Even a Fox Valley Conference record in the 400-meter relay failed to brighten the day for Huntley junior Dubem Anikamadu.
When you’re not feeling well and normally run times with the state’s best sprinters like Anikamadu, it takes a real race to get excited.
With Anikamadu under the weather and the sprint relay team underperforming by its standards, the Red Raiders still did well enough on their own track Friday to capture a third straight Fox Valley team title with five first places and 112 points.
“The hurdlers went off today, the 400 guys went off today, the 800 guys … I’m super happy with the way things progressed overall,” Huntley coach Jim Rolando said. “Today was, by my standards, a pretty (bad) day for the sprint team.
“It’s just we want to be peaking a little bit better at this point of the year. It’s probably a good wake-up call.”
Before Anikamadu was pulled from the 200 due to illness, he charged home on the anchor leg for the winning 400 relay behind Melvin Aninagyei-Bonsu, Ron Noll and Eric Mooney. Their meet-record time was 42.41 seconds.
“It’s not what we wanted,” Anikamadu said. “We ran 41.97 last week at Lockport. With that being the No. 1 time in the state, we had high expectations coming into today.
“And really, it’s hard to run when everyone is two seconds behind you. We got pushed at Lockport by Plainfield North.”
Anikamadu won the 100 in 11.2. He anchored the 800 relay’s winning effort of 1:29.6 as chief competitor Jacobs dropped a baton.
Not all was doom and gloom for Huntley, especially in the 110 high hurdles. Brian Bala and Lukas Bolas ran 1-2, with Bala winning by .02 seconds in 14.99 after Bolas had the better seed time by .01 seconds.
“It’s always that way with us,” Bala said. “We go back and forth. It’s an ideal situation for pushing each other in practice. He had me all indoor season. But we’ve been trading off (personal records).
“It’s just been good having somebody run almost identical times as you.”
Huntley’s Aninagyei-Bonsu took the triple jump at 43-0.25, and the Red Raiders had enough depth to stave off runner-up Jacobs by 21 points.
The Golden Eagles enjoyed victories from Loren Strickland in the long jump, Jermaine Maedglin-Ferguson in the 300 hurdles, Zach Albrecht in the 1,600 and Aidan Ludlum in the 200.
Maedglin-Ferguson ran a season’s best 39.27 to edge Huntley’s Sam Pitrone by .39 seconds.
“I wanted to get revenge for county,” Maedglin-Ferguson said of the Kane County Meet. “He beat me last time, but I got him this time. He’s a good runner. I did my thing and ran my race.”
Albrecht, a diminutive sophomore, stunned the pack in the 1,600 by bolting out to start the bell lap as if running the 100. No one chased, and he won in 4:17.55.
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“I do a lot of speed training,” Albrecht said. “I knew I had more speed left. Normally I go out the first lap in about 62 (seconds). I just decided to save a kick tonight.”
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