Waubonsie Valley's Tucker in all the right spots
Lane four - that's a good one. Lane six also treated Waubonsie Valley great.
In fact wherever and whatever Waubonsie Valley junior Danny Tucker ran - lane four, six, relay, sprint - that was the place to be.
Tucker won the 100- and 200-meter dashes and led off victorious 400 and 800 relays Saturday at the 43rd annual Carlin Nalley Invitational at Benedictine University in Lisle.
In its swan song at the venerable dual-level meet before heading to the DuPage County Championships in 2011, Waubonsie Valley used sprinters' speed and field strength - wins by Rickie Walls (triple jump), James Davenport (high jump) and Andrew Szott (shot put) - to head its first Nalley title since 2004.
The Warriors, also enjoying David Groeber's personal-best 1,600 run, top-three finishes in both hurdles races by Miguel Gonzalez and more throws points by Owen Saldana and Alex Kampf, scored 119 points, doubling the 58 of runner-up Lincoln-Way East. Benet and Bolingbrook tied for third in the 2A/3A level with 57 points.
"We're coming back," Tucker said of the Warriors' relays, each run by Tucker, Patrick McLaughlin, Jalen Love and Tre Clark, who lived in Indianapolis in spring 2009.
"I think we're going to be better than 2008 relays, that's when we were in our prime," said Tucker, who owns the school 100 record after a wind-aided 10.4 on Tuesday. "We took off a year last year, injuries and stuff. But this year we're back."
If Waubonsie Valley owned the sprint relays, Benet owned the finale, the 1,600 relay. Jackson Jenkins, John "Tex" McLaughlin, John Kawka and Matt Dickey won in 3 minutes, 26.02 seconds.
Earlier, Jenkins placed fourth in the 100 dash, and he and Dickey went 1-2 in the 400 run.
That plus Nalley scorers like shot putter John Cannova, jumper Elliot Howe and Jerry Olp - second in the 3,200 at 9:34.61 - builds confidence as the Redwings seek a fifth straight East Suburban Catholic Conference title on Thursday on the same red track.
"Getting lower and lower times helps us believe more, and when we do that we achieve it," said Jenkins, who'll run for the University of Chicago.
Oregon won the 1A level for a seventh straight year in a squeaker, 106-103 over Walther Lutheran.
No one, however, threw the shot put farther in 1A than Timothy Christian's Rob Stein. He went 55 feet, 81/2 inches, nearly three inches farther than his 2009 state runner-up finish. He's exceeded 57 feet this spring, but the Nalley was his first competition since pulling a hamstring April 17.
"I'm just now getting back to where I was before I did it, so everyone else got two weeks on me. I'm just going to have to see what happens," said Stein, recruited to throw for Miami of Ohio by former Waubonsie athlete Ceith Creekmur.
Lisle junior Anthony Ventrella won both long jump and triple jump. Beating athletes from Walther Lutheran in each event, Ventrella feels comfortable for the Class 1A Lisle sectional - where he'll see them again.
"It's a battle. Top two go to state," Ventrella said. "I just want to keep working hard, show everybody in Lisle what I can do."
Ventrella joined Jon Ferrari, Nick Leonard and Jack Stephens in top-four 400 and 800 relays, while Immaculate Conception also scored in both with the group of Will Cronin, Kyle Siranovic, Anthony Garcia and Patrick Kirby.