Burlington Central BNC champ
Burlington Central was hitting on all cylinders.
After a disappointing 6th-place finish at last week’s Kane County meet, the Rockets ran away from the field at the Big Northern Conference boys track and field meet in Richmond Thursday night.
The Rockets finished with 148 points, easily outpacing second-place Byron, which had 89.
Tre Llanes had 2 firsts and 2 seconds, Clint Kliem doubled in the 1,600 and 3,200, and the Rockets got contributions from throughout the lineup in a dominating victory.
“We don’t have a whole lot of holes,” said Central coach Mike Schmidt. “We scored in just about everything. We do have a couple of elite kids, too, that I think are going to transition to the state meet very well. But to have the second-tier guys step up tonight and get those thirds and fourths and really put this meet out of reach for us was the thing I was hoping to see and we finally saw.”
Kliem echoed that theme.
“This is probably one of our most diverse teams,” he said. “We’ve got our jumpers, out hurdlers, we’ve got sprints and distances. We’ve got the whole mix out there.”
Llanes won the long jump with a leap of 20 feet, 11 ¼ inch. He then won the 110 hurdles, edging teammate Michael Kellenberger by .21 seconds. Kellenberger returned the favor in the 300 hurdles, edging Llanes by ¾ of a second.
“We’re pretty competitive in those two (events),” Llanes said. “I always beat him at the 110s and he always beats me in the 300s. So we’re fighting to get better at both.”
Kliem was the Rockets’ other double winner. He won the 3,200 with a time of 10:03.89, then easily won the 1,600. He came back to anchor the Rockets’ 1,600-meter relay team that took third.
The Rockets’ Mike Gulik was a runaway winner in the 800 meters. His time of 1:59.48 was more than 3 seconds better than the second-place finisher.
Central also got points from Dom Lopiccolo, who was third in shot put, Johnny Reuter (third in pole vault), Dan Morgan, who was third behind Kliem in the 3,200, and Tyler Panariello, who was third in the 400. Kellenberger and Panariello finished third and fourth in the 200.
Hampshire’s lone placement was by Jared Butler, who took sixth in the 1,600.
Elsewhere, Winnebago’s Marcus Posley doubled in the 100 and 200. Byron won the 800 and 3,200 relays. Winnebago won the 400 relay and North Boone finished the evening by winning the 1,600 relay.
The meet was slowed early by a nearly one-hour lightning delay as a strong storm moved through the area. But once the storm passed and the evening stayed pleasant if a bit humid.