Rock Falls boys and girls double up at Princeton

PRINCETON – It was an exciting night for the Rock Falls track teams, with the boys and girls meets at Princeton’s Ferris Invite on Monday coming down to the final race, the 4x400-meter relay.

No race was more exciting than the boys’ 4x400 relay, where the Rockets edged Princeton by one-hundredth of a second, which was just enough to draw the Rockets into a first-place tie with Kewanee, both with 263 points.

It was the Rockets’ sixth straight championship at Princeton.

The Rock Falls girls beat Princeton in the 4x400 by 2. 5 seconds to top the host Tigresses for the championship 230-226.

The Rock Falls teams also doubled up for the overall championship.

“We knew that we would be challenged in this meet. I believe we had won this meet five straight times, and we wanted to keep that streak going,“ Rock Falls boys coach Eric Bontz said. ”Kewanee is a really good team, and they are loaded with talent. They beat us earlier at one of our indoor track meets, and we wanted to avenge that loss. I told our guys that we were not favored but that I believed in them if they got after it.

“I felt we would come out of the field events down quite a bit but stressed the importance of being patient and not giving up. I told our guys that if we ran the way we were capable, I believed that we were the better team on the track and that it would probably come down to the last race, which it did. Our men knew what was at stake for the 4x400. They knew we had to win the 4x400 just to have a shot to keep the title.”

Rock Falls senior Anthony Valdiva, who won the 400 (52.74 seconds), high jump (1.85 meters) and ran on two winning relays, was named Outstanding Athlete of the boys meet. He ran the decisive anchor leg in the 4x400 to finish off a personal record of 3:36.67 with Christian Cid, Cole Heald and Phillip Griffin.

“He took the baton a good 20 meters or more behind Princeton and was able to squeak out the win in a photo finish,” Bontz said.

Valdiva also teamed with Michael Kopitias, Christian Cid and Gunnar Damhoff to win the 4x800 relay in 8:47.32.

Alexavier Oquendo also stood out in the meet for the Rockets, taking first in the 100 (11.37) and the 4x200 and second in the 200 and the 4x100. He was joined by Logan Thome, Easton Canales and Carson Devers for a top time of 1:35.59.

The Rockets also got wins from Damhoff in the 1,600 (4:41.85) and Jeffrey Sommer in the 3,200 (11:05.13),

“The whole team stepped up, we had a bunch of PRs for the season, and we scored a lot of points where we weren’t necessarily supposed to, which helped,” Bontz said.

Ariel Hernandez won the 1,600 (5:46.70) and 3,200 (12:07.81) and ran the anchor leg on Rock Falls’ winning girls 4x400 relay (4:34.06), joined by Kat Scott, Ashley Rodriguez and Lyndsey Hollowell.

Rock Falls junior Ryleigh Eriks, who is out for track for the first year, is proving to be a fast learner. She broke the school record by a half inch at 9 feet, 1½ inches with a winning vault of 2.78 meters.

Kayla Hackbarth easily won the discus with a throw of 32.04, and Rock Falls won the girls 4x800 relay with a time of 11:23.61 on the legs of Scott, Rodriguez, Brenna Burlock and Abby Cochran.