Boys track and field: West Aurora ends Batavia’s win streak at Kane County Meet
After a 13-year drought, the Kane County Meet’s first-place plaque is heading home with West Aurora.
The Blackhawks secured five event wins Friday night en route to 113 points and a first-place finish at the Kane County Meet for the first time since 2011.
This is the 21st time West Aurora has won the state’s longest-running meet, which is the second most titles that a school has in the meet’s 105-year history. East Aurora has the most with 23 team wins.
West Aurora coach Courtney Lamb said that getting the win in one of his favorite meets is a great feeling.
“To win this meet, you’ve got to have a really great team, and our guys came to compete tonight,” Lamb said. “They were there for each other and really competed well throughout the night.”
The Blackhawks were led by sprinters Azuriah Sylvester and Sere Iranloye. The duo combined for 50 points on the night, including a 1-2 finish in the 110-meter hurdles, with Sylvester outleaning Iranloye at the line to win in 15.28 seconds, just .01 ahead of his teammate.
“Those two have a good, friendly rivalry. They’re kind of like stepbrothers,” Lamb said. “But it’s great, because they push each other. And they’re here to work everyday, and they put in the time, and I’m very glad to see them rewarded for it.”
The win brought an end to Batavia’s three-year win streak. The Bulldogs managed a second-place finish on the night with 85 points. Still, Batavia coach Dennis Piron couldn’t have been more happy for the outcome.
“Coach Lamb is a wonderful person and outstanding coach, and I couldn’t be happier for his program,” Piron said. “We knew that West Aurora was going to be tough to beat, but very proud to get second place at such a great meet. And I’m just happy for our kids.”
The Bulldogs only managed one win on the night — with Gavin Pecor securing the gold in the shot put after throwing it 52 feet, 1.75 inches — but managed to score in all but four events. Piron said the team’s performance was a good sign of the progress made throughout the season.
“All year long, it seems like we’ve had something that wasn’t quite right, like where a guy couldn’t run or something we had to change. But I think we’re starting to build towards conferences and sectionals right now,” Piron said. “We’ve said all year long that we’re going to be a dangerous team at the end of the year, and I think we’re getting there.”
St. Charles North came in just behind the Bulldogs with 84 points. The North Stars had two wins on the night, with Ayodele Bateye winning the 100 in 10.84 and Nathan McLoughlin winning the pole vault with a jump of 15-2.
Despite the third-place finish, North coach Kevin Harrington said he knows his guys could have done better.
“We had a lot of PRs today, and a lot of kids put in a lot of effort, but we left at least 15 points on the track and on the field,” Harrington said. “So we have some things that we need to work on over these next couple of weeks.”
North held a one-point lead over Batavia heading into the 4x400, but a last-second pass from Kaneland caused the team to drop to third place. With the DuKane Conference Meet coming up next Friday, Harrington said being that close gives him confidence heading into the meet.
Kaneland, which wore orange jerseys, finished just off the podium after coming in fourth with 58 points. It was the first time the Knights finished outside of the top three since 2019, when they also finished fourth. David Valkanov had the team’s lone gold medal of the night after winning the 1,600 in 4:23.64.
Dundee-Crown came out of the meet with a tie for fifth place with 61.5 points. The Chargers had four wins on the night, with the 4x100 team of Torrion Bell, Terrion Spencer, Kali Freeman and Oreoluwa Sobodu being the standout after securing the meet record by .03 seconds with a time of 42.46. Bell, Spencer and Sobodu, along with Jeremiah Stewart, would also get the win in the 4x200 relay in 1:29.22, while Freeman would get his second win in the 400 in 50.14. Kyle Brents won the long jump with a leap of 22 feet, 2.5 inches.
St. Charles East finished on the other side of the tie for fifth with 61.5 points thanks to its distance crew, which scored 34 of its 61.5 points. Jed Wilson had the only win for the Saints after crossing the line in 9:17.95 to win the 3,200.
Geneva placed seventh on the night with 54 points. The Vikings’ best finish was second place, which came from Jackson Avery in the 300 hurdles after coming in at 40.75 and Warren Cooper who jumped 14-2 in the pole vault.
Aurora Central Catholic’s Parker Hillby had the other meet record-breaking performance on the night. The nation’s leading 800 runner ran the race practically by himself, as he came across the line in 1:49.81 to break the record by nearly three seconds. The Chargers finished in eighth with 41.5 points.
In coach Mike Schmidt’s final Kane County Meet, Burlington Central finished ninth with 38 points. The Rockets’ best finish didn’t come until the final race of the meet, with the 4x400 team finishing second in 3:28.16.
Marmion Academy finished the night in 12th with 17.5 points. The 4x800 relay team secured one of two third-place finishes on the night for the Cadets after crossing the line third in 8:08.47. Ryan Anderson had the other in pole vault, where he finished tied for third with East’s Evan Lagana with a leap of 13-8.