metea valley invitational

A week ago, our meet in Illinois was cancelled due to cold weather. Only one week later at the Metea Valley Invitational, the weather was warm with little wind and our team was ready for the outdoor season. The team scores showed as much with our Varsity team winning the meet with 140 points, nearly doubling Plainfield North’s 2nd place score of 73. The young but determined Frosh-Soph squad took 3rd in a relatively close battle with Wheaton-Warrenville South and Plainfield North who took 1st and 2nd respectively.
 
With the field events in full swing and the preliminary sprint events finishing, we began the meet finals with the Frosh-Soph 3200 m. Coach Vandersteen would call this event “The best Frosh-Soph 3200 m in school history” as Danny Winek (So.), Ryan Kennedy (So.) and Zach Kinne (Fr.) all were entered with marks under 10:00. Winek and Kennedy were together at the front for the entire race and finished with a 64 second last 400 m with Winek grabbing the top spot at the line with marks of 9:44.06 and 9:44.22 for the pair. Kinne took 4th with a time of 10:03.38.   
 
Moving into the 4 x 800 m, our Varsity team of Connor Horn (Sr.), Scott Anderson (Jr.), Josh Mollway (Jr.) and Isaiah Robinson (Jr.) put some of our best 3200 m runners with our 800 m runners for a group that ran away from the field early with Horn’s 1:58.4 first leg, leaving the team well out in front for the rest of the race. As Robinson took the baton, the race was really a solo time trial and Robinson pulled in for the win with a 1:57.8 anchor leg.
 
Our sprint crew would now take over for the 4 x 100 m relay. The team of David Alvarado (Fr.), Joe Hanneman (So.), Jordan Matthews (Fr.) and Alex Xiong (So.) took 3rd with a mark of 46.60. Alvarado’s strong opening leg was a sign of things to come, as later in the meet he would win the Frosh-Soph 100 m with a mark of 11.95. Our Varsity team of Myles Gascon (So.), Jacob Sampson (Sr.), Kevin Sager (Sr.) and Chris Muoghalu (Sr.) ran 43.34 for 4th, but was able to better our time from the Arcadia meet.
 
It was back to the distance events for the Varsity 3200 m. Jack Sebok from Plainfield North came in with the best seed time by a large margin but the trio of Patrick Wolak (Sr.), Jackson Jett (Jr.) and Dominic Dina (Sr.) went out with him for the first few laps. As the race progressed, Sebok pulled away from our team until Wolak surged to the front of the chase pack and began to close the gap between himself and Sebok. Wolak’s efforts were enough for a 2nd place finish and a 7 second personal best with a mark of 9:43.02. Jett took 4th with a personal best time of 9:49.93.
 
The 800 m featured a strong field from Neuqua Valley and in the Frosh-Soph race, Tyler Bombacino (So.) took the lead from the gun and never looked back, taking the win in a time of 2:04.38. Alex Johnson (So.) would add to the point total with a personal best time of 2:09.21. The Varsity race featured a group of athletes from all schools that finished in a bunched up pack as they came down the final stretch, but it was a set of strong kicks from Alan Poe (Jr.) and Caleb Ferguson (Sr.) to secure 2nd and 3rd places respectively with marks of 2:02.37 and 2:02.50.
 
The incredibly strong field of the 4 x 200 m featured Plainfield North and Plainfield East, both of which tied for 3rd place at the State Meet last year. After we shuffled the relay around due to some athletes cramping up in the warmer weather, we landed on the lineup from Arcadia and bettered our time by nearly a second. The team of Myles Gascon (So.), Dan Gaynes (Sr.), Ryan Lukas (Sr.) and Chris Muoghalu (Sr.) ran 1:29.50, just .16 seconds from the State Qualifying Mark. This team is presently ranked 8th in 3A. Watching Dan Gaynes run in this race, it was no surprise that he would run 22.60 in the open 200 m to take 4th place out of the slower heat later that day.
 
Neuqua Valley has always had a strong tradition of 400 m runners and this meet showed out depth. With three of our athletes in the Varsity fast heat, our strength in this event was apparent.  However, it was the emerging Joe Hanneman (So.) that started us out with a 54.51 time for 4th place in the in Frosh-Soph race. In the Varsity race, Isaiah Robinson (Jr.) and Kevin Sager (Sr.) went 2-3 with personal best open 400 m marks of 49.50 and 49.57 respectively.  This means that we now have three athletes that have run under 50 seconds in the 400 m.
 
Earlier in the meet, Ryan Dierking secured a personal best in the 110 m High Hurdles but really made his mark in the 300 m Intermediate Hurdles at this meet. Running nearly a second faster than his personal best which was only set last Tuesday, Dierking took 3rd with a strong but smooth race and a mark of 41.44.
 
For our last distance event of the day, Matt Milostan (Jr.) took 3rd place with a 4:32.24 time in the 1600 m. This mark was a personal best for Milostan.
 
Throughout the meet, the field events were racking up point for our team. In the throws, we had a team first with the twins Tom Cwiok and AJ Cwiok taking 1st and 2nd place in both the Shot Put and the Discus. In our team history, this has never happened at an invitational meet. In both events, Tom took 1st but AJ was close behind. In the Shot Put, Tom threw 48’ 8.5” and AJ threw 48’ 2.5”. However, in the Discus, Tom threw 159’ 6”, which is past the State Qualifying Mark for the second meet in a row. AJ continues to throw near the mark as well with a throw of 147’ 3”. In the Frosh-Soph throws, Mark Thigpen (So.) took 4th place in the Discus with a throw of 113’ 9”. In the Pole Vault, Ryan Demas (Jr.) took 4th at the Varsity level with a mark of 10’ 7”.
 
Allowing us to enter three athletes per event at this meet proved to be a huge advantage for us in the Triple Jump where we scored three athletes at the Varsity level. Fikayo Akinbo (Jr.), Nicholas Beatty (Jr.) and Dan Gaynes (Sr.) took 2nd, 4th and 5th respectively with jumps of 42’ 8”, 42’ 4” and 42’ 3”. At the Frosh-Soph level, Mckenzie Mitchell (So.) took the win with a jump of 41’ 10” and Darren Huang (So.) took 3rd with a jump of 40’ 1”. In this meet alone, we had 5 athletes in the triple jump with a mark over 40 feet. In the next weeks to come, these athletes could surpass the State Qualifying Mark.
 
Rounding out the field events, Ife Oketona (So.) won the Frosh-Soph Long Jump with a mark of 20’ 1.5” while Dan Gaynes (Sr.) took 3rd at the Varsity level with mark of 21’ 5.5”. Throughout the day, Gaynes scored in two field events and two relays!

Complete meet results can be found at the website below. 

http://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/MeetResults.aspx?Meet=260336#16547
 
Our next meet is a special one, the Bob Cahoon Invitational at Downers Grove South. This meet will be a Varsity only meet, but we have a tradition of tailgating at this meet. We are hoping to see our entire team at this meet to support the Varsity squad. A parent donation has made it possible for us to provide food and drinks for those that attend. In the past, we have had parents, athletes and alumni come out to support the team. One year, our fans lined up one entire curve of the track! We hope to see you there!