Boys Track: West Aurora breezes to Oswego Outdoor Invite title

Updated: April 27, 2012 11:17PM

Paced by a dominant performance in the field events, West Aurora took first place at the Oswego Outdoor Invite on Friday.

The Blackhawks tallied 161 points while Aurora Central finished second with 129. Host Oswego followed close behind in third place with 110 points while East Aurora ended up in fifth with 45.

“The field events got us off on the right foot and the track followed up with some really good performances,” West Aurora coach Cortney Lamb said. “Overall, it was a real good night for us.”

The Blackhawks won seven individuals events, including five of the six field events.

Aaron Kennebrew finished on top in both the high jump (6 foot, 1 inch) and triple jump (40-9.5). The junior jumper set a personal record in the high jump.

“I want to get better every single meet. I listen to my coaches, I trust them completely,” Kennebrew said. “My philosophy is to get better every single practice, every single meet so I’m ready for the big meets coming up.”

The Blackhawks swept the top three spots in both the shot put and the discus with Lijah Spears finishing on top in both events. Spears was followed by David Aleman and Shaq Redmond in the discus. Jorgeluis Ramirez and Aleman finished second and third in the shot put.

With a final jump of 12-6, pole vaulter Royce Golembeck finished first in his event for the second consecutive meet. Golembeck also took first in the pole vault at the Peterson Prep at Kaneland last weekend.

“I didn’t do well the three weeks before Kaneland, so I went in to practice and worked hard,” Golembeck said. “I’m trying to break in a new pole, and it’s turned out nicely for me these last couple meets.”

On the track for the Blackhawks, Vontrel Hawkins took first in the 400 meter dash (50.78) and while Greg Roache won the 110 meter hurdles (16.01). Roache also finished third in the triple jump.

Lamb hopes the Blackhawks’ success on Friday carries over into next week’s Kane Country meet, which will be held at West Aurora.

“I couldn’t be more pleased with what happened tonight. They came out and made a good showing,” Lamb said. “We accomplished what we needed to. That’s going to give us confidence going into next week and the following weeks.”

Despite being the smallest school at the six-team event, second-place Aurora Central had a strong showing, winning three individual events and two relays (1,600 and 3,200).

Matt Meyers took home first place in both the 800 meters (2:00.40) and 1,600 meters (4:31) while sprinter Joseph Fese won the 100 meter dash (10.84).

“We have a lot of courage on our team,” said Meyers. “Even though there were 3A teams here, we weren’t intimidated. We really wanted to go after it.”

Third-place Oswego won two individual events and two relays (400 and 800).

The host Panthers were paced by long-distance runner Caleb Beck, who finished first in the 3,200 meters (9:31.10) and jumper Alain Dixon, the champion on the long jump (21-0).

Beck blew past his competition in the 3,200, finishing 45 seconds ahead of the second place runner, East Aurora’s Ricky Barajas (10:16).

East Aurora rounded out area teams in fifth place. Tomcats sprinter Desmond Gant had another strong showing. The blazing sophomore finished first in the 200 meter dash (22.58) and third in the 100 meter dash (11.11).

“I wanted to run under 22.5 in the 200, obviously I didn’t do that, but I still felt I ran good tonight,” Gant said. “I can do better though, so I’ve still got work to do.”

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