Boys track: Wheaton North uses all its tools
On Friday Wheaton North coach Don Helberg was attending his daughter Samantha's college graduation. His team represented him proudly, winning the 84th DuPage County Boys Track & Field Championships at Lake Park.
"It's kind of self-propelled at this point," said Falcons assistant Jim Martin, Don Helberg's predecessor 25 years ago. "Get them to the meet on time and say, 'Kids, you've got the tools in the toolbox, use them.'"
The Falcons did it with depth, scoring in all 18 events to post 108.50 points with brother Ken Helberg's Wheaton Warrenville South Tigers in second at 102.50, followed by York (96) and Glenbard North (79.33).
Adam Terrini was Wheaton North's sole event winner in the 400-meter dash at 49.64 seconds. He could hear footsteps from WW South's Brandon Bell.
"I consider Brandon a friend, so whenever we get to race it's fun," Terrini said. "We know we're going to compete and push each other to run really good times."
Montini finished in eighth place out of 12 mainly Class 3A teams but won the 400- and 800-meter relays. Junior Mitch West won both the 100 and 200 dashes. On top of that, dual-sport athlete Justin Blake won high jump, at 6 feet, 2 inches.
"It was my third meet ever. It's kind of surprising," said Blake, who plays baseball and practices jumping once a week.
The Broncos sprinters are regulars: Prince Walker, Will Smith, Nick Foster and West, who won the short sprints in 10.89 seconds and 22.38.
"It's just good bonding, because they're on the same football team as me, too, so we're really close," West said.
Waubonsie Valley's Tyler Kirkwood dropped his personal records in the 110 hurdles to 14.31 seconds, and to 39.02 in the 300s, pushed each time by Glenbard North's Jace James. Kirkwood's crisp form held throughout and that was his edge.
"He's definitely a competitor," Kirkwood said. "I knew at the back end he was going to give his all; that helped me give my all."
Lake Park's Chago Basso won discus at 179-4 and shot put at 60-5.
"I've had a pretty good series of practices," said the double-winner. "I've been working on a lot of technical stuff, just repping it out and getting muscle memory down."
No surprise York won the 800 (Liam Hill), 1,600 (Rob Tomaska), 3,200 (Max Denning) and 3,200-meter relay. Or that WW South's Tom Ansiel won pole vault at 15-7 - it's his third time over 15 this year. Teammate Blaze Barista won triple jump at 44-8½ as expected.
Devion Hodges anchored Glenbard North's second-place 400 relay then promptly won long jump with a leap of 22-3¼.
"It feels good. I get bragging rights with everybody at the school," Hodges said.