Sabres have big night at sectional

Streamwood senior David Shaw did not run in the 400-meter dash at the Upstate Eight Conference boys track meet last week because of pulled left hamstring.

Shaw and Sabres coach Weert Goldenstein decided advancing to the state meet was more important than risking further injury.

The decision paid off Friday night as Shaw won the 400 title at Class AA Streamwood sectional with a time of 49.31 seconds to advance to the state meet.

"Coming into the season I said I wanted this (going to state)," Shaw said. "It's been in my mind the whole season."

Shaw, who said the hamstring feels good now, beat his seed time by more than half a second and beat Geneva's Joe Augustine by .15.

"It was kind of a hard decision to make," Goldenstein said of keeping Shaw out at the conference meet. "He knew he could definitely be all-conference, but our goal was state."

Shaw will have company at Eastern Illinois University next week. Senior Kyle Holder won the 200 in a time of 21.90 seconds to advance to his first state meet. He beat Keenen Sellers of St. Charles East by .10 seconds. Shaw, trying to qualify in a second event, finished sixth in 22.60, missing the state qualifying time by .60.

Streamwood's Neal Klein, also a senior, moved on to state by finishing second in the 3,200 run with a time of 9:29.30.

"It feels good making it downstate in my last year," Holder said. "I almost made it last year. I had to work on some stuff to get better. It's just a real good feeling."

The Sabres finished seventh as a team with 35 points. Wheaton North claimed the team title with 99 points, followed by Geneva with 62. Burlington Central was the highest area finisher, taking fourth with 45.5.

Central senior Dan Hagberg won two individual titles and helped the Rockets advance in the 4x400 relay.

Hagberg won the 110 high hurdles in 14.10 seconds and the 300 hurdles in 39.41.

Central finished fifth in the meet's final event, but beat the qualifying time to advance. Mitch Plum, Kyle Haselton, Ryan Phebus and Hagberg ran the relay in 3:24.17, beating the cutoff by .07.

"To get a relay downstate that is an accomplishment," Hagberg said. "You get a whole bunch of guys, all your friends go down. That makes state a lot of fun."

Phebus also qualified in the 800, finishing third in 1:54.83.

It will be the first time Phebus competes in an individual event at state.

Bartlett's Dan Karys won the long jump title with a jump of 22 feet, 1 1/2 inches.

The junior also moved on in the triple jump, taking second in 42-8 1/2. Karys, who won the both events at the UEC meet, will be making his second appearance at state in the long jump. He was disappointed with his performance last year when he failed to make it out of the preliminaries.

"I'd love to medal in the long jump," Karys said of his state goals. "It's pretty much going down there and executing."

At Genoa-Kingston: After missing state time by a tenth of a second last season, the St. Edward boys 400 relay team had something to prove.

Seniors Matt Ardiente, Eric Guerrero and Nick Kerger along with sophomore Nick Kerger entered Friday night's Class A Genoa-Kingston sectional more than prepared.

Hard work season-through not only earned the foursome a state berth, but the team also set both a school and meet record coming in at 43.4.

The previous record at St. Edward was 43.9

"The guys had really been focusing on that 400 relay after coming so close last year," said St. Edward assistant coach Sean Collins. "Our three seniors were hungry to get to state, and they knew this was a last-chance."

The Green Wave look forward to the return of Kerger as well as Shane Finnane, who finished fifth in the shot put this year as a sophomore.

Individually, St. Edward will also see Guerrero compete at state in the 100-meter dash after completing his sectional run with a time of 11.0.

"Eric really performed well," said Collins. "Overall, we were pleased with everybody's efforts."

It was a big night for Hampshire standout Quinn Walker as well as he earned a bid to state winning both the 110 high hurdles and the 300 intermediate hurdles.

Walker collected times of 14.5 and 39.4 respectively to advance to next weekend's state competition at O'Brien Stadium in Charleston.

Walker will be joined by Whip-Pur members of the 400-meter relay team, which also qualified with a time of 43.9.

At Palatine: Dundee-Crown's Matt Cutinello was a two-event state qualifier out of the Palatine sectional. Cutinello finished fifth in the long jump (22-4) and fourth in the triple jump (45-6). The Chargers also qualified freshman Anthony Manfrin in the 1,600, finishing fourth in 4:22.3. D-C's 3,200 relay team of Nathan Prom, Dan Magnant, John Magnant and Manfrin raced to a season-best 8:01.1 to earn the trip to state.

At Grayslake Central: Cary-Grove qualified for state Ryan Psenka in the discus (156-.02), Dan Bartz (39.14) and Dan McCall (39.41) in the 300 hurdles, and Philip Fairleigh in the 3,200.

All bested the state-qualifying marks.

The sophomore Fairleigh was second in the 3,200 in 9:30.54. He enjoyed the lead at one point, but his game plan was to chase someone early, and that never materialized.

"It's always easier to be chasing somebody," Fairleigh said.

"I wanted to get into the fast heat at state but everyone refused to lead so I had to go out and push it. That's the only thing I could do."

-- Joe Aguilar