Boys track and field: Marmion's 3,200 shines at Metea Valley
Later on Saturday, the four Marmion teammates were to attend the school's "Salute to Youth" fundraising event one last time.
They warmed up for it in style.
At the Metea Valley Invitational, seniors Jake Coffman, Jake Harron, Keegan Bennett and Keoni English maintained their top seed in the 3,200-meter relay to win the event in 8 minutes, 35.03 seconds.
"It was really cool running with these guys again. We usually don't get to run with Jake, it was really awesome," said Coffman, who came back to place sixth in the 800 with Bennett 10th.
Marmion distance coach Ryan Delahanty said Saturday may have been the last time the four seniors run as a unit.
"It's such a welcoming community, and just to be able to do the workouts every day together, we always sit together at lunch," Bennett said. "We're each other's best friends, so I think it's just pretty cool to be able to run with these guys, because we might not get the chance again."
Marmion's Marshall Foerner reached the finals in both discus and shot put; Quinn Rollins nearly equaled his season-best in triple jump in a fourth-place finish at 40 feet, 8 inches.
Saturday was chilly and breezy. Friday night was worse. At Naperville North's coed Gus Scott Invitational, St. Charles East sophomore Alice Abbott took the brunt of it. She's used to things like the 25-mph winds that peaked early in the meet.
"I'm mainly a distance runner," said Abbott, ninth-place in Class 3A cross country last fall and a returning 1,600 and 3,200 qualifier in track.
She benefitted where she could to win by a vast margin, clocking a time of 10 minutes, 53.53 seconds.
"Today going out in the wind I was a little nervous, but there were points on the track where I could use the wind," she said. "When I went into the wind I just pumped my arms and really pushed it."
Other than senior Mikayla Weber's pole vault victory, youth served the Saints. Sophomore Makenna Brown won long jump while freshmen Victoria Kortan and Katherine Kempff took the 100 dash and triple jump, respectively. Kempff earned a personal-best mark of 34 feet, 11½ inches.
Following Abbott in the girls 3,200 was Jacobs' Zach Albrecht in the boys' 3,200. The Bradley recruit blasted the field to win in 9:34.74, the second-best time in school history behind Olympian Evan Jager, who went 8:44.64 at the 2007 Nike Nationals.
"Being behind him is pretty good," said Albrecht, who later sprinted down the stretch to earn the Golden Eagles second place in the 1,600 relay.
Jacobs distance coach Kevin Christian said it was only Albrecht's second 3,200; he's a 1,600 specialist.
"Not bad for a kid who doesn't do it," Christian said.
Jacobs' Jacob Mobeck, Nick Agenlian, Josh Hill and Connor Frank won the 800 relay, with Frank doubling back to win the 200. Tommy Subaric dominated the 110 and 300 hurdles, winning in 15.30 seconds and 40.77, respectively.
On the girls' side, Jacobs' Nadia Baraglia won the 200 dash and in the three-level meet Kyra Cabusao, Alyssa Blaha and Amanda Schaffer each won in shot put at A, B and C levels. Cary-Grove sophomore Kelly Fletcher won the A discus at 106-8 and Allison Drage dropped her 1,600 time for the second time in as many weeks.