," Kirkwood said.
Glenbard North is on the move. In 2015 Panthers coach Mark Karwowski kept his youngsters on the frosh-soph level, but he unleashed them on Friday.
Greg Newsome won the 200, Devion Hodges won long jump, and James won high jump in a 3-inch personal best of 6-6, ahead of Naperville North's Kris Heinz.
"Right off the bat when I took my first couple approaches warming up I felt pretty good and I had a feeling it was going to be a good day," James said.