St. Peter opens outdoor track season, high jump record falls

The St. Peter Rocket track and field team may be small but they competed in a big way at their first Aurora Conference Track and Field meet at Mooseheart April 16. Highlighted by success in the high jump, the team's student-athletes placed first in 15 individual and relay events over the course of the meet.

Seventh-grader Mary Tork started off the morning with a high jump performance for the record books. She left the second-place girls competitor behind at 4 feet 0 inches and just kept on going, beating most of the boys in the process.

Eclipsing the four year old school record by 3 inches, Tork won the event with a personal best jump of 4 feet 10 inches. It was truly an elite level jump for a 13-year-old.

Jumping alongside her was eighth-grader Nick Binot who tied the boys high jump school record of 5 feet 0 inches which earned him a third-place finish in the event.

Overall the team placed third behind the larger teams fielded by first place St. Rita of Aurora and second place Holy Cross of Batavia. Finishing behind St. Peter were St. Mary of DeKalb in fourth and Immanuel Lutheran of Batavia in fifth.

Also noteworthy were running performances by seventh-graders Josh Caceres and Eric Ford as well as eighth-graders Nick Binot and Aaron Beck. Caceres placed second in the 200-meter dash with an impressive time of 27.37 seconds while Ford placed third in the 100 clocking in at 13.43 seconds. Ford also won long jump in his first track competition with a jump of 15 feet 0.75 inches. Nick Binot won the eighth-grade 200-meter with a time of 26.76. It was a special day for eighth-grader Aaron Beck as he achieved his first career win in the 1,600-meter run with a time of 5:47.88, a personal best for him.

St. Peter will be competing this Saturday at Marmion Academy in more Aurora Conference Track and Field action. St. Peter is a Catholic grade school in Geneva for children from preschool through eighth grade.