Huntley’s Dubem Anikamadu was seeking redemption at the Class 3A state finals Saturday afternoon.
“I wanted to use the two eighth-place finishes (earlier in the meet) in the 200 (meters) as I knew I could do better than this,” he said.
Anikamadu had the race of his young career, finishing third in 21.79 seconds. He also won medals in the 100 — taking eighth in 10.94 — and in the 400 relay. Anikamadu joined Melvin Aninagyei-Bonsu, Sam Pitrone and Zach Tepper to run a 42.72 for eighth place.
“It just goes to show what goes on at our training facilities, the coaches, our mindset and our work ethic,” Anikamadu said. “We expect high for ourselves. I ran as fast as I could (in the 200) for the whole race — and it paid off. I left it all out on the track.”
St. Charles North junior Peter Willis cleared 6 feet, 7 inches to take second in the high jump behind West Aurora defending champion Camron Donatlan (7-0).
“I was here last year and didn’t even get to the finals,” Willis said. “There was another high jumper at our school, Erik Miller, who got 6-10 and got second (in 2014). He helped me out so much (in practice on Wednesday). The reason why I’m getting second is because of him. He taught me all the secrets of the high jump.”
In Class 2A, Burlington Central finished third in the 1,600 relay and missed a medal in the 3,200 relay, taking 11th despite running a season-best 8:07.51.
Like Anikamadu, Rockets sophomore Adam Kries also was looking for a second chance.
“I really wanted to help my team out great (in the 1,600 relay) because my leg in the (3,200 relay) was not that great,” Kries said.
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Kries ran an exceptional anchor leg in the 1,600 relay as Burlington finished in 3:22.86.
“I am usually pretty strong for the last 200,” Kries said. “In my mindset, I couldn’t let anyone beat me. I really wanted to come back and put on a show for our team.”
Michael Kalusa, Josh Teets and Aakansh Sharma joined Kries on the All-State relay.
Kries, Logan Anderson, Enrique Martinez and Teets made up the 3,200 relay team.
“If you would have told me at the beginning of the meet that we would run an 8:07, I thought we would have finished seventh or eighth,” Burlington Central coach Mike Schmidt said. “We ran three sophomores and a senior (Teets) in that race, so we have really good things coming back in that race next year.”
In Class 1A, Westminster Christian junior Jason Yaccino was fourth in the 800 (1:56.56).
Kevin McGavin is a freelance writer for The Courier-News.