Burlington Central, D-C shine at Petersen Prep
Burlington Central and Dundee-Crown displayed hurdles prowess present and future at Saturday's Peterson Prep Invitational boys track meet.
Burlington Central's Dan Hagberg, a returning state qualifier in both the 110- and 300-meter hurdles, won both those events Saturday at Kaneland High School.
He was joined by teammate Tim Colby, a fifth-place finisher in both, as well as Dundee-Crown's duo of Aaron Reams and Tyler Jones in the 110 hurdles, and by Jones in the longer race.
Reams, a junior, acknowledged that Hagberg is a motivating factor.
"I just want to push myself to get better and get closer to him, because I know he won't be here next year. I don't know, maybe I might be the top dog," said Reams, also fourth in triple jump.
"I see him do good form when I'm not running, and run fast. I try to basically do what he does."
And that, as Reams said, is maintain perfect form.
The Rockets' senior, who "clipped a couple hurdles" in the 2007 Class AA preliminaries and failed to make the finals, was picture-perfect in the 110's, which he won in 15.16 seconds.
Hagberg, of course, sees room for improvement.
"Definitely I've got to cut off the stuttering in between the hurdles," said Hagberg, who also led off a fifth-place 1,600 relay.
"I've got to stride out. In the 110's, I've just got to keep digging, just go as fast as I can."
The Rockets got a good combo in pole vault with respective third- and fifth-place finishes by Joe Manzie and Paco Wleklinski at 12 feet.
Burlington Central's Ryan Phebus ran in one of the day's most exciting events. He placed second in the 1,600 with a fast 4:20.27, behind a meet-record 4:17.04 by Andrew Nelson of Geneva, which won the meet with 109 points.
West Aurora was second with 82 points, Dundee-Crown third (53) and Burlington Central (48) tied with Sycamore for fourth.
"We had a lot of great performances by a lot of people," said Dundee-Crown coach Tom Smith.
Anthony Manfrin and Connor Kustiev went 3-4 in the 1,600; Paul Smith was fourth in the 3,200; Matt Cutinello, third in long jump; and Dan Magnant, Nathan Prom, Jon Magnant and Kustiev won the 3,200 relay.
Elgin's Adam Kuforiji and Chase Riddle placed 2-4 in the 400, part of a retooling effort by Maroons coach Adam Freed.
A devotee of former Maroons two-time all-stater Yosef Tewolde, Kuforiji completed the race in 50.28 seconds and said: "Yeah, this year is definitely a building experience. Eight of our 17 top scorers are coming back next year, and we're just looking for a better year next year."