Records fall at Batavia’s Hodge invite

There can’t be anything much sweeter for a Batavia track athlete to yank a meet record away from a Geneva guy.

Batavia’s Sean Tews did so on his first attempt in discus Saturday at the Bulldogs’ own Les Hodge Invitational. He sailed it 157 feet, 8¼ inches to eclipse Frank Boenzi’s 2010 mark of 154-7.

Better still for the respectful Tews, he faced the since-graduated Boenzi on the football field, playing center against Big Frank at defensive tackle.

“Playing football against him I know how big and strong he is,” said Tews, who also edged his teammate and discus mentor, Jake Benner. “Definitely, watching him throw last year was just incredible,” Tews said. “To beat the record, I’m just speechless right now.”

Before becoming speechless, Tews said he’d been throwing in the 140-foot range in practice with Benner around 170. Saturday, Benner topped out at 156-9 — still surpassing 3A state qualifying standards as well as Boenzi’s mark — while Tews went deep by eschewing form.

“I have been kind of working on my spin (technique), but I just kind of went in there and decided that I was going to throw all the technique out and just try to whip it as far as I could, and it worked pretty well,” he said.

Jackson Grimes held up Geneva’s end of the bargain in shot put, winning the event with a final heave of 51-11. Batavia’s Brian Wilson applied pressure at 49-7.

“Just a great day, had a two-foot PR (personal record),” Grimes said. “I was trying to get the spin before I glided that last one, and got my 50 feet.”

As Vikings coach Gale Gross said, Grimes’ glide approach is “darn-near perfect.”

In the nonscoring, multilevel meet at Bulldog Stadium — 81 boys ran the 100-meter dash, for example — individual efforts were the key rather than team points between host Batavia, Geneva, St. Charles North, Burlington Central and East Aurora.

“Every kid in our program got to run,” said Batavia coach Dennis Piron. “When we got on the field (afterward) I go, ‘How many guys had a PR today?’ Every kid on the team basically raised their hand. I had some guys with two or three PRs.”

Tews, and others present, produced meet records.

St. Charles North junior Oshay Hodges set one with his 6-foot-8 high jump, then teamed with freshman Jack Feeney, sophomore Zach Kirby and senior Brandon Baymon on a record-setting 1,600 relay in a time of 3 minutes, 24.65 seconds.

Hodges had a good high jump attempt at 6-10, but grabbed the bar on the way up.

“I was a little nervous,” he said.

No need for nerves in Baymon’s open 400 race. He lit out at the gun and though Geneva’s 200-meter winner Russ Acton closed well, was never in danger with his 49.72-second clocking.

A transfer from Elgin, Baymon didn’t even compete in track last year. He was working part time as a telemarketer. Saturday he ran as if harassed by a telemarketer.

“I take off fast and stride it out the rest of the way,” Baymon said. “Push it all the last 55, push all I have out.”

Another speedster, Batavia’s Emund Kabba, won the 100 dash ahead of Geneva’s Jake Stocker, and led off the Bulldogs’ victorious 800 relay with Troy Tousana, Ben Fornek and the versatile Benner.

Geneva senior Ryan Ahern won the 110 hurdles in a sharp 14.72 seconds, and set a meet record with his time of 39.87 seconds in the 300 hurdles.

“The only problem is two of my biggest competitors, (Geneva’s) Tom Frederick (hamstring) and (Batavia’s) Rob Mohr (oblique), both didn’t run today,” Ahern said. “I was really looking forward to competing, all three of us at the same time. Unfortunately I’ll have to wait a little longer than that.”

No time like the present for Burlington Central’s Clint Kliem. He won the 3,200 then returned to nip St. Charles North’s Billy Clink in the 1,600 on a finish-line lunge.

“This is actually maybe the one and only two-mile I’ll do this year,” Kliem said. “We were just seeing where I am distance-wise for the two-mile to see if I can contend for that at state.”

Kliem’s teammate, Tre Llanas, led off a winning 400 relay, finished second in the 110 hurdles, third in the 300 hurdles behind the Rockets’ own Mike Kellenberger, and triple-jumped a meet-record 45 feet, 1½ inches.

Not a bad invite start for Llanas, third in 2010 2A triple jump.

“I’ve been working on technique all week and trying to reach where I ended last year, with 46 feet,” said Llanes, trying to elongate the second phase of his triple jump. “I got closer, but not there yet.”