WW South wins DVC title
Wheaton Warrenville South’s Collin Fedor could testify to the emotion of running with the DuPage Valley Conference boys track and field championship on the line.
Pacing himself the first half of his 1,600-meter run at Naperville Central’s nicely redesigned complex, Fedor heard Tigers coach Ken Helberg yammering to pick it up. A few hundred meters later distance coach Chris Kunz was yelling at him to get going.
“I knew I had the confidence to outkick it, so with the support of my coaches I just knew I could go all out, guts out,” said Fedor, whose victory captured the traveling Gil Dodds Trophy and gave WW South more precious points.
Confidence gained with last week’s DuPage County meet title merged with the right amount of tension for the Tigers, who on Friday repeated as DVC champion and kept the title in Wheaton a 21st straight year.
“We were confident but nervous,” Fedor said. “When you mix those two together, along with the training that we’ve been doing, it’s just a recipe for success, I think.”
WW South tallied 148 points, ahead of Wheaton North (124) and West Aurora (119.50). Up-and-coming Naperville Central finished fourth with 49.50 points.
“We talked to the kids last night about having fun, enjoying the moment,” Helberg said. “Tonight’s not necessarily about times, it’s more about where you finish and the place, kind of knowing where you’re at in your race or in your field event.”
That often was near the top. Charlie Pinedo and Titus Davis went 1-3 in the 100 dash and 1-2 in the 200 — Pinedo yelling, “That’s how we do it!” as they crossed the line — and joined Andrew Dabisch and Dan Vitale in a winning 800 relay.
Davis and Pinedo reversed the order in long jump, Davis’ distance of 23 feet, 5 inches breaking a 28-year-old meet record.
The Tigers, who also scored big with Max Heyden, Alec Brazeau, Brian Welker and Phabian Clark, began the track events with a 3,200 relay win and ended it the same in their trademark 1,600 relay of Dan Franke, Clark, Heyden and Dabisch.
The one relay the Tigers didn’t claim was the 400, taken by Wheaton North’s all-sophomore lineup of Mikey Sammer, Marcus Charles, Patrick Sharp and Zach Gordon.
“I’m real proud of those guys,” said Falcons coach Don Helberg, Ken’s kid brother. He may be proud for years to come. With those four plus sophomore Paul Steeno running varsity, the Falcons’ sophomores still won that level by 100 points.
At the same time a Wheaton North veteran righted his ship. State-qualifying thrower Rafe Kiely has had a rocky spring and didn’t nail his discus Friday, but he saw absolute retribution by claiming the shot put title.
“You’ve got to separate yourself from the past,” said the Wyoming football recruit. “Even though I had a subpar performance in discus I knew that I wasn’t about to let it carry over and affect me in shot, too.”
High jump competition was tight. Wheaton North’s Kyle Ester was locked in a duel with West Chicago’s Jeff Foreman. Ester won it with one less miss, at 6-3.
Glenbard East’s Mike Fahey had West Chicago’s Gunnar Sterne and Wheaton North’s Caleb Philbrick right where he wanted them in the 800 — trailing by 7 meters much of the race. With 150 left he kicked it, past even the speedy Sterne, to win in a personal-best 1 minute, 56.24 seconds. That made up for last year’s ninth-place finish.
“I wanted to redeem myself this year for sure,” said Fahey, joined in the Rams’ winner’s circle by triple jumper Javonte Burnett.
Redemption was the case for Naperville North’s Antonio Owens. The senior’s repeatedly said he’s wanted to get back to where he was last year.
Owens did. The Huskie ran down two Tigers and a Falcon to successfully defend his 2010 DVC 400-meter title with a new PR of 49.37 seconds.
“Going into this one I was a little bit more relaxed and just was going to enjoy the run and see what happens. I came out on top,” Owens said.
West Aurora went 1-2 in discus with Alex Chollet and Elawrence Langston, and George Malina bested WW South’s Brazeau and Naperville North’s Nick Lyon in pole vault.
The Blackhawks’ Marcus Waller got West Chicago’s Foreman on a lean at the wire in the 110 hurdles, by .02 seconds. Then he and teammate Patrick Schultz went 1-2 in the 300 hurdles.
“That was our plan, too,” Waller said. “Me and Patrick wanted to go 1-2. This has been our plan the whole season. He’s been pushing, I’ve been pushing.”
Naperville Central’s Hayden Daniels, second in triple jump, is one of few seniors on the Redhawks, who tripled last year’s score and halved their eighth-place finish of 2010 behind the likes of Brad Kouchoukos and David Storino.
As he did nearly two months ago at the DVC indoor meet, Glenbard North’s Kyle Flores took first in the 3,200-meter run over Wheaton North’s Jason Dowell. Flores had a healthy enough margin to coast at the end. Respect for his competitors, and his race plan, didn’t allow for that.
“That’s my No. 1 rule, don’t look back,” Flores said. “Just keep pushing forward.”