Geneva completes Western Sun three-peat
There weren't enough superlatives to describe what happened on the Burgess Field track in Geneva on Friday night when the curtain came down on Western Sun competition with the boys' conference track meet.
It was the host Geneva track team that was getting high praise after taking advantage of this moment in area sports history by putting an exclamation point on its third straight conference meet title - and leaving observers amazed at how a track team can grasp momentum and ride it through an entire meet.
"They were just on fire tonight and it was just a steamroller effect," Geneva coach Gale Gross said after his team notched first place in six events and numerous seconds and thirds to tally 143 points to surprise favored Kaneland in second with 120 points.
"We talked about momentum this week and feeding off each other, and this was a perfect example tonight as the kids were just awesome," Gross added. "We talked a lot about winning it three years in a row, and how that is one of the hardest things in all of sports to do.
"And we beat Kaneland, and we haven't beat Kaneland all year."
Glenbard South placed third in the meet with 82 points behind another strong performance from sprinter Garret Payne. DeKalb was fourth with 60 points, followed by Batavia at 55, Yorkville 42, Sycamore 30 1/2, Rochelle 24 1/2.
Kaneland coach Eric Baron had nothing but compliments for Geneva.
"My hats are off to them," Baron said. "I know they set three school records tonight and they were just amazing tonight.
"We can't be disappointed in what we are doing," Baron added. "But Geneva just beat us tonight and they were just really impressive."
As he has the entire season, Frank Boenzi gave Geneva what have become automatic points in the discus and shot put events. This time the Viking senior broke his own conference record in the shot put with a 60-2 1/4 effort, well ahead of second-place finisher Austin Teitsma of Glenbard South at 50-10 1/2. Boenzi won the discus with a toss of 168-1.
But it was the Viking distance runners and sprinters who provided the surprises and excitement that pushed Geneva to its title.
"We were confident we could do it," Gross said. "But it was going to take some magic, and these kids provided the magic."
The first magicians were the 800-meter relay team of Jay Graffagna, Doug Berthold, Jake Stocker and John Wilger, which was seeded sixth and ended up winning the event at 1:31.1.
"Our handoffs have been a problem lately, and we practiced that a lot this week and it worked out," Berthold said. "And we broke the school record."
Kevin Sparks ran the 3,200-meter run at 9:36.97, while Pete Archibald ran the 800-meter at 1:55.9 for Geneva victories, and the Vikings got a huge boost when Justin Rodriguez (4:31.68) and Sparks (4:32.89) finished one-two in the 1,600-meter run.
In one of the closest races of the night, Dylan Donnelly of DeKalb ran a 22.50 200-meter dash to barely squeeze past Jay Graffagna of Geneva at 22.55 and Wesley Sanders of Glenbard South at 22.57.
Kaneland's Nick Sinon was looking to sweep his three events - triple jump, high jump and long jump, but he had to settle for two first-place finishes. He went 42-10 in the triple jump to edge teammate Matt Spitzzeri in second at 42-05.25, and he cleared 6-9 in the high jump to wipe out the field and break the conference mark by four inches, with Chris Sirota a distant second at 6-3.
"I was hoping to win all three, but expecting to do it is something different when you have guys like Dylan Donnelly competing against you," said Sinon, who settled for third in the long jump behind DeKalb's Donnelly and Dominick Taylor.
"My team came over to support me when I was going for the bigger heights in the high jump and that really helped me and made me want to do my best," said Sinon, whose 6-9 effort marked a personal best by one inch.
Batavia's standout hurdler Rob Mohr had a frustrating night, finishing second at 14.72 behind Kaneland's Taylor Andrews (14.96) in the 110-meter high hurdles, and then falling down after the final hurdle in the 300-meter low hurdles event, and going from a potential first-place finish to placing fifth.
Logan Markuson won the 300-meter hurdles at 39.30 after Mohr's fall, while Geneva's Ryan Ahern was able to take advantage to secure second and some key points at 39.52.
Batavia's best moment came early in the meet when the 3,200-meter relay team of Derek Chapman, Kevin Gray, Scott Wloszczynski and Sam Stoner turned in an 8:08.25 time to finish first and edge Kaneland's squad of Dominic Furco, Shawn Paulick, Joe Levita and Matt Reusche at 8:11.7.
Geneva gave an early hint of what was coming by placing second in the 400-meter relay team behind Sycamore, as the team of Graffagna, Berthold, Tom Frederick and Scott Pospisil clocked a 43.43.
Logan Markuson of Kaneland captured the pole vault title at 13-9, while Eric Hanson of Geneva was second at 13-3.
The Knights also blew away the conference record in the evening's final race, the 1600-meter relay as Tommy Whitaker, Derek Bus, Edgar Valle and Logan Markuson finished at 3:23.44 ahead of speedster Payne and his Glenbard South team at 3:27.07.
Payne rolled in the sprints, taking the 400-meter dash at 48.82, ahead of Geneva's Pospisil at 50.33, and the 100-meter dash at 11.07, besting DeKalb's Donnelly at 11.14.
"That was my second best time this year," Payne said of his 100-meter dash. "I had an 11.04 at the DuPage County meet, but my goal at the last couple of meets has been to get in the 10s."
Glenbard South coach Andy Preuss was not surprised by his speedy junior's efforts.
"He's really tough, and we've been fortunate to have great quarter-milers at Glenbard South in the past," Preuss said. "He's just a junior and he's just going to get better, he's very solid and very fun to watch."