Boys track and field: Batavia runs past UEC field
The Batavia boys track and field team gathered on Elgin's Memorial Field for celebratory photos after winning the Upstate Eight Conference meet Thursday.
After a few standard camera-phone clicks Batavia coach Dennis Piron prompted his athletes to raise five fingers in the air in honor of the program's fifth straight Upstate Eight River title.
It looked like the Bulldogs were waving goodbye to the competition, but in reality they'd already done so event by event over the course of several hours.
"We came in here with high expectations to do our best in every event, double score where we could," said Batavia junior Jeremiah Evers, who won the 100-meter dash (11.25) and participated in two winning relays. "We executed throughout the entire meet and it turned out pretty well for us."
The UEC meet was scored two ways: overall with all 13 UEC schools and by division. Either way Batavia won in a landslide.
In the 13-team format Batavia finished with 204 points to West Aurora's 104.
Scored by division, the spread was even wider. Batavia won its fifth straight UEC River title with 226 points. St. Charles East and St. Charles North tied for second with 96 points apiece.
West Aurora won the UEC Valley Division title with 169 points. East Aurora was second with 104 points, followed by West Chicago (72) and Glenbard East (63).
Batavia junior Sam Conger (15.00) and senior teammate Josh Young finished first and second, respectively, in the 110-meter hurdles. Senior Will Akers made it a clean sweep by winning the 300-meter hurdles (39.47).
Batavia senior Jay Hunt won the 200 (22.67) and senior Michael Stanley won the 400 in 49.66. It marked the third straight meet Stanley ran a personal best time in the event. He credited St. Charles East junior Charlie Wade (49.79), who led until the last 30 meters, for making him work.
"He got out pretty hard and maintained it, thankfully, because it pushed me to be that much faster," Stanley said.
Stanley was also part of the winning 4x100 relay team, which included Jordan Birkhaug, Evers and Iowa recruit Jay Hunt. They won in 42.79, bettering last week's 42.92 at the Kane County meet.
In the final event of the night, the Batavia 4x400 team of Reggie Phillips, Evers, Akers and Stanley prevailed in 3:20.97.
The Bulldogs' success wasn't limited to the track. They picked up 18 points in the discus throw alone as senior Ross Berggren (156-1) and junior Elijah Green (155-9) took the top two spots. Berggren also won the shot put (48-3) with Green placing third (48-0).
West Aurora scored a good chunk of its points in the field events. The duo of senior Davion Cross and junior Camron Donatlan swept the top two places in the long jump. Cross, who last season took second at state in Class 3A, won with a distance of 23 feet, 1¼ inches. Donatlan's best long jump was 22-7½ in only his second appearance in the event this season.
Cross also won the triple jump (47-2½) and Donatlan, the defending Class 3A high jump state champion, won that event by clearing 6 feet, 9 inches. St. Charles North junior Peter Willis and Batavia's Peter Rudelich tied for second at 6-7.
"I feel like my form has been getting down real good lately so I feel like when state comes I should be able to get seven (feet)," Donatlan said.
Geneva enjoyed success in the distance events. Sophomore Josh Rogers won the 3,200 (9:36.56) and senior Brian Kuehl won the 800-meter run in 1:54.15.
Kuehl opened the meet by pacing the Vikings' 4x800 relay team to victory in 7:58.78. Kuehl finished the opening leg with a 50-meter lead and teammates Scott Creger, Cole Montgomery and Tyler Dau maintained it.
"That's our fastest time all year," Dau said. "Right off the bat we had a really good lead and no one contested us the whole race,"
St. Charles North's 4x200 relay team won that event and set a new school record in the process. The team of Eric Lins, Colton Tisdall, Peter Willis and Luke Sutherland triumphed in 1:28.84, breaking the mark set in 2013. St. Charles North junior Cam Wright won the pole vault (15-1).