Geneva’s Rogers wins twice
Ben Rogers’ day could not have been scripted better as the Geneva senior sought to sweep the long and triple jump on his home turf.
Rogers was one of only two double winners at the Mike VanDeveer Boys Track and Field Invitational with convincing victories in both events Saturday afternoon in Geneva.
“I don’t think I have ever done it before,” Rogers said of sweeping both events at an invite. “I can’t think of doing it off the top of my head. I broke the school record in the triple jump.”
Rogers claimed the long jump with a leap a half-inch short of 22 feet and came back to double his victory total with a 43-7.5 effort in the triple jump.
Rogers’ twin triumphs were two of the Vikings’ five victories on the day as the squad was second to McHenry for the team title.
Geneva was 35 points (154-119) behind McHenry but managed enough depth in scoring to hold off third-place Burlington Central (106).
Dundee-Crown tied Niles North for fourth, with Larkin, which featured two-time sprint champion Jalen Griffen, sixth and West Chicago seventh.
Peter Archibald was another of the standouts for Geneva under idyllic conditions for a track meet.
The senior was head and shoulders above the competition at 1,600 meters, winning the mile in 4 minutes, 26.18 seconds in impressive fashion.
Archibald broke free from a congested pack, turning the race into a personal mission in the process over the final 600 meters.
“As soon as I hit the gun lap, I wanted to make a big move,” Archibald said. “I couldn’t give up on my home track. I couldn’t let my teammates down.”
Justin Davis’ triumph at 400 meters represented the final Geneva victory on the track.
The junior cruised past top-seeded Larkin junior Cyrus French to become the only athlete to eclipse the 50-second barrier.
“Ever since freshman year I have been working on my starts,” Davis said. “I really liked my start today.”
Davis was also a key cog on the Vikings’ sprint relays.
Sophomore Kyle McNeil snared the final Geneva victory when his 142-foot-plus effort in the discus.
“The kids performed incredible,” Geneva coach Gale Gross said. “We had some great times for this time of the year. You couldn’t have asked for (better weather conditions). The kids responded to it.”
Burlington Central, meanwhile, used the age-old formula of dominance in the four relays to stamp its lasting feature.
The Rockets, who had the lone one-two sweep of the day when Clint Kleim turned back junior classmate Mike Gulik by two one-hundredths of a second at 800 meters, captured the 400, 1,600 and 3,200 quartets.
Gulick was virtually running by himself as he eased to an easy triumph to conclude the final relay at 1,600 meters.
“I was going for a 49 (-second split) but had no one to catch,” Gulik said. “That’s what I like is catching people.”
The senior teamed with Ben Damisch, Ryan Olsen and Kleim to win in 3:27.74.
The Rockets, who also captured the 3,200 relay with little opposition behind Ben Damisch, Ryan Olsen, Kleim and Gulik, had their sprint relays anchored by Parker DeMoss, Damisch, Olsen and Travis Penniarello.
The former helped the Rockets hold off Geneva by three one-hundredths of a second to win the 400 relay.
DeMoss, meanwhile, was also part of the Rockets’ second-place effort against Dundee-Crown in the 800 relay; the senior was also runner-up in the 100 and 200 to Larkin junior Griffin.
“My 100 time was not the best but I’m happy anyway because my legs don’t feel too well,” DeMoss said. “I’m very happy with all these (Class) 3A schools here. I think we’re the only 2A school here.”
Griffin was the unquestioned fastest man in the field with his stunningly wide margins of victory at 100 and 200 meters in respective times of 11.22 and 22.46 seconds.
“I had a great week of practice,” Griffin said. “I trained hard and worked hard to get to this big invite. My starts were really good. I worked on what I have been taught, and it paid off.”
The D-C quartet of Sean Battin, Alex Gray, Brandon Yankowski and Thomas McNally won the 800 relay for the Chargers’ lone triumph.
Battin also placed in both the 100 and 200 dashes for D-C.
“We’re showing signs of improvement,” D-C coach Tom Smith said. “We had some frosh-soph kids who did very well today. We are hoping they can help us on varsity at some point this year. That’s some things we hope to work on.”
The Chargers were without the services of indoor long jump state champion Ardian Asani.
“We would be a lot better (sprint-relay team) if we had Asani,” Battin said. “I thought I could have run a little faster but thought I had a pretty good day overall.”
Trevor Downing was second for D-C in the high jump.
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