Murphy holds on for 3200 win at NCC Boys Invitational

10 Records fall in second-year meet; Naperville Central repeats in winning team title; Austin electrifies Res Rec Center with sprint double; Batavia runs state leading time in 4x2

By Michael Newman

Naperville – One of the most anticipated events in Thursday evening’s NCC Boys Invitational held inside North Central College’s Res-Rec Center was the 3200 Meter Run. Four of the top runners in the west suburban area faced off and realized the expectations that this event could have.

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Aidan Murphy of Wheaton North took command of the race just after the mile and pulled away from the pack until the final lap where he held on for the win. Murphy’s time of 9:27.37 set a meet record breaking the 9:34.98 time that Josiah Narayanan of Wheaton-Warrenville South set in the inaugural meet last year.

Murphy was hoping to hit 70 second 400’s in the first mile of the race when the pace disintegrated after the first two laps where the pace slowed down to 72 second 400’s for the next 800 meters of the race. The pack of Murphy, Narayanan, Edward Polaski of Batavia, and Patrick Clune of Naperville Central passed the first 1600 in 4:48, a pace which was not in Murphy’s plan. The pace slowed down but in the third part of the race but Murphy at that point had built up a sizeable lead of 5 seconds entering the final 400 of the race. Polaski and Clune worked off each other to close the gap to three seconds entering the final lap. Murphy thought he had won the race entering the final 50 meters but flinched as he peeked and saw Polaski charging hard towards him. Murphy picked up his strides to hold on for the win.

Polaski was just 36 hundredths of a second behind Murphy running 9:27.73 to finish second. Clune was third (9:30.07) also breaking the previous meet record. Narayanan ran 9:40.41 to finish fourth.

Murphy’s race was one of 10 records broken in the second year of the meet. It’s normal to see some meet records set especially with the newness of the meet. Two thirds of records broken in any meet is quite extraordinary.

Naperville Central captured the team title for the second year in a row with 106.5 points. Batavia scored 92 points in placing second with Downers Grove South scoring 71 points to finish third. West Aurora and Naperville North both scored 57 points to finish in a tie for fourth.

There was only one multiple event winner in this meet coming from Downers Grove South’s Tayshaun Austin. The sophomore started his season off two weeks ago running 6.57 in the 55 Meter Dash in a low-keyed meet at York. The outcome was just the same as Austin got out of the blocks first. He ran 6.53 (IL #3) for the win with Nathan Whitwell of Batavia and Jacob Brocious of Wheaton-Warrenville South both running 6.60 (IL # 6 Tie) finishing second and third. Austin came back to run 22.46 (IL #6) for the win in the 200 Meter Dash setting a new meet record.

Other Meet Highlights

One of the most dominating performances came from Batavia in the 4x200 Meter Relay. Batavia had control of the race at the first exchange. The quartet of Whitwell, Jacob Jansey, Noah Erwin, and Thomas Woodard ran a state leading 1:30.80 for the win and a new meet record. Naperville Central ran 1:34.21 (IL #8) finished second.

Yorkville was in command in the 4x400 Meter Relay led by an opening 51.4 opening leg from Owen Horeni. James Cherney, Logan Reuter, and Raymond Brig gave the Foxes the win (3:31.93, IL #5). Naperville Central (3:33.92, IL #7), and Zion-Benton (3:34.92, IL #9) finished second and third.

Horeni had a busy day in an early season meet competing in two other events. The junior took the first two laps in 56.5 seconds and went on to run 1:58.46 (IL #3) for the win in the 800 Meter Run. Samuel Wollak of St. Charles East ran 1:59.02 (IL #6) to finish second. Conrad Saner of Downers Grove South finished third (1:59.88).

Greyson Ellensohn of St. Charles East and Francesco Benelli of Batavia pulled away from the rest of the fields in the first two laps of the 1600 Meter Run. Ellensohn never relinquished the lead running with a meet record of 4:28.71 (IL #9) for the win. Benelli finished second (4:30.51) followed by Wojtek Gilarski of Hinsdale South (4:32.88), Aiden Noel of Wheaton-Warrenville South (4:33.17), and Horeni (4:34.73).

Azuriah Sylvester and Sere Iranloye of West Aurora finished 1-2 in the 55 Meter Hurdles. Sylester ran a meet record 7.96 (IL 8.04 #3) finishing ahead of his teammate Iranloye (8.04, IL #4). Nico Gall of Naperville North (8.14, IL #5) and Luke Littig of Naperville Central (8.15, IL #6) finished third and fourth.

Sylvester established a meet record in the Triple Jump in last year’s meet. This year Sylvester had to settle for second as Batavia’s Isaiah Brown jumped 44-4.25 (IL #5) for the win in the event. Sylvester jumped 43-3.75 (IL #10) to finish second.

Chad Earl of Naperville Central ran 52.04 to win the 400 Meter Dash ahead of Naperville North’s Andrew Hebron (52.56). Patrick Clune came back after running the 3200 finishing third with 53.28 time. Naperville Central’s quartet in the 4x800 Meter Relay ran 8:24.04 (IL #4) to win with Downers Grove South running 8:25.28 (IL #6) placing second.

The top three finishers in the Shot Put all surpassed the old meet record. Jonathan Hurst of Wheaton North had a distance of 53-9.5 (IL #5) to capture the win ahead of Ben Blank of Naperville Central (53-8.25, IL #6) and Dionte Shaw of West Aurora (IL #9).

Taelor Clements of Yorkville cleared 6-1.5 to set a new meet record in the High Jump. The top four finishers in the Long Jump set new meet records led by the 20-9.75 mark achieved by Ian MacConnachie of Naperville North.

Jonathan Nitsch of St. Charles East and Patrick Durkin of Downers Grove South both cleared 13-5 in the Pole Vault. Nitsch won the event on fewer misses.