Huntley snags 2nd straight sectional crown
ROCKTON - This time Huntley made sure to take 2 victory laps.
Last year a scoring error forced the Red Raiders to find out they had won a sectional championship while on the bus ride back to Huntley. Friday night's victory was clear cut, although it wasn't quite clear cut until the 1,600-meter relay.
Entering the final race of the evening, Huntley led McHenry and Dundee-Crown by 2 points in the team standings of the Class 3A Rockton Hononegah sectional. Crystal Lake South was 8 points behind the Red Raiders. McHenry, the Fox Valley Conference champion, did not have a team in the final heat, which set up a showdown of epic proportions between the other 3 league rivals.
South (3:22.69) won the race, but a second-place finish from Huntley (3:23.42) gave the Red Raiders 66 points. Dundee-Crown finished fourth in the race which forced a tie for second with the Chargers and Gators. Jacobs, although out of the team challenge, used the intensity to qualify its 1,600 relay team (3:23.45) for next weekend's IHSA state meet at Eastern Illinois University.
"We knew it'd be close," Huntley coach Jim Rolando said. "No one expected it to be like that. We knew we had one place on (Dundee-Crown)."
Something the Red Raiders and everyone else in the field could expect was junior Casey Popenfoose's double victory in the shot (57 feet, 0.74 inches) and discus (184-1). Although not personal bests, Popenfoose dominated the field to give Huntley some team points early.
"I wish the distances went a little further," said Popenfoose, who qualified for both events last season. "(At state) I need to make sure to I have my head on straight."
Dundee-Crown's Aaron Reams had his head on straight when he won the triple jump (46-0) and edged out Jacobs' Danny Trevor (15.04) in the 110 hurdles with a 15.03. Reams finished eighth at last year's sectional in the triple jump, but came in as a favorite.
"My second jump was really good, but they said I scratched," said Reams, who set a personal best in the triple jump. "I got my Adrenalin."
Crystal Lake South sprinter Emmanuel Gamez also had plenty of Adrenalin running through him. Gamez qualified for state by anchoring the 1,600 relay team and winning the 100 (10.97) and 400 (49.52).
"I kicked it in the last 100," Gamez said of the 1,600 relay. "I came in thinking to do the best that I can and I finished first in my three events."
Other area qualifiers included a victory in the 1,600 for Dundee-Crown's Anthony Manfrin (4:15.77), the 3,200 relay teams from both Dundee-Crown (1st, 7:56.36) and Jacobs (8:03.23), Huntley's 400 (2nd, 43.32) and 800 (1st, 1:30.37) relay teams and 800 runner Alex Beruscha (1:57.13).
Cary-Grove had 3 state qualifiers: Phil Fairleigh in the 3,200 (1st, 9:17.56), Anthony Golowach in the 200 (2nd, 23.17) and Ryan Psenka with a state qualifying 157-4 in the discus. South's Steven Rogers finished first in the 800 (1:55.42), while Victor Adenakan finished second to Gamez in the 400 (50.58).
Jacobs' pole vaulter Jake Lawson added a second-place finish with a 12-9.