Neuqua Valley takes DVC title the hard way
There is no wrong way to earn a championship.
"Definitely winning ugly tonight," Neuqua Valley coach Mike Kennedy said after the Wildcats won the DuPage Valley Conference boys indoor track and field meet without winning a single event.
It was Neuqua's fifth straight indoor title spanning its Upstate Eight days, its third straight and last in the current DVC before Glenbard North, Lake Park, Wheaton Warrenville South and Wheaton North help form the DuKane Conference in 2018-19.
That "definitely" influenced Friday's effort at North Central College's Al B. Carius Track in Naperville, said Neuqua sprinter Myles Gascon, who finished second behind WW South's Cedric Rowzee in both the 55- and 200-meter dashes and anchored a second-place 800 relay for Donovan Turner, Ife Oketona and Michael Dy.
"As long as we win in the end, that's all that really matters," Gascon said. "None of us want to win just for ourselves."
Double-scoring in eight of 12 non-relay events with second-place finishes by Turner, Okatona, Kai Larson, Dakota Getty, Ryan Kennedy, Alex Kiefer and Mac Mitchell, Neuqua Valley scored 136.50 points to WW South's 112.
Wheaton North (75), Metea Valley (65), Naperville Central (60) and Lake Park (60) formed a tight middle-tier pack. Naperville Central won the frosh-soph level a second straight year and capped the meet with a varsity 1,600 relay win by Justin Agema, Carlos Ochoa, Patrick Blazek and Thomas Codo.
The Rowzee-Gascon duels were enthralling, particularly the 55. It appeared Gascon's late lean might win the sprint, but instead Rowzee did, 6.53 seconds to 6.56.
"That ties my PR (personal record), I'm good. That's a good day," said Rowzee, who returned to win the 200 in 22.63 seconds and led off a winning 800 relay for Dan Schricker, Nasri Khayal and Jacob Odom.
WW South's Joe Zubak pushed past Larson in the 400, both under 52 seconds, and the Tigers' Sean Maison accelerated when pressed by Neuqua's Ryan Kennedy in the 3,200. In the 1,600 Metea's Rokas Gudinavicius nicked Maison's brother, Scott, by .01 to win in 4:23.69.
"In a big race like this I'm not used to front-running and I did that the first time this year. It felt different," Sean Maison said.
Wheaton North's Joey Simon improved on his 2017 second-place finish to win the 800 in 1:56.22. Falcons teammate Tyler Johnson set a second straight shot put indoor personal best, winning at 55 feet.
"It's really nice just to know you're already starting off on a good base and just build from there," said Johnson, eighth in Class 3A shot put last spring.
Waubonsie Valley's Damion Curry won high jump; District 204 mate Temi Osobamiro of Metea Valley won triple jump.
It was no shock Lake Park's Tom Paprocki went 14 feet, 6 inches to win pole vault. Lancers teammate Danny Spejcher pulled off a double win, going 22-2 in long jump and 7.64 seconds to win the 55 hurdles.
"I hit 22 and I've never done that indoor and I got first in the hurdles which I've never done before," Spejcher said. "I'm actually pretty happy with what I've done today."