Minooka’s depth the difference in Huntley Invitational win

Photo: Nick Chaidez, Mason Engler, Emerson Fayman, and Jason Hoffman captured Minooka’s first win at Huntley in the 3200 Meter Relay (Nick Lundin Photo)

By Michael Newman

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Huntley – Minooka scored in 12 of 15 events to help the Indians win their first invitational of the year with 93 points. Naperville Central (68 points) and Stevenson (65 points) finished second and third.

RESULTS | RACE VIDEOS

Minooka used three early wins in the meet to put them ahead for good in the team standings. Jimmy Andreano cleared 1.83m (6’0”) to win the High Jump. A strong anchor leg by Jason Hoffman turned a close battle between Minooka and Naperville Central to a 13 second win for the Indians crossing the finish line in 8:20.40.

Vincent Van Eck took over the lead at 2000m in the 3200 Meter Run. Van Eck ran a personal best 9:37.96 to win the event ahead of teammate Hunter Phillips (9:41.54).

The track inside of the Huntley Fieldhouse once again yielded some fast early season performances. Here are some of the highlights in this meet.

Distance Events

Naperville Central and Barrington traded off the lead early in the 3200 Meter Relay with the first three runners of Minooka (Nick Chaidez, Mason Engler, Emerson Fayman) staying close to give their anchor Jason Hoffman a chance for the win. By the time Hoffman received the baton, he was even with Naperville Central’s Matthew Berryman. Hoffman pulled away from Berryman early in-route to running a 1:57.2 anchor leg to give Minooka the win. Naperville Central (8:33.60) and Barrington (8:41.80) finished second and third.

Stevenson’s Corey Pacernick set a quick early pace in the 3200 Meter Run passing 400-meters in 65 seconds and 4:43 at 1600-meters. The pace slowed down to a 79 second fifth 400m of the race. That is when Vincent Van Eck took over taking the lead and pushing the pace. The Minooka senior was under control the rest of the way in winning the event with a four second gap. The next three runners were separated by just a second as Hunter Phillips, Nicholas Keeling of Naperville Central (9:42.19), and Stephen Barretto of Rolling Meadows (9:42.58) finished second through fourth.

Justin Splitt of Grant Community earned all-state honors last year in the 800 Meter Run. He ran an extremely smart race running negative splits on his way to the win the event Friday night. Splitt started the race in the back of the pack in the first 200-meters then slowly moving up to fifth as he passed 400-meters in 60.2 seconds. With 250-meters left, Splitt charged to the front never looking back. He covered the final 200-meters in 28.9 as he ran 1:58.95 for the win. Minooka’s Adam Shaw (2:00.61) and Evan Stonitsch (2:01.37) finished second and third ahead of Burlington Central’s Tommy Zettl (2:02.05).

Ian Geisler of Huntley started his season with an impressive race in winning the 1600 Meter Run. It was the way that the all-state runner from last fall’s state cross country meet strategically slowly grinding the pace at the same time slowly pulling away from his competition.  Geisler took the lead at the gun and never relinquished it passing 400-meters in 63.4. The pace slowed down to 2:11.6 at 800-meters as Geisler still held the lead with Naperville Central’s Arthur Graham and Minooka’s Jason Hoffman hanging close.

Where in most early season meets the pace slows down in the third portion of a 1600, Geisler picked up passing 1200-meters in 3:18.2 and opening up a 10-meter lead on Graham and Hoffman. Geisler ran the final 400-meters in 63.3 to capture the win with a 4:21.57 time. Hats off to Graham and Hoffman and the way that they ran the third part of the race. Geisler could have blown the race wide open. These two runners were hurting but hung in there. Graham ran 4:25.68 to finish second. Hoffman, who as coming off that fast split in the relay, ran 4:26.26 to finish third.

SPRINT/HURDLE EVENTS

Stevenson’s strong squad prevailed in this meet winning the three individual sprint events as well as the short sprint relay. Jahleel Perrin started off a strong day for himself giving his team the early advantage in the 800 Meter Relay. David Smolensky, Jordan Vincent and Shane Johnson brought the baton around the track safely as the Patriots ran 1:33.47 for the win ahead of Naperville Central (1:34.93) and Minooka (1:35.37).

Perrin was the only double individual winner in this meet to go along with his relay win. The senior got a good start in his section of the 60 Meter Dash running 7.11 for the win edging his teammate David Smolensky by four hundredths of a second. Perrin made up the stagger in the first 100-meters in the 200 Meter Dash. He rolled to the win (23.35) in his section. Yavant Hausler of Burlington Central ran 23.45 to win his section and to finish second overall.

Jordan Vincent broke off the second curve with the lead which he never relinquished in running 51.73 for the win. Hector Ramos Jr. of Minooka (52.44) and Nick Greazel of Rolling Meadows (53.39) finished second and third.

The athletes crossed the line in the final section of the 60 Meter Hurdles so close together with none of them knowing who had won. Grant Community’s Andrew Kuligoski ran 8.76 from Lane 8 to win the event by just two hundredths of a second ahead of Aiden Tonarelli of Plainfield East.

It was Plainfield East that ended the meet with a huge statement in winning the 1600 Meter Relay. The quartet of Grant Perkins, Connor Bright, Jamar Bailey, and Austin Turi ran one of the fastest times this winter in the state (3:30.23) for the win ahead of Stevenson (3:33.43) and Naperville Central (3:36.59).

FIELD EVENT HIGHLIGHTS

Burlington Central’s Jake Borman and Huntley’s Brad Walker were the only athletes that went past 15-meters in the Shot Put. Borman had a winning put of 15.67m (51’ 5”) to win the event ahead of Walker’s 15.39m (50’ 6”) effort.

Naperville Central captured three of the top four spots in the Pole Vault led by the 4.16m (13’7.75”) clearance and personal best from Aniketh Rayudu.

Jay Coleman of Naperville Central put away the win early in the Long Jump with a 6.85m (22’ 5.75”. Ryan Dykes of Barrington made it close as he finished second with a 6.82m (22’ 4.5”) mark.

Xavier Andrews of Fremd jumped 13.23m to win the Triple Jump finishing just ahead of David Zieba of Rolling Meadows. Zieba jumped 13.15m (43’ 1.75”) to finish second.