Boys track and field: Warren races to NSC crown
Warren had enough speed and depth to bring home the North Suburban Conference boys track and field title Thursday in Mundelein.
Warren had six winners to post a score of 123. The Blue Devils finished ahead of Zion-Benton, which was second with a 113. Lake Zurich was third with a 111, followed by Stevenson's 71.5 and Mundelein's 54.5.
"They gave us everything we could handle tonight," said Warren coach Josh Williams, whose team was second in the state in Class 3A last year.
"Our guys stepped up in certain spots and knew what they had to accomplish and they did it."
Caleb Levy set the tone for the Blue Devils. The senior set a conference record in the 800 with a time of 1:53.57.
"It felt real good," said Levy, who committed to run at Iowa last week.
"I went into this race knowing that the most import thing was my time at the 600 split. Whatever I closed in, I closed in. I know I can be even stronger in the coming weeks."
Jaden Turner won the long jump in 6.54 meters. He was also second in the 100 behind Zion-Benton's Turin Stewart.
The relays were especially good for the Blue Devils, winning three of them.
Warren won the 4x100 relay in 42.66 with Jalen Duffie, Nate Foster, Cassius Callahan and Turner beating Mundelein. They won the 4x200 by nearly two seconds with Alex Asare, Foster, Callahan and Duffie posting a time of 1:30.25. The team of Lim, Foster Ryan Mose and Levy won the 4x400 in 3:25.80.
Aidan Porreca gave the Blue Devils some extra field points. The junior won the discuss with a throw of 47.57 meters to edge Stevenson's Ethan Aghakhan whose throw went 47.45 meters.
Stevenson was led by Marcus Caselberry, who won the 110 high hurdles in 15.09. Caselberry then came back later in the meet to win the 300 hurdles in 40.68.
"It feels great," said Caselberry, who will run at North Central next year.
"It takes a lot of hard work and I am tired now, but definitely worth it. I want to be ready for next week and sectionals. It doesn't matter what you do all season. I'll put it all into sectionals."
The Patriots also got a winning performance from Randy Clay who won the high jump in 1.91 meters.
Lake Zurich won the 4x800 in 8:25.50. The team of Campbell Stawarz, Aidan Knappstein, Max Kotelnikov and Chase Barth finished better than six seconds ahead of Warren, which was second.
The Bears also got a strong performance from Braden Eckman. He won the 3,200 in 9:53.37 to finish nearly four seconds in front of Stevenson's Dylan Zimmerman.
Lake Zurich finished first and second in the 1,600. Dylan Meyers was first in 4:24.87 while teammate Cole Boudreault was second in 4:24.99.
Lake Zurich coach Todd Anderson, who is in his first year as head coach, was pleased with his team's performance.
"It was a solid finish," Anderson said. "I am super excited about it. Both frosh-soph and varsity did real well. That is a great first year for me."