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Walker adds to Kaneland's pole vault tradition

Danny Walker's Class 2A pole vault title last weekend at the boys track and field state finals proved again the value of friendly competition and positive reinforcement in the sport.

Similar to the Lake Park throwers, Kaneland pole vault is a machine. When Walker qualified downstate it meant that for a 33rd straight year Kaneland has advanced a pole vaulter to the state championship.

Knights coach Andy Drendel worked with four Kaneland vaulters this season who cleared at least 13 feet: Walker, a sophomore whose winning height was 14 feet, 9 inches; junior Mike Rinella, who got up to 14-6 this season; and 13-footers Mitch Groen and Jarred Matthys, both juniors.

"We all kind of just help each other, push each other," Walker said after he'd won in Charleston, surrounded by his vaulter teammates.

"We're all friends and we all hope the best for each other, to be honest," he said. "It's never thinking down of each other, it's always trying to lift each other up when we are down. It's a nice camaraderie. I like our team."

Another streak:

Aurora Central Catholic also has a streak of qualifiers, though not quite as pronounced as Kaneland's pole vault streak. Considering Aurora Central Catholic typically gets lumped in at sectional with larger public schools, it's impressive nonetheless.

When Joey Perez, Matt Mendoza, A.J. Zajac and Daniel Aquino reached Charleston in the 1,600-meter relay it marked the 22nd straight year Chargers coach Troy Kerber landed a boys state qualifier.

Young and brave:

Kaneland's Matt Richtman was the sole freshman qualifier in the Class 2A 1,600. He said there was a bit of intimidation involved but that dissolved once on the blue track of O'Brien Stadium.

"It really doesn't play a factor because all I have to do is go out there and run my race," Richtman said.

He finished sixth in his heat. Running a time of 4 minutes, 34.21 seconds, only four other athletes who didn't make the finals ran faster times than he did.

Richtman bounced from being in the latter third of his heat after 400 meters (1:06) to shuttling up to third after 800 (1:07) to falling back into seventh after 1,200 meters (1:09) to finishing middle of the pack after 1,600 (1:12).

"It's very good to be here. I couldn't be happier," he said after it was over.

"I wanted to come out front, which I did on the second lap. After that the wind kind of got to me, and it's just really humid out here. I just fell short."

Drafted:

An injury and a coach's decision led to St. Charles East running three sophomores along with senior Hunter Klose in the preliminaries of the 1,600 relay.

Sophomore J.B. Sandlund had been part of the relay along with Klose, but after Joe Komlanc strained a hamstring in the 400 and fellow senior Devon Kelly pulled out of the relay, in came sophomores Marty Mattes and Luke Perry.

This is what alternates are for.

"Eventually they just decided that they were going to pull (Kelly) out and give us a chance to run, just let us kind of get an experience here," Mattes said.

Klose, a soccer convert, was happy just to be out there, though the Saints did not reach the finals.

"I think it's a great group of guys," Klose said. "Being new to running like I am - I've been running a year and a half - I've learned a lot. Running has easily become one of my favorite sports really fast. I love my team and everything about the sport."

His high school experience ended at its pinnacle, the state championships.

"It's great to be here, I've had a great time with great teammates and I'm sad to leave them," Klose said. "Go out on a good note."

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