West Aurora sprints to 2nd

They cleared the bar again.

Naperville North won its fourth consecutive DuPage Valley Conference title in girls track on Friday, outpointing second-place West Aurora 115-98 at Wheaton North.

"The season has been tough because we've had some injuries, but we have confidence," said Huskies junior Kamaria Huggins. "We've been training so hard."

"There were a few meets this year where we could have kept girls out, but we just ran," said Huskies coach Chuck Hoff. "We ran full this year. We weathered the adverse stuff, and the girls had some fun."

Huggins ran a personal-record time of 12.45 seconds to win the 100 meters and did the same in the 200 with a time of 25.45 seconds. Both times would be good enough to get her downstate.

"I felt good going in, and racing with one of my teammates gave me that much more confidence," Huggins said of Whitney Hill, who placed third in the 100 and 200, with West Aurora's Markesha Davis placing second behind Huggins in both sprints.

Huggins may opt out of the 100 in order to better focus on her role on the Huskies' relay teams. The Huskies were second in the 400 and 800 relays and third in the 1,600.

The Huskies' Adrienne Thome won the shot put with a toss of 41 feet, 8 inches, Jamie Schertz placed second in the 1,600, and Michelle Stratton placed fourth in the 3,200.

Courtney Armetta finished third in the 300 hurdles and second in the long jump behind West Aurora's Shanice Andrews. Shelley Dulman also tossed the discus a lifetime personal record of 117-4 to place second behind Naperville Central's Jessica Carter.

In addition to the individual efforts put in by Davis and Andrews -- who also won the 100 hurdles and placed second in the 300 hurdles -- West Aurora coach Teresa Towles also got titles from the Blackhawks' 400 and 1,600 relay teams.

Jasmine Ransin, Brittany Loza and Andrews set the table in the 400, and anchor Charlotte Smith extended the lead to a season-best time of 4:08.38 -- six seconds better than their previous best.

"I had the lead and I wasn't going to give it up," Smith said. "Everyone stepped up."

"It was a lot of nice surprises today," Towles said. "I told the girls they could do it, and just had to dig down and give it to us today. They showed up today.

"I told them to have fun, and that's what they did. And they performed."

Davis also placed second in the 400 behind West Chicago's Karlie Becker, and Smith was second to Glenbard North's Rachel Cagnina in the high jump.

Wheaton Warrenville South finished third with 90.50 points, getting a title in the 3,200 from Elise Anderson, who lopped 20 seconds off her previous season-best time in finishing at 11:21.8.

"I felt really good today, and I knew once the other girls started to go that I had to stay with them if I wanted to run the time I wanted to run," said Anderson, who finished eight seconds ahead of second-place Sarah Rosenwinkel of Wheaton North.

The Tigers' foursome of Melanie Loth, Abigail Mitchell, Shannon Nevins and Alexa Odom also won the conference crown in the 800 relay.

Naperville Central's fourth-place finish featured Carter's season-best toss of 133-07 in the discus, Kristen Reschke's title in the triple jump, and Jocelyn Troester's title in the 300 hurdles.

"It wasn't a perfect race, but I've been working hard on the last 100 (meters)," said Troester, who finished with a season-best time of 47.41 seconds.

In addition to Cagnina's winning high jump of 5-1, Glenbard North got a pole vault title from Meghan Court, a second in the 100 hurdles from Christina Rini, and thirds from Monica Davis in the discus and Carson Jones in the 400.

Wheaton North's Jackie Laesch won the 1,600, and the Falcons also got a title from the relay team of Laesch, Kelsey Tharnstrom, Katina Bolos and Alexa Reinecke in the 3,200. Reinecke was also second in the 800, and Rosenwinkel placed second in the 3,200.

"It was a little scary because I was the top seed and I usually like to chase people," said Laesch, who led down the stretch her 1,600 title race. "It was a totally different race being in the lead."

Becker ran a 59.73 in the 400 in winning her title for West Chicago, and Wildcats sophomore Annette Eichenberger set a school record in winning the 800 with a time of 2:18.37, and beat her personal best by three seconds in the process.

Eichenberger leaned in to beat second-place Alexa Reinecke of Wheaton North by six-hundredths of a second. "The last 100 was a blur. I just wanted to stick with (Reinecke) and go all out," Eichenberger said. "It couldn't have been any closer."

Glenbard East got a third-place finish from Caitlin Groeper in the high jump, and fifths from their relays in the 100, 200 and 800.