West Aurora takes regains from Kaneland
It would be hard to believe that in the 42 years of Kaneland’s Peterson Prep boys track invite wind has not been a factor.
For a 400-meter runner like Wheaton Academy freshman Matt Ruff, turning into the backstretch with the wind whipping in his face was “just terrible.”
On the other hand, the wind helped West Aurora’s Matt Souvannasing to a personal best long jump and a close second down the forgiving homestretch in the first time he’d ran the 100 dash.
“I’m loving the wind,” said the Blackhawks senior, who also anchored West Aurora’s victorious 800-meter relay behind Nate Zinzer, Jonny Gosong and Mike Graham.
Either way, Saturday’s wind trumped all the recent rain.
“The times weren’t great today, although it is one of the best days that we’ve had this season because the sun was out. A little windy, but you know what, the guys came together,” said West Aurora coach Cortney Lamb.
West Aurora’s 133 points claimed the invite title, well ahead of defending champ Kaneland’s 98. Mt. Carmel (93), Geneva (73.50) and Dundee-Crown (46) claimed the remaining top five spots.
The Blackhawks winners included Souvannasing and his long jump of 22 feet, 3½ inches, Zach Woods in the 200 and George Malina in pole vault, Alex Chollet with a 154-foot discus throw and Ryan Bartell in the 800, his long strides holding off hard-charging, arm-pumping teammate Matt Muth.
In 2009 Lamb had to return the Peterson Prep first-place plaque to Kaneland coach Eric Baron after a late scoring change switched the winner from Blackhawks to Knights by half a point.
But Saturday was not about revenge.
“We like to win, there’s no doubt about that,” Lamb said. “But we like to win more in May than here. It’s one of those things where, we put a lineup together, if we win today that’s great, but the lineup we put together in May, we expect to win.”
Kind of like Kaneland’s Taylor Andrews in the 110-meter hurdles.
He may have later seen Geneva’s Ryan Ahern and West Aurora’s Marcus Waller and Patrick Schultz finish ahead of him in the 300 hurdles — Ahern in a cool 39.13 seconds — but the shorter race was all Andrews.
The Kaneland senior handled the 110s in a time of 14.66 seconds, ahead of Ahern at 14.99.
“I get more excited when I do the 110s. That’s, like, my race,” Andrews said. “But 300s, I need to have that same exact mindset, because I know I can do it. I don’t know, there’s something different.”
Of Ahern’s competition in both races, the Geneva senior said: “I hope to see them downstate.”
Matt Spittzeri joined Andrews in the winners’ circle for Kaneland, the sole triple jumper over 41 feet. The Knights also clicked with the 400-meter relay team of Jesse Balluf, Brandon Cottier, Andrews and Tommy Whittaker.
“We have a great team,” Whittaker said. “I mean, we lost a lot of seniors from last year, but that’s good because a lot of people stepped up, a lot of underclassmen, a lot of juniors stepped up.”
As did Geneva’s Russ Acton. In the anchor leg of the Vikings’ 400 relay he went shoulder to shoulder with Whittaker, to lose by .03 seconds.
Acton turned the tables in the 400, nipping Whittaker by the same margin, 51.30 seconds to 51.33.
“I saw him, he was right there,” Acton said. “He just edged me out in the four-by-one, so it was nice to edge him out just a little bit in the 400.”
The 400, an all-out sprint the entirety of the track, is tough enough. Wind in the face doesn’t help.
“I kind of got used to it halfway through the straight and then another big gust came,” Acton said. “That wasn’t cool, but just keep the head low and keep a good forward lean, and you’re able to fight it out and then use it to your advantage down the stretch.”
For a freshman like Wheaton Academy’s Ruff, running at Kaneland was eye-opening.
“It was quite a difficult experience, you could say,” said Ruff, a Wayne resident who came from the third heat and not only survived, but finished sixth overall in a personal-best time.
“I feel very honored,” he said.