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Double win from Belle helps Neuqua Valley win team title in Clash at the Coliseum

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D117 Clash at the Coliseum   Feb 26th 2023, 6:00pm
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Double win from Belle helps Neuqua Valley win team title in Clash at the Coliseum

 

Viger, Bandukwala in spotlight with distance wins

 

Photo: Austin Belle on his way to the first of two wins Saturday at Lakes HS (Tony Holler Photo Credit)

 

By Michael Newman

 

Lake Villa, Ill – Neuqua Valley showed why they are one of the teams to watch for in Class 3A this spring. This year’s first big meet of the year with some of the top Boys team in the state provided some great performances in the 15 event meet.

 

Neuqua Valley dominated the team portion of the meet scoring 87 points for the team win. Plainfield South showed their team power and depth scoring 58 points to finish second. Homewood-Flossmoor (43.5 points), Edwardsville (40 points), and Grayslake Central (39.5 points) rounded out the top five.

 

RESULTS | TEAM SCORESMEET VIDEOS

 

The Wildcats scored in 11 of 15 events to secure the win with three individual event titles a portion of it. Austin Belle of Neuqua Valley early in the season has developed into one of the top short distance sprinters in the state. The senior qualified for the state meet last year in the 400 Meter Dash.

 

The 60 Meter Dash was one of the anticipated events in this meet with the top two sprinters in the state Belle and John Gore of Homewood-Flossmoor who entered the meet with the state’s fastest time at 6.91 seconds. Belle got a great start in the final section of the event exploding out of the blocks. Gore also had a great start, but the start from Belle gave him the advantage. Five hundredth of a second separated the two runners with Belle recording the state’s second fastest time (6.90) just ahead of the 6.95 run by Gore. Henry Kennedy of Dundee Crown ran 7.02 to finish second.

 

Belle came off the curve in the final 50-meters of the ninth section of the 200 Meter Dash behind Brian Stanton of Plainfield South. Belle passed Stanton in the final 15 meters to take home his second win of the meet (22.68) just ahead of Stanton.

 

James Ammenhauser was the third winner from Neuqua Valley in this meet with his second of three jumps in the Long Jump his best. Ammenhauser stood in second place in the second round with Kellen Brnfre of Edwardsville unleashing a 22-5.75 effort to take the lead in the first round. Ammenhauser replied with a 22-6.25 to take the lead for good and winning in the process.

 

The Triple Jump produced some great marks with three athletes going past 44-feet in their three jumps. Kaiden Miller of Grayslake Central never trailed in the event with a 44-7.50 in the first round to take the lead. Miller jumped 44-11.75 in his second jump to capture the win. Ammenhauser fouled on his first attempt. He still had a good series jumping 44-5.5 in the second round and his best of 44-6 on his final jump to take second place. Vince Davero of Downers Grove North had all three of his attempts going past 44-feet. He jumped 44-2 in his second attempt to finish third.

 

Some Dynamite Distance Races

If you looked at the heat sheets in the distance events and saw the teams that were in this meet, you had a clue that all four events would be dynamite. The top two teams from last fall’s IHSA State Cross Country Meet Plainfield South and Hinsdale Central. Both teams spread their runners in different events. Both schools did not load their quartet’s in the 4x800m Relay. We will see both at full strength at the DGS Mustang Relays on March 6.

 

The race that was talent loaded was the 3200 Meter Run. That event did not disappoint. An indication of excitement came from the first of two sections of the event. Josiah Narayanan of Wheaton-Warrenville South came from four seconds behind in the final lap to catch teammate Lucas Yonker just before the finish line to win that race. His time of 9:49.73, a personal best, would give him 16th place overall when the two sections were combined. Yonker was just a tenth of a second behind his teammate (9:49.83) to finish second in the section and 17th overall.

 

The first section set the tone for what was a great featured race. Oliver Burns of Plainfield North pushed the pace in the first six laps of the race with Camyn Viger of Plainfield South and teammate BJ Sorg close behind. Zac Close of Neuqua Valley, Quintin Lowe of Batavia, and Trey Sato of Grayslake Central moved to within the three lead runners between 800-meters and 1200-meters as the pace started to pick up.

 

The group passed 1600-meters in 4:41.2. The strides from the runners showed that we would be going into negative split territory in the final eight laps.

 

Close decided to ramp the pace up in the ninth lap with Viger right on his side. The fifth 400 of the race passed in 5:51, another 70 second quarter, as Close made another surge to try to break the pack. He did with his second surge with Viger refusing to break.

 

Lowe and Sorg got closer to the front with 800-meters left in the race. It was another 70 second 400 as Close made another surge at 7:01 into the race. Viger was still in touch. Close continued to pick up the pace as they started to lap other runners in the race. Two laps to go with the two runners at 8:09: a 68 second lap. It was definitely going under 9:20, but how far under?

 

Viger finally gained an advantage in the race taking the lead with 300-meters to go. He started to gain ground on Close with the Neuqua junior failing to go away. The bell sounded and Viger took off in the final 200-meters. He ran a 30-second final lap, 64 seconds for the final 400-meters to cross the line in a 9:13.23 personal best. Close was a little over a second behind but still a 9:14.60 personal best.

 

Five runners were under 9:20 in this race. Lowe dropped his personal best down to 9:19.12 to finish third. Sorg (9:19.75) and Sato (9:19.77) came in together finishing fourth and fifth.

 

Two more runners came across the line under 9:30 with Evan Nosek of Kaneland running 9:26.59 to finish sixth and Will Kozlowski of Lane Tech running 9:29.47 to finish seventh. 12 runners were under 9:40. Amazing considering this is the first major indoor meet in the season for Illinois runners.

 

Aden Bandukwala of Hinsdale Central took the drama out of the 800 Meter Run early in the final section of the race. Caleb Levy of Warren, who finished third in last year’s state finals, and Gavin Borger of Plainfield South took the pace out in 28.1 for the first lap. Bandukwala was content to stay within a second of the lead.

 

The Hinsdale Central state cross-country champion struck from the back taking the lead passing 400-meters in 57.8. The rest was history as he pulled away from the pack. He went past 600-meters at 1:27.0 on his way to running 1:56.00 (IL #3) to win the race. Eight runners were under two-minutes in the final section with the next seven runners were within a second of each other. Theodore Cunningham of Fremd led that pack (1:58.44) followed by Ryan Eddington of Downers Grove North (1:58.61), Levy (1:58.64), and Borger (1:58.81) finishing in the top five.

 

Nate Wehner of Highland Park took lead responsibilities in the third and final section of the 1600 Meter Run passing 400-meters in 65 seconds and 800-meters in 2:10 with Michael Skora of Hinsdale Central within a second of him. Wehner had a five second advantage at one kilometer with a 5 second advantage over the pack.

 

Wehner had the lead entering the final two laps at 3:17. Jacob Barraza of DeKalb was closing that gap quickly. The sophomore took the lead on the final lap and held it for the win with a 4:22.84 personal best. Another sophomore, Dylan Maloney of Plainfield South, moved up to finish second (4:24.62) to finish ahead of Wehner (4:25.96). Trey Sato, who doubled back after the 3200 Meter Run, ran 4:27.50 to finish fourth. Colin Knowles of Batavia (4:28.19), and Topher Ferris of Downers Grove North (4:28.64) finished fifth and sixth.

 

Prospect took the lead on the third leg of the 4x800m Relay. The Knights ran 8:16.29 (IL #3) to claim the win ahead of Neuqua Valley (8:19.44) and Hinsdale Central (8:23.28) to finish second and third.

 

Meet Highlights

Miles Granjean of Evanston Township edged Jake Lansdowne of Neuqua Valley by a tenth of a second to win the 60 Meter Hurdles. Granjean’s time of 8.22 (IL #2) was timed for the win ahead of the 8.32 time (IL #5) from Lansdowne.

 

The surprise on the track came in the 400 Meter Dash. Henry Kennedy of Dundee-Crown took the lead in the final 20-meters to claim the meet win (51.04, IL #5) to finish ahead of Yorkville all-state athlete Josh Pugh with his 51.26 time (IL #10). Pugh came back to anchor Yorkville to the win in the 4x400m Relay with a 3:33.99 time (IL #5). Homewood-Flossmoor (3:34.85) and Edwardsville (3:35.25) finished second and third.

 

Homewood-Flossmoor pulled away to win the 4x200 Meter Relay with a 1:31.92 time (IL #2). Edwardsville (1:33.43), Prospect (1:34.26), Plainfield South (1:34.29), and Wheaton-Warrenville South (1:34.89) finished in the top fifth.

 

Paul Migas of Lakes waited until one competitor was left in the Pole Vault. The junior cleared on his first attempts at 14-5.25 and 14-11 to win the competition. Ethan Stukenburg of Edwardsville (13-11.25) and Thomas Kiefer of Neuqua Valley (13-5.25) finished second and third.

 

Kosta Zografos of Wauconda cleared 6-3.5 on his second attempt at the height to win the High Jump. Jeremiah Cain of Oswego and Marcus Kennedy of Brother Rice cleared 6-1.5 to finish second and third in the event.

 

Aidan Porreca of Warren Township had a put of 49-9 on his second of four attempts to give him in the win in the Shot Put. Branden Hansen of Mundelein (49-1.50) and Michael Tarsalew of Andrew (48-8.25) finished second and third.



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