Noah Heupel hands off to Julius Garcia during the 4x100m Relay

What an absolutely tremendous day for Neuqua Valley Track and Field!  It was a beautiful spring day with even better performances from both our Frosh / Soph and Varsity competitors.  We finished in 2nd place on both levels to a very competitive Minooka, but the true highlight of the day was, although we were only competing at our first outdoor invitational, there were 4 State qualifying marks already attained from the Varsity crew.

The Frosh / Soph team was not at full strength due to illness and injury in some of our key guys, but they persisted and achieved some great personal best performances.  The 4 x 800 squad of Nick Doty (2:11.2), Mike Baker (2:07.4), Mac Kiley (2:13.8), and Robbie Hohlman (2:08.5) got the day off to an incredible start with a runaway victory.  The 4 x 100 team of James Sampson (11.3), Julius Garcia (11.0), Noah Heupel (11.0), and Dennis Thurow (11.3) posted a near school record-breaking time of 44.6 and gained our second straight victory of the day.  Alekh Meka exchanged some elbows with another runner, was thankfully not disqualified, and ran his personal best time of 4:39.0 in his win in the 1600.  Over in the field events, Brad Mikulecky won the triple jump with a leap of 41-4, and Noah Heupel finished 2nd in the long jump with 18-11.5.  Finally, congratulations to Danny Loughery for finishing 2nd in the discus with a toss of 113-4.  It’s great to see these athletes turning into a well-rounded team!

As mentioned earlier, there were 4 State qualifying marks achieved at this meet.  Mark Derrick

Jake Bender earns a victory with a 49.11 in the 400m Run

got the ball rolling in the 3200.  He cruised through the first mile and then hammered the next one, eventually taking the victory with a 9:28.1 in his first 3200 of the season.  Vincenzo Dal Pozzo posted a personal best in the 800 with a 1:57.1, good for 2nd place.  Next, Jacob Bender ran away with the 400 and broke the 49-second barrier, posting a 48.9.  Then, the 4 x 400 team of Matt Wytiaz (52.9), Kevin Skrip (50.7), Vincenzo Dal Pozzo (51.3), and Jacob Bender (48.3) took 2nd and ran

their season best of 3:23.1.  Congratulations also go out to Markieze Mitchell for his performance in the long jump.  He finished in 2nd place with a leap of 20-11.  And Mark Gaido scored the team some points in the throws with a toss or 132-4 in the discus, good for 4th place.

We next travel to Plainfield South to face their team along with Minooka and Oswego on Tuesday.  Then, on Saturday, we are headed to our sister school, Metea Valley, for their brand new invitational.  Here’s hoping you can all make it out there and that the weather holds!

We traveled to St. Charles East High School on Tuesday for our first outdoor meet.  While St. Charles East did not run its entire squad, our team had a great opportunity to post some really solid times and get used to actually having room to run and not being boxed in, or not being forced to an outside lane because of extremely tight turns.  The weather, for the most part, cooperated with us, although there was a pretty strong wind.  The rain, thankfully, held off…only a little drizzle early on in the meet.

On the Frosh / Soph level, Sean Meehan posted a respectable time of 10:45.5 for the 3200 followed by Matt Reynolds at 10:58.8 and Gerard Lamb at 11:02.2.  Gerard will definitely be under the 11:00 barrier before long.  Craig Halicki competed in his first 800, posting an impressive time of 2:19.2.  Roland Dewgard and Julius Garcia went to battle in the 400 with Julius just edging out Roland, 52.7 to 53.4, both incredible times for their first outdoor 400.  In the field side of the day, Carlos Varela returned to throwing form posting a put of 42-6 and hurling the discus 141-3.  Emery Barnes competed in long jump and leaped 18-0.5, and Trent Wracker jumped 17-3.75.  It’s nice to see Trent getting back into shape after being sick for a good portion of the indoor season.

On the Varsity level, Matt Coyne nearly broke the 10:00 barrier in the 3200, running 10:06.3, with Matt Hill just behind him at 10:08.2.  Matt Feliciano and Mark Stocker competed for the first time in the 110 High Hurdles, running 16.6 and 16.4, respectively.  The highlight of the day on the track was Jonathan Buckner running his first 800 at 2:12.1, an impressive feat considering his inexperience in the event.  Over on the field, Mark Gaido threw the discus 143-3, which is only 12 feet from the State qualifying mark, Chad Prescher returned to vaulting action with a leap of 12-0.

We compete at our first outdoor invitational on Saturday at Schaumburg High School.  Hope to see you there!