Sinon helps Kaneland soar to WSC title

One could say Kaneland saved its best for last Thursday at the Western Sun Conference Indoor Invitational at the Sycamore Fieldhouse.

And it would be correct on two counts because the Knights won the final race to capture their first-ever title in what was the last Western Sun indoor meet to be held.

The Knights were ahead of the Batavia Bulldogs by one point going into the 1,600-meter relay.

Kaneland's squad of Derek Bus, Taylor Andrews, Tom Whitaker and Edgar Valle won that race in 3:41.93, vaulting the Knights to their title.

While the last race pushed the Knights to 113 points to finish ahead of Batavia at 108, and Geneva at 100 in rounding out the top three, it was the effort of senior Nick Sinon that made the difference.

Sinon won the high jump at 6-5, won the long jump at 20-8 and finished third in the triple jump at 41 feet.

"The indoor conference meet is a good tuneup and it shows how good your form is now," said Sinon, who finished third in the state Class 2A high jump last year. "I take this meet pretty seriously because it is our indoor conference meet and it shows how we are going to stack up for the rest of the year against these teams."

Kaneland coach Eric Baron has to like the way his team will eventually stack up, considering that Logan Markuson, his state champion 300-meter hurdler, did not even compete in the hurdles or running events because of a sore quad muscle.

But Markuson gave his team critical points by finishing first in the pole vault at 12-9.

"We didn't have a real good night, but we did well," Baron said. "We had guys like Edgar (Valle) who did really well for us, because we had to pull Markuson out and some other sprinters (Blake Serpa being one) went down this week.

"So we really kind of piece-mealed it, but Nick Sinon had a huge night for us," said Baron, who is working to bring the Knights back to its track glory of 30 years ago when Kaneland had one of the strongest programs in the state.

Batavia followed the lead of sprinters Emund Kabba, Dan Skinner and Sam Stoner in giving Kaneland a run for the title. Kabba won the 55-meter dash at 6.29, with Skinner third at 6.70, while Stoner captured first in the 400-meter dash at 52.53. Matt Lash helped the Bulldogs come in tops in the longer races as well, taking first in the 3,200-meter run in 10:18.51, while Robert Mohr took the 55-meter hurdles in 7.46.

"We're very happy to have competed well," Batavia coach Dennis Piron said. "I would say that Emund Kabba and Robert Mohr were sensational and the times they ran were sensational, so you have to be very pleased with that."

Piron was also happy to see his 4x160-meter and 4x800-meter relay teams both finish first.

Geneva senior Frank Boenzi won the shot put competition by six yards over teammate Jackson Grimes, with Boenzi coming in at 54-4, and Grimes at 48-4.

"It's a little different than being outside," Boenzi said of his event. "It's a lot noisier for one thing, but I like the outdoor events a lot better."

Boenzi was joined in the winner's circle for the Vikings by teammate John Wilger, who captured the 200-meter dash with a time of 23.52.

"I'm very happy with how we did," Geneva coach Gale Gross said. "We have a young team and the indoor season really is about figuring out what we have."

Gross figured his team may have lost some points because pole vaulter Eric Hanson, who has cleared 12-6, was ill and could not compete.

Geneva also got a first from Justin Rodriguez in the 1,600-meter run at 4:24.44 and a second-place finish from Dylan Crawshaw in the 3,200-meter run at 10:21.54.

Glenbard South did not field a team in the meet. Host Sycamore was fourth with 75.5 points, followed by Yorkville at 72, Rochelle with 62.5 and DeKalb at 47.