Track and field: Bureau Valley sweeps team titles at Rollie Morris Invite

Bureau Valley senior Connie Gibson laid on the infield at Hall High School out of breath and experiencing severe pain in her legs.

“It was worth it,” said Gibson, who had just anchored the Storm’s 4x400-meter relay to victory. “I’d do it 100 times again.”

Bureau Valley entered the final event of the Rollie Morris Invitational in second place, but the relay victory vaulted the Storm to the top of the team standings ahead of rival Princeton.

The Storm finished with 123 points to the Tigresses’ 118. The Amboy co-op (93) placed third, St. Bede (58) was fifth, Mendota (40) was seventh, Streator (35) was eighth, Fieldcrest (27) was 10th, Somonauk (26.5) was 11th and the host Red Devils (21) were 12th among the 13 teams.

“My favorite part of track is winning as a team,” Gibson said. “That’s what we’re always trying to do - win.

By the time the Bureau Valley girls finished their rally, the Storm boys had locked up the team title as well, giving Bureau Valley the sweep with the boys, girls and combined crowns.

“I love to win as a team, so a double team win is nice,” Gibson said.

The Storm girls, who trailed Princeton by more than 20 points past the midway points of the meet, used the strength of their relays to win the title.

Bureau Valley won the 4x100, 4x200 and 4x400 relays with Gibson and classmate Kate Salisbury running on all three.

Gibson was the lead runner on the 4x100 and 4x200 relays while closing out the 4x400.

Gibson and Salisbury ran with juniors Taylor Neuhalfen and McKinley Canady in the 4x100 (52.1 seconds) and the 4x200 (1:50.9) and teamed with sophomore Emma Mussche and senior Lynzie Cady in the 4x400 (4:21.4).

“Because we’re sore losers,” Gibson said with a laugh about why BV is so strong in relays. “And because we like to win as a team. I would rather win my relays than an individual event.”

Gibson also contributed to the comeback individually with a second-place finish in the 200 in a personal best 27 seconds.

Besides the three relays, the only other win for the Storm was sophomore Maddie Wetzell in the 3,200 in 12:50.2. She also placed second in the 1,600 in 5:47.8.

Sophomore Camryn Driscoll and senior Morgan Foes paced Princeton with double wins.

Driscoll won the 100 (13.2 seconds) and the 400 (season best 1:01.6) and placed third in the 200 (27.1), while Foes swept the throws with tosses of 11.06 meters in the shot put and a season best 36.77 meters in the discus. Teammate Morgan Richards was runner-up in both throws at 9.57 meters and 21.01 meters.

Junior Ashlynn Weber won the triple jump for Princeton with a leap of 9.72 meters.

“Just warming up good, today was really good weather, there wasn’t really much wind,” Driscoll said about getting a season best in the 400. “I knew today was good so I wanted to take advantage of that and try pushing to get a season P.R.”

Like BV, the Clippers had a strong day in the relays with second-place finishes in the 4x100, 4x200 and 4x400 relays.

Sophomore Lily Bosnich led the Bruins with a three-win day.

She won the 100 hurdles in a school record 15.74 seconds, won the 300 in a season best 47.9 seconds and took the 200 in a season best 26.9 seconds.

Mendota freshman Mariyah Elam cleared 1.52 meters to win the high jump and she took second in the 100 hurdles (16.7), Streator junior Sonia Proksa won the long jump (season best 4.78m) and placed second in the high jump (1.52m), third in the 100 (personal best 13.2) and fourth in the 200 (personal best 27.8) and Somonauk freshman Alexis Punsalan had the best pole vault of the day, boys or girls, at 2.9 meters.

In the boys meet, Bureau Valley had only one winner in senior Cam Lemons in the pole vault (2.74m), but the Storm had 18 top five finishes.

The Storm scored 122.5 points to beat Streator (106). Amboy co-op (81.5) placed fourth, Mendota (61) was fifth, Somonauk (50) was sixth, Hall (43) was eighth, Fieldcrest (41) was ninth, Putnam County (31) was 10th and St. Bede (8) was 11th among 12 teams.

“It’s nice,” Lemons said. “I was talking to coach and apparently we haven’t done this for a while. It just puts a statement out there we’re not like years before. We’re here to compete.

“A big thing for us is we’re not just sprinters. We have distance. We have field events. We have a good combination of everything, so that’s a big thing for us.”

The Storm got second-place finishes in the 4x800 (9:20.1) and the 4x100 (45.6), Landon Hulsing in the discus (personal best 41.7m) and the high jump (personal best 1.78m) and Justin Moon in the triple jump (season best 11.79m).

Isaiah Brown led the Bulldogs with wins in the 100 (personal best 11.1), 200 (personal best 22.9) and 4x100 (44.6) along with Jon Davis, Chance Robart and Tyke Legeralde.

“It feels great,” Brown said about winning three events. “The motivation from my team helped me to keep going. I think great weather contributed. It made me strive to get better.

“I thought we did great (in the 4x100). It could be better with more handoffs, more work. We’ll get there.”

Amboy junior Joel Billhorn won the long jump (5.91m) and placed second in the 400 (personal best 51.4), while senior teammate Ian Sundberg won the shot put (14.1m).

Mendota had a pair of winners in sophomore Sebastian Carlos in the 400 (personal best 51.2) and senior Mason Koch in the triple jump (11.97m).

Somonauk sophomore Landin Stillwell won the 3,200 (11:00.9) and helped the 4x800 relay (9:10.8) to a win along with Jackson Brockway, Gunnar Swenson and Caden Hamer.

“It felt really good,” Stillwell said. “For the 4x800, I’m just proud of my team for what they did. We put a lot of work in. For the two mile, I was really just trying to win the race and stay relaxed. There was really no one pushing me, so I was just trying to get first place.”

Fieldcrest junior Caleb Krischel won the 1,600 (5:02.4), Putnam County sophomore Alex Rodriguez won the discus (41.98m) and took second in the shot put (13.84m) and Hall senior Caleb Bickett had personal bests and second-place finishes in the 100 (11.1) and 200 (23).