Boys track: Aurora Central Catholic’s Hilby wins 400, 800 runs at Sycamore sectional

SYCAMORE — Thanks to a couple of four-time champions, the Sycamore boys track team claimed the Class 2A Sycamore sectional Thursday.

“This team, we put in a lot of hard work,” said Aidan Wyzard, who won the 100-meter run and the long jump and was on two of the four Spartans’ first-place relay teams. “All that hard work causes results like this.

“It feels good.”

Sycamore finished with 124 points, edging out Sterling’s 117. Dixon was third with 53.5.

“We’ve been working really hard, and it’s finally starting to pay off,” said Dylan Hodges, who won the triple jump and was on three of the first-place relay teams. “It feels really amazing.”

Burke Gautcher, Hodges, Eli Crome and Wyzard finished the 400 relay in 41.84 seconds. Hodges, Colton Sharpness, Dylan Weides and Wyzard finished the 800 relay in 1:28.88. The 1,600 relay of Hodges, Crome, Devin Karda and Matthew Rangel held off an insane final push by Aurora Central Catholic and anchor Patrick Hilby — one of the top mid-distance runners in the state — to finish in 3:20.99. The 3,200 relay of Corey Goff, Naif Al Harby, Karda and Rangel finished in 8:05.04 to round out the Sycamore sweep.

Hilby won both the open 400 and 800. He had a seed time of 1:48.47 in the 800 but finished about 10 seconds slower. He said his focus was a PR in the 400, which he achieved in 47.54 for a two-second win over Crome.

“I just wanted to stay healthy for next week,” Hilby said. “The 800, I just wanted to win, and in the 400 I wanted to get under 48, which I think I did. And in the 4x4 just qualify again, which we did.”

The ACC 3,200 relay team also qualified for state, as did Daniel Eberle, taking sixth in the pole vault but clearing 3.88 meters to match the qualifying mark.

For St. Francis, Gavin Mueller entered second in both throws, but went 47.88 in the discus and 16.82 in the shot put to win both.

Mueller immediately left the meet to head to Cincinnati on a recruiting trip, as the sophomore is being recruited as a tight end. Coach Jason Accardi is in Charleston for the girls state meet. Assistant coach Rob Whitacre said Mueller has a sound technique.

“He kept loose,” Whitacre said. “He’s got a good attitude, he keeps himself in an even keel. … In fact, he came in here today with a back injury, so he didn’t set any wild expectations for himself. He decided he just wanted to go out and see what he could do.”

For Wheaton Academy, the 3,200 relay was fourth in 8:13.46 to make it. Canyon Roberts won the 110 hurdles in 15.2, finished second in the 300 hurdles (41.26) and was fourth with a qualifying leap of 4.18 in the pole vault. Emery Eckert was third in the 100 at exactly the 11.13 qualifying mark. Miguel Boney also had a close call, but his 51.54 in the 400 not only took sixth but was .01 faster than the qualifying mark. Shaymis Powell was eighth in the 1,600 in 4:30.95.

For Marmion, Matthew Sullivan was third in the 3,200 in 9:52.37, almost 10 seconds under the qualifying mark. His teammate Joseph Dorando was the last of six qualifiers in the event in 9:59.77, about a second and a half ahead of the mark. Jonah Augustyn was second in the high jump, clearing 1.85 meters. John Daffenberg was second in the 800 (1:59.99), and Ryan Anderson was second in the pole vault (4.33). Robert Gramley was third in the 1,600 in 4:28.83.

IMSA had no qualifiers.