That's more like it for Kaputska

When Glenbard East thrower Bobby Kaputska went to the indoor state meet earlier this year, he didn't fare too well once the shot put competition got under way.

But rather than dwell on his subpar effort, the Rams athlete is using that experience to drive him outdoors. At Friday's seventh annual Raider Track and Field Invitational at Glenbard South, Kaputska PR-ed in both the shot and the discus while winning both events. His 55 feet, 2 inches in the shot put opened some eyes and his 147-1 in the discus gave him two victories on the night as Glenbard East finished an impressive second in the team standings with 139 points.

"I came in here strong in the shot, but I knew with the discus that the coaches had been pointing out a few things I needed to work on with my footwork," said Kaputska, who held off Rolling Meadows' Paul Hames, the runner-up in both throwing events. "There's still room for improvement in both events, but I'm happy with my performance today."

The same could not be said when he went to the indoor finals. There Kaputska threw the shot real well in warmups but not so well once the competition got going. But Rams coach Jack Brady believes that big meet has helped his thrower grow this spring, even though the weather has limited his opportunities.

"Going there was great," Brady said. "Now he knows he belongs with that class of people."

Rolling Meadows was at the top of the class in the team standings, winning the meet for the first time ever with a score of 164. Ty Kirk played a big role in the victory, setting a meet record with a triple jump of 46-4½, winning the long jump at 22-4 and also running on the school's first-place 800 relay squad.

"I'm more into individual performances and relays and sometimes I lose sight of what it means (to the kids) to win meets," Mustangs coach James Voyles said. "It is a team thing and they come together. They're going to be excited."

Rolling Meadows stayed atop the team standings in part due to wins from Stan Pheteau in 110 hurdles and Jon Stoesser in the 100 dash but pretty much sealed the title after Kevin Clark and Angelos Karkalis went 1-2 in the 1,600.

In addition to Kaputska's big night, Glenbard East picked up a first from Nathan Peterson in the 3,200 and another win when sophomores Jim Peters, Brad Magnetta, Nate Young and Luke Chvatal teamed up to win the 3,200 relay in 8:14.3.

"We really needed a meet bad," Brady said, noting that his team has already had multiple meets washed out this spring. "We got some good efforts, some good seeds and our win in the 3,200 was a freshman school record and the 4x800 team that won broke the sophomore school record."

West Chicago left with a pair of wins as Josh Tikka won the high jump at 5-10 and Kyle Nichol won the 400 dash. For the hosts Raiders, Nick Summers was first in the 200 dash in 22.7 and Mike Oratowski added seconds in both the 300 hurdles and the 200 dash.