Waubonsie Valley claims 'all-around' conference title

An individual sport?

Waubonsie Valley's win at the Upstate Eight Conference boys track meet was as team-oriented as they get.

The Warriors, earning their first UEC title since 2004, scored in all 18 events Thursday at St. Charles North and double scored in seven of them.

"It was definitely a team effort," Waubonsie coach Brian Beyers said after his squad compiled 146 points to 114 for second-place Neuqua Valley. St. Charles North (65) was fourth, followed by Lake Park (61).

"From the field events to the sprints to the distance, just all-around," Beyers said.

Randy Magnuson certainly was all-around. The senior was second in triple jump and top five in both high jump and long jump.

Sean Wiggan and Marc Presley went 1-2 in the 400, Emmett Lorenz won the 800, and Brett Einbecker and Dwight Harris went 2-3 in both shot put and discus.

Tony Tucker placed second in both the 100- and 200-meter dashes, helped the 800 relay take first and the 400 relay take second.

"I personally think I would like a team victory over an individual victory," Tucker said, "because you can just take that back to school and feel so much better. You know you've succeeded when you win as a team."

With the year he's had, it was a no-brainer Neuqua Valley's Chris Derrick would break his conference record in the 1,600 of 4 minutes, 20.85 seconds. He did, handily, at 4:14.36.

"I just wanted to stay relaxed, run well and win the race," Derrick said.

Regarding records, Lake Park's Dan Block had another biggie in discus. He broke the UEC record by nearly 17 feet and extended his state record with a throw of 201 feet, 8 inches.

Better still, friendly competitor Einbecker threw 197-6½. Block and Einbecker are Nos. 1 and 3 all-time in Illinois.

"That's pretty awesome, to be in the same year," Block said. "I didn't even realize that. I think we'll both be 1-2 by the end of the year."

Einbecker said, "We'll probably see each other again at state, but hopefully I can catch a 200-footer at sectionals if it's a nice day."

One of the day's nice comebacks was had by Neuqua Valley's Chris Youngstrom.

Eliminated by a false start in the 110-meter finals though he owned the fastest seed time, Youngstrom rallied to win the 300 hurdles followed by teammate Tom Gambla.

"Coming in 1-2 was great," Youngstrom said, "so that brought some points back in. Definitely redeemed."