Track and field: Geneva girls, SCN boys win VanDeveer crowns
Reilly Day’s feet made key contributions to Geneva winning the girls division of Saturday’s 32nd annual Mike VanDeveer Relays at Burgess Field.
The Vikings tallied 122 points. Burlington Central and St. Charles North tied for second with 78 points.
In addition to taking first place in both the long jump (4.91 meters) and the triple-jump (10.89), Day ran as part of the 4x200 and the 4x400 relay teams. The Vikings won the 4x200 (1:47.17) and came in third in the 4x400.
“My triple jump was my best event,” Day said. “I jump well, and I have fun doing it, and when I have fun, I do my best.”
Geneva won four other relay races: 4x100 (50:94), the sprint medley (800 m — 1:56.60), the distance medley (4000 — 13:11.40) and the 4x100 shuttle hurdles (1:13:78).
“It was nice to get a win on our home track. I think our girls enjoy competing at home in front of friends and family,” Geneva coach Peter Raak said. “Even though they came in second, our 4x800 had a really fast time today — it was close to state qualifying time. Our 4x100 also had a good race time.”
The Vikings also took top honors in two other field events. Sophomore Lexi Weber cleared the bar at 2.89 meters to win the pole vault while teammate Kendall Young’s leap of 1.55, a personal record, took first place in the high jump.
Emilie Anderson led the Rockets with her first-place discus finish (28.93).
“I’m happy with my result today but I have a bigger goal that I want to go for,” said the sophomore. “I want to go to state this year and I think that this was a good starting point for me.”
The North Stars took home first place honors in four races: 100,1600, 4x400 relay (4:08.36) and 4x800 relay (9:39.53). Ava Miedema completed the 100 in 13.39 while teammate Juliana Gonzalez crossed the 1600 finish line with a time of 6:05.70. Junior Tosin Oshin’s toss of 11.17 won the shot put.
Fifth place West Chicago (22) won the 4x100 throwers relay (1:00.93), run by the teams’ discus and shot put competitors.
Boys meet: A deep roster was the key to St. Charles North winning the boys competition.
“Our strength right now is depth. We want to do well everywhere and we accomplished a lot of that today. We were looking good in the distance, looking good in the sprints, and the field events came along pretty well,” said St. Charles North coach Kevin Harrington.
The North Stars tallied 108 points to take top honors. Host Geneva (92) came in second followed by Burlington Central (72).
St. Charles North won five relay races, finished second in two others and captured first place in the pole vault with Nathan McLoughlin clearing the bar at 4.57.
“The 4x400 was just a couple seconds off a state qualifying time and a couple of pole vaulters went over state qualifying,” Harrington said.
The North Stars won the 4x200 (1:31.44), 4x400 (3:28.93, the 4x800 (8:18.14), the distance medley relay (11:03.46) and the 4x100 shuttle hurdles (1:09.66).
“I think a lot of our younger guys like Owen Brown and Noah Wagner stepped up today and our top sprinters performed as expected,” said Robert Messina, who anchored the 4x400. He also ran in the 4x800.
Geneva notched first place honors in the 4x100 (43.28) and the 4x100 throwers relay (51.42) and won two field events. Viking Lex Griffth finished first in the shot put with a throw of 15.54. The sophomore also had a winning toss of 42.29 in the discus.
The Rockets won the sprint medley relay (1:38.65). Nicholas Roskilly of West Chicago (sixth — 11) finished first in the high jump (1.85).