Boys Track and Field: Crum, Batavia soar to title at 104th Kane County meet

Alec Crum and Henry Warsaw both tried track for the first time as juniors just a year ago.

They've clearly taken to it.

Crum, from Batavia, qualified for state in the high jump last May, and this spring swept all three jumping events at indoor conference. St. Charles North senior Warsaw, like Crum a football player in the fall, took second at indoor conference in shot put, and has won all but one outdoor meet in both the discus and shot put.

"I think it was just someone telling me, 'You're a football player, go try to throw something far,'" Warsaw said, "and I loved it after the first year. Love the team, love the coach, love the sport."

Both Crum and Warsaw continued their rise in track Friday.

Warsaw swept both throwing events. Crum, meanwhile, won the high jump and triple jump, and took second in the long jump to help lead Batavia to the team championship of the 104th Kane County meet at St. Charles North.

Batavia scored 139 points, beating out St. Charles North (92) with Kaneland (77) third.

Crum, who will run track collegiately at Grand Valley State, got his night started on the right foot. He cleared 6 feet, 6 inches in the high jump, a personal record by one inch. He's come a pretty good way in a relatively short time.

"Last year, first year in track, my PR was 6-2 but it was my only time over 6 feet, usually I was at 5-11," Crum said. "From that my legs got a lot stronger, got in the weight room. That helped me get a lot higher. Every week in practice I just do what I can, work on my knee drive, throwing my arms out. That's one of my biggest problems is I hit my arms on the bar. Once I fix that I'm able to go much higher and get better marks."

Crum went 13.44 meters to win the triple jump, and 6.59 in the long jump to take second behind Aurora Central Catholic's Jake Bianchi.

"Solid performance, except for the long jump, but that's alright, I'll come back in practice and fix it to do better," Crum said.

Warsaw, who will play football collegiately at Minnesota State, took fifth in the shot put at county as a junior, and missed state by five to six feet.

That was then.

On Friday, he won the shot put with an effort of 16.59 meters, and came back to win the discus with a throw of 46.79 meters. It was a good tune-up for conference next week, when Warsaw will go head-to-head with Lake Park's Tyler Michelini, who owns the top shot put and second-best discus throw in the state. Warsaw has the fourth-best shot put distance in the state.

"I felt like it was a good win. I feel like I still have more in the tank," Warsaw said. "I have to get back to work next week and get ready for conference."

Warsaw's growth in track has him thinking he's not done with it after this year.

"I love to do track - it keeps me in a competitive environment," Warsaw said. "I'm even considering it trying it in college."

Batavia got wins on the track from its 4x800 relay team of David Bednarek, Colin Knowles, Adam Miller and Quintin Lowe (8:06.93), and the 4x200 relay team of Eric Perkins, Weston White, Ryan Whitwell and Joe Reid (1:28.97).

Lowe, later, capped it off with perhaps the race of the night.

Lowe came from behind in the final 100 meters to beat out Aurora Central Catholic's Patrick Hilby in a photo finish in the 1,600-meter run, 4:18.70-4:18.84. Hilby shot ahead of the pack at the beginning of the last lap, but Lowe chased him down in the final straightaway.

The two aren't strangers. The Friday before, it was Hilby who beat out Lowe in the 800 at Oswego's Roger Wilcox Invitational.

"He got me there, but I knew I could hang with him," Lowe said. "I knew he had that speed, from the 400 and 800. I had to put myself in position and I did that. I took the lead with 600 meters left, made it to 250 when he passed me. I kept telling myself I got this. I knew I had it in my legs."

St. Charles North's Bryce Thomas swept the 110 hurdles (15.56 seconds) and 300 hurdles (39.40), and later anchored the winning 4x400 relay in 3:25.72 that beat Batavia by one hundredth of a second.

But it was an adventurous night on the track for Thomas, until last year a middle distance runner.

"My second or third hurdle [in the 300] I hit a hurdle and plastic just flew in my face," Thomas said. "I haven't really had a smooth race yet this year. I'm always chopping the first hurdle, so I need to get that down. I just have to wait for that race to get over all of them smooth. I think I have the speed."

Other winners included Dundee-Crown's Henry Kennedy in the 100 (10.81), Burlington Central's Nolan Milas in the 200 (21.86), Hampshire's Bryce Bannerman in the 400 (50.99), Geneva's Jack Kuehl in the 800 (2:00.13), West Aurora's Sean Heetland in the 3,200 (9:37.21), Dundee-Crown's Iyanuoluwa Shonukan, Terrion Spencer, Kali Freeman and Henry Kennedy in the 4x100 relay (42.50) and Kaneland's Brayden Farmer in the pole vault (4.39 meters).