Girls track: Custer, Reed lead the way for runner-up Geneva
Georgia Reed is a returning all-state hurdler for the Geneva girls track and field team.
Almost without exception, there is a freshman sensation in the area on a yearly basis.
Nikole Custer made a case at the VanDeever Invitational Saturday afternoon in Geneva to be the ninth-grader in question this spring.
Reed and Custer each won two individual events and ultimately became three-event champions in leading their teams to runner-up and third-place finishes.
Palatine crowned four champions to edge the host Vikings, 150.5-148.5; St. Charles North was third with 109 points.
Reavis (74 points) sneaked past Dundee-Crown by 2 points (72) for fourth; West Chicago (56), Larkin (16), Chicago Northside (12), Rockford Jefferson (8) and Hubbard (6) rounded out the 10-team field.
Reed, eighth at the Class 3A state meet last year in the 300-meter hurdles, not only won her specialty event in 47.49 seconds but also captured the 100 hurdles in 16.63.
Palatine 300 runner-up Chloe Stewart had not even cleared the final hurdle before Reed crossed the finish line.
"Last year I didn't run the 100 hurdles at all," Reed said. "It is such a new race for me. It's exciting. It (the 300 hurdles) is still challenging, but I understand how to run it."
Reed collaborated with 3,200-meter champion Sophia McDonnell, Collette Malovany and Taryn Christy to earn a third title in the 1,600 relay (4:15.05).
Custer was the sprint maven on the unseasonably warm and windy afternoon.
The North Stars' freshman swept the 100 and 200 dashes and sandwiched the two individual titles by anchoring the 800 relay to gold with teammates Kendall Maffia, Alyssa Graff and Flo Ugoagwu.
"Even if you're far ahead, you still drive through," Custer said after winning the 200 dash in 27.61 to augment her win at 100 meters in 13.54. "Your goal is to get the best time possible."
McDonnell overcame former middle-school classmate and reigning 3,200 all-state veteran Audrey Ernst of St. Charles North to win the event in 11:41.63.
"I was just going out there going for time," McDonnell said. "Place didn't matter to me. It was really hot and windy. I feel like (the 2-mile) is going to be my focus this season."
But Ernst, also all-state in the 1,600 run last spring, came back to snare the title at the distance in 5:28.05.
"It was great competition," Ernst said.
St. Charles North sophomore Natalie Galvan also ran the metric mile after winning the 800 run in 2:24.64.
"I didn't want any regrets," Galvan said.
Illinois State-bound Geneva senior Kristin Higgins was not overly pleased with her high-jump performance despite winning at 5 foot, 1 inch.
"I was not happy," said Higgins, third in state last year. "I was hoping I could do more than 5-1."
The Vikings also received wins from Susan D'Onofrio and Hannah Borodin in the triple jump and shot put with respective marks of 33-4.75 and 33-1.
Autumn Horlbeck claimed the fifth St. Charles North win with a 10-foot clearance in the pole vault.
Dundee-Crown thrower Tarrah Kamp had to settle for runner-up to Reavis' Auset Kheru in the discus, but the Chargers' junior set a new school record - dating to the last century - with her 119-9 effort.
"I knew it right away," Kamp said of her program-best launch. "Field events are definitely my thing. I am going to try and keep breaking it."
"I am not a miler," Palatine senior Izzeh Stankiewicz said after trying to recoup after the 1,600 run.
But the Pirates' anchor leg of the championship 3,200 relay was instrumental in Palatine edging Geneva for the team title.
Stankiewicz teamed with Liz Lechowicz, Fiona Metzo and Lauryn Simons to win the meet-opening event in 9:57.83.
The Pirates were in full swing after the 400 relay quartet of Sydney Winter, Jess Streepy, Dejay Thomas and Tiana Henderson followed suit in 51.74.
"It's the closest simulation to state we have all year," Stankiewicz said of the Pirates' back-to-back invites at Downers Grove North and Geneva. "The coach (Joe Parks) is experimenting a lot. (The 3,200 relay) was a group of leaders, even though we do different events."
The Pirates' Erin Oleksak and Henderson were the other Palatine champions in the 400 dash (61:09) and long jump (16').
"My goal was to take the first 200 harder," Oleksak said. "I am trying to break 60 (seconds). That's my goal. It has been a barrier."
"It's my first time long jumping in a year and a day (at Downers North)," Henderson said.
Boys meet: St. Charles North boys track and field coach Kevin Harrington was racking his memory bank Saturday afternoon in Geneva.
"I am having a hard time remembering the last (invitational) we won," Harrington said. "We have consistently been a second-, third- and fourth-place team. It's nice to get a win. The thing (about the outcome) that stands out is we had four guys score more than 20 points each."
Eric Lins, Cam Wright, Luke Sutherland and Peter Willis were unquestionably instrumental to the North Stars' 126.5 point total at the VanDeever Invitational on Saturday.
St. Charles North was more than 20 points better than runner-up Dundee-Crown (106 points); Geneva (93.5), West Chicago (86), Reavis (44), Larkin (34) and Chicago Northside (28) were also in the field.
Lins duplicated the achievement of St. Charles North female sprinter Nikole Custer by sweeping the 100- and 200-meter dashes in respective times of 11.68 and 23.65 seconds.
Lins denied Dundee-Crown sophomore Meante Foster by .04 seconds to win the shortest sprint.
"I have always done (sprints), but have never had a sweep like this before," Lins said. "(In the 100), I took a long build-up because of the wind so I could reach my top speed at the end of the race."
The Sutherland triumph over West Chicago junior Zenan Cardenas at 400 meters had each athlete making similar comments.
"I have been racing that guy since he was a sophomore," Sutherland said after being timed in 50.2 to Cardenas' 50.6. "We have been battling back and forth. He's a great athlete and a great guy."
"Sutherland and I have been going back and forth for the past couple of years," Cardenas said. "He had the inside lane, so he had a little bit of a mental advantage. At the end of the day he had a better lane."
Willis' triumph for the North Stars came in the high jump as the junior cleared 6 feet, 3 inches.
Wright, committed to the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs, headlined a 1-2 St. Charles North sweep in the pole vault with Jarad Palan with his winning clearance of 13-6.
The North Stars were also runner-up in the three sprint relays.
Reavis' Matt Beach hurled the discus 156-10 for the individual championship, but St. Charles North senior Sam Ambrogio was pleased with his progression with his second-place effort of 146-6.
"I am happy where I am at today," Ambrogio said.
Dundee-Crown was paced by its 800 and 3,200 championship relay teams.
Anthony Hurgoi, Adam Swanson, Joey DeVita and Jacob Olsen enabled the Chargers' 3,200 foursome to win in 8:13.96.
"Two of our guys (Swanson and Olsen) were not feeling well," said Hurgoi, who was also runner-up in the 1,600 (4:30.05). "I ran a 1:58 last week, so I just had to match that. I like the mile more, but right now I think I'm stronger in the half-mile."
The Chargers' Foster, Kyle Belknap, Ross Dalgelish and Dylan Becker claimed the 400 relay in 44.08.
D-C senior Ace Aclaro won the triple jump in 41-3.
Two returning state qualifiers for Geneva, Florida State-bound Tyler Dau and Josh Rodgers, won the 1,600 and 3,200 runs for the Vikings.
"I think both of us had the same strategy," all-state returnee Dau said of his duel with Hurgoi. "We both wanted it so bad. It came down to who wanted it more, who had the most left."
Dau won in 4:39.23.
Rodgers was victorious in 10:01.45 at 3.200 meters.
Burlington Central received its wins from Josh Teets in the 800 (2:03.54) and Michael Kalusa in the long jump (20-8.5).
"I just think I was mentally into it," Teets said. "I didn't feel tired at all."
"(I was) just jumping," Kalusa said. "That's what my coaches tell me, 'Trust your mark.'"
Kennard Leonard was the Larkin leader after the hurdler finished runner-up and third in the 300 intermediates and 110 highs.
West Chicago was another program that employed its relay prowess to make headlines.
Cardenas collaborated with Jack Reynolds, Jimmy Mikotis and CJ Griffin to win both the 400 and 1,600 relays for the Wildcats.
"We just decided we were going to go out and finish sub-30 (3:30 in the 1,600 relay)," said Griffin of the Wildcats' 3:28.41 time.
The West Chicago quartet denied St. Charles North by six one-hundredths of a second to win the 400 relay in 44.08.
Griffin and Shane O'Connor also swept the two hurdles races for West Chicago.
"It was a matter of getting above the hurdles," Griffin said of his winning time of 16.12 in the 110 highs. "The headwind was really strong."
Griffin was third in the intermediates that O'Connor - fourth in the shorter discipline - captured in 42.42.
O'Connor said the wind played havoc with two distinctly different angles: downwind to start before turning into the teeth of its gusts.
"It was incredible," O'Connor said. "I felt like I was floating over the hurdles (downwind). The wind hit me like a truck (on the backstretch)."
In the girls division, the Wildcats' Avalon Smith nearly had the anchor leg of the early season.
The West Chicago junior passed one runner while nearly eclipsing a 20-plus-meter deficit in the 1,600 relay.
"I don't know where that came from," said Smith, who was also runner-up in the open 400. "I really wanted the win. I had a better (relay) split than my earlier 400."
Maddie Brotnow, also a member of the Wildcats' 1,600 relay, was also second in the 800, nearly equaling a career-best time of 2:36.99.
"It definitely was a step forward," Brotnow said. "I had been plateauing for a while."