Track and field: Geneva girls win own invitational

GENEVA – Reilly Day’s feet made key contributions to Geneva winning the girls division of the 32nd annual Mike VanDeveer Relays on April 13 at Burgess Field.

The Vikings tallied 122 points. Burlington Central and St. Charles North tied for second with 78 points.

In addition to taking first place in both the long jump (4.91 meters) and triple jump (10.89), Day ran as part of the 4x200 meters and 4x400 relay teams. The Vikings won the 4x200 (1:47.17) and came in third in the 4x400.

“My triple jump was my best event,” Day said. “I jump well and I have fun doing it, and when I have fun, I do my best.”

Geneva won four other relay races: 4x100 (50:94), sprint medley (800, 1:56.60), distance medley (4,000, 13:11.40) and 4x100 shuttle hurdles (1:13:78).

“It was nice to get a win on our home track. I think our girls enjoy competing at home in front of friends and family,” Geneva coach Peter Raak said. “Even though they came in second, our 4x800 had a really fast time today. It was close to state-qualifying time. Our 4x100 also had a good race time.”

The Vikings took top honors in two other field events. Sophomore Lexi Weber cleared the bar at 2.89 meters to win the pole vault. Kendall Young’s leap of 1.55 meters, a personal record, took first place in the high jump.

Emilie Anderson led the Rockets, finishing first in the discus (28.93).

“I’m happy with my result today, but I have a bigger goal that I want to go for,” said Anderson, a sophomore. “I want to go to state this year and I think that this was a good starting point for me.”

The North Stars took home first-place honors in four races: 100, 1,600, 4x400 relay (4:08.36) and 4x800 relay (9:39.53). Ava Miedema won the 100 in 13.39. Juliana Gonzalez crossed the finish line first in the 1,600 with a time of 6:05.7. Junior Tosin Oshin’s toss of 11.17 won the shot put.

Fifth-place West Chicago (22) won the 4x100 throwers relay (1:00.93), run by the teams’ discus and shot put competitors.

A deep roster was the key to St. Charles North winning the boys competition.

“Our strength right now is depth,” St. Charles North coach Kevin Harrington said. “We want to do well everywhere and we accomplished a lot of that today. We were looking good in the distance, looking good in the sprints and the field events came along pretty well.”

The North Stars tallied 108 points to take top honors. Host Geneva (92) came in second, followed by Burlington Central (72).

St. Charles North won five relay races, finished second in two others and captured first place in the pole vault with Nathan McLoughlin clearing the bar at 4.57.

“The 4x400 was just a couple seconds off a state-qualifying time and a couple of pole vaulters went over state qualifying,” Harrington said.

The North Stars won the 4x200 (1:31.44), 4x400 (3:28.93), 4x800 (8:18.14), distance medley relay (11:03.46) and 4x100 shuttle hurdles (1:09.66).

“I think a lot of our younger guys like Owen Brown and Noah Wagner stepped up today and our top sprinters performed as expected,” said Robert Messina, who anchored the 4x400. He also ran in the 4x800.

Geneva notched first-place honors in the 4x100 (43.28) and 4x100 throwers relay (51.42) and won two field events. Vikings sophomore Lex Griffith finished first in the shot put with a throw of 15.54 and had a winning toss of 42.29 in the discus.

The Rockets won the sprint medley relay (1:38.65).

West Chicago’s Nicholas Roskilly finished first in the high jump (1.85).

https://www.dailyherald.com/20240413/boys-track-and-field/track-and-field-geneva-girls-scn-boys-win-vandeveer-crowns/