Boys Track: Blackhawks Take Second At DVC Indoor Meet

NAPERVILLE – With Wheaton Warrenville South dominating Friday’s DuPage Valley Conference boys indoor track meet at North Central College, highlights for the Naperville schools and West Aurora were hard to track down.

The Tigers won eight events to win the meet with 140 points. But West Aurora senior George Malina did manage to win the pole vault with a vault of 13 feet; helping the defending champion Blackhawks to a second-place finish with 97 points.

Naperville North was seventh with 21 points and Naperville Central came in last with eight points.

For Malina, he views the pole vault as a stepping stone to the outdoor season, which he hopes will conclude with his first-ever trip to the state meet in Charleston in late May.

“I tried for 13-6, but I just didn’t have enough in me today,” Malina said. “Hopefully getting outside with a new pole will help. Outdoor, the poles are a little softer and you have a little bit of wind at your back. The atmosphere is a lot quieter. It was pretty crazy in here tonight. Any little thing helps, right?”

West had a nice showing in the 800 meters, with Ryan Bartell and Matt Muth finishing 2-3 behind West Chicago’s Gunnar Sterne, who was one of the stars of the meet. Muth’s day was over shortly into the mile run. He had the second-lowest seed time coming in, but a nasty collision on the first lap sent him flying into a sand pit and knocked him out of the race.

Matt Souvannasing had a solid day for the Blackhawks, as well, taking second in the 200 meters, third in the triple jump and fourth in the long jump. Senior Marcus Waller was nipped by Digba Coker of Wheaton South in the 55 hurdles and helped the 4x400 relay finish second. West also finished third in the 4x200 and 4x800 relays.

Naperville North has a young team and its star senior sprinter, Antonio Owens, just returned to the team Monday after completing basketball season. First-year coach Tim Brown, the team’s pole vault coach the past two seasons, was happy with their progress Friday, however.

Junior Nick Lyon took second in the pole vault and sophomore Jimmy Qiao was third in the 3,200 meters.

“It’s a tough conference and we’re a young team,” Brown said. “Obviously I have a lot of respect for the other teams. This is a track conference. This is exciting, this is our first time at North Central, it’s a great event, but our big event is in May. As long as we keep progressing, I’m excited about it.”

Owens took fifth in the 55 in his first meet of the season.

“I gave him the option to compete,” Brown said. “Monday was his first day of practice. He’s just getting warmed up. He’s got good things coming.”

Naperville Central picked up a pair of fifth-place finishes on the night. Junior Sachin Natesh was fifth in the triple jump and the 4x800 relay team also took fifth.