Benet arrives at right time
At 8:13 p.m., hours after everyone had arrived at Naperville North's nice, new track for Friday's Gus Scott Invitational, two Benet girls sprinted onto the infield.
McKinzie Schulz and Katie Porada were welcomed with shouts and hugs because they're cool and also they'd be able to run the 1,600-meter relay.
"That was so exciting," said Redwing Jenny Bohac. "They were on a school retreat, but when they (arrived) it was like they brought an energy, and we were all excited to have them."
The energy was contagious. Benet's female foursome of Kaileen Healy, Porada, Schulz (the Notre Dame recruit made her outdoor debut after knee tendinitis) and Bohac won their relay, and the boys did as well. Jackson Jenkins, John McLaughlin, John Kawka and Matt Dickey ran a quality time of 3 minutes, 25.71 seconds.
"They all had PRs (personal records) in their splits," Redwings boys coach Pat Marshall said.
The three-tier meet went long enough for the A-level pole vault to be conducted by the headlights of a pickup truck.
"It feels like a drive-in movie theater," said winner Zach Quan of Romeoville.
It wasn't long enough to catch female overall winner Cary-Grove or boys champion Oak Park, which featured male athlete of the meet Devin Banks - 100 and 200 winner, anchor of winning 400 and 800 relays.
Waubonsie Valley's Morolake Akinosun won female athlete of the meet for doing the exact same thing. Her relay partners included Ayo Adewole, Emily Kelly, Da'sha Patton and Crystal Butler.
"Last year we all had someone really great to look up to," Akinosun said of Shakeia Pinnick, now at Arizona State. "All our workouts and every meet she was there. We watched her. It kind of put us all in the right mindset."
The Warriors girls finished behind Cary-Grove and New Trier, which featured freshman wunderkind Courtney Ackerman, a soccer convert who won the 1,600 by nine seconds and the 3,200 by 16. Waubonsie's boys took third behind Oak Park and Naperville North.
Male or female, the Huskies ruled at 800 meters. Tyler Jermann and Charlie McKeown each won their heats and Chase Power finished a close second in the A-level. Jamie Schertz, Anne Herbert and Alex Wernette swept their 800 races.
Danny Tucker, second in both the A-level 100 and 200, was Waubonsie Valley's boys highlight on the track while as usual the Warriors piled up field points - Rickie Walls first in triple jump and second in long, Andrew Szott winning shot put, Alex Kampf taking discus, James Davenport winning high jump at 6 feet, 7 inches, 2 inches off his best a week ago.
"Everything's been going right so far so I try not to correct myself or do anything new or try anything. I'm just keeping it simple," Davenport said.