Cary-Grove 2nd, Huntley 3rd at Belvidere North
BELVIDERE — Cary-Grove and Huntley renewed their rivalry at the sectional, but both Fox Valley Conference squads wound up chasing Hononegah.
After finishing 1-2 at Monday’s FVC meet, the Trojans and Red Raiders turned in strong performances again at the Class 3A Belvidere North sectional Thursday night, but neither squad could catch the Indians, who took first with 85 points.
Cary-Grove finished second with 75 while Huntley was third with 59.
Cary-Grove used its strength in the field events to keep pace. The Trojans’ Nikki Freeman and Olivia Roehri finished 2-3 in the discus behind Grant’s Melissa Dunham, who also won the shot put.
Joslyn Nicholson finished second in the triple jump, as did Faith Furio in the long jump. Erika Sternard finished third in the high jump.
On the track, the Trojans’ 800-meter relay team of Furio, Eva Burk, Lauren Schoepke and Morgan Schulz qualified for state with a second-place finish behind Hononegah.
Individually, Cary-Grove took third and fourth in the 3,200 meters with Talia Duzey and Gretchen Price, and Furio grabbed third in the 200 meters.
Huntley took advantage of Macy Tramblay’s win in the 100 hurdles (15.18), a runner-up finish by Antonia Moore in the 400 and a second-place by Omo Tseumah in the high jump.
Jacobs finished fourth overall with 43 points, with Lauren Van Vlierbergen winning the 1,600 after finishing second to Hononegah’s Courtney Clayton in the 800.
“I was hoping to stay with Courtney Clayton in the 800, so I was still good with a second-place finish,” said Van Vlierbergen.
In the 1,600, run in a steady rain, she ran even with McHenry’s Lauren Opatrny for the first lap or so, but steadily pulled away to a clear victory.
“I was just hoping to get the qualifying time,” Van Vlierbergen said. “It was really pouring.”
Cary-Grove was not at full strength after Schulz caught the flu Monday night after the conference meet. She was scratched from the 200-meter preliminaries, then ran in the 800-meter relay, but scratched from the low hurdles.
“I feel like this was within our reach and we’re pretty happy that we’re within 10 points missing a great kid like Morgan,” said Trojans’ coach Mark Anderson. “But hey, we’ve been lucky for 4 years. Second on an off night, that’s great.”
Grant, paced by Dunham’s shot-discus double, finished with 37 points.
Crystal Lake South, paced by its 3,200-meter relay team of Laura Biederwolf, Jessica Stumpner, Brandy Minogue and Gaby Garay, finished with 20 points. The 4-by-8 relay team took third behind Jacobs and Hononegah.