Rock Falls was expected to win the girls portion of the Ferris Invitational on Tuesday night, and it did, defeating host Princeton, the defending champion, 270-214.

The championship was the Rock Falls girls fourth title in the past five invites at Princeton.

The Rockets also unexpectedly won the boys championship, their fourth straight. The Rockets held off favored Kewanee 266-249 for the title, with Princeton third at 184.

“I don’t think we were supposed to win it if you look at the seeds coming in. We knew it’d be tight. We’d knew it be close,” Rock Falls coach Eric Bontz said. “This is a meet we’ve won the last few years, a meet we really like coming to. There’s a lot of good athletes, and I told my guys they were going to have to compete well. We had a lot of PRs and good things that went a long ways for us tonight.”

“I don’t think we were supposed to win it if you look at the seeds coming in. We knew it’d be tight, we’d knew it be close.”

—  Eric Bontz, Rock Falls coach

Rock Falls freshman Adan Oquendo had a sprints double by winning the 100 (11.5) and 200 (23.26).

The Rockets also got wins from Christian Hernandez in the long jump (5.7m), Brady Root in the 800 (2:11.36), Anthony Valdiva in the 1,600 (4:52.62), Jose Gomez in the 3,200 (10:46.4), Devin Tanton in the pole vault (3.35m) and the 4x800 relay (8:56.37).

St. Bede senior Anna Lopez was named as the Most Outstanding Girls Athlete. She won the triple jump, breaking her own school record at 11.06 meters. She placed second in the long jump (4.56m) and ran on the Bruins winning relay efforts in the 4x200 (1:52.15) and 4x100 (52.2) relays.

Teammate Lily Bosnich anchored both relays and beat Princeton’s Camryn Driscoll (27.67) in a battle of fast freshmen for the 400 meters with a time of 27.10.

Driscoll didn’t go away empty handed, winning both the 100 (13.32) and 400 (1:02.08).

“I was really pleased with the times I got today in the 100 and 400 considering I wasn’t feeling at my strongest tonight,” Driscoll said. “I’m really trying to benefit from these races at meets because sectionals is just around the corner.”

Princeton junior Morgan Foes had her own double, sweeping the weights with throws of 32.12 in the discus and 10.25 meters in the shot put.

“Definitely very relieving. Wasn’t my best day for throws, but I still managed to get it done, which is what I’m here for,” Foes said.

Foes said she was thankful the meet was postponed from Monday because “it was a perfect day today.”

Classmate Morgan Richards placed third in both weights and is a welcome sight for Foes to have around.

“We’re literally best friends, so being able to throw with her, I’m very thankful for that, because it just makes it all better,” Foes said.

Miyah Fox won the 110 hurdles (17.08) for Princeton, which claimed second-place finishes in all four relays.

Also for Princeton, Lexi Bohms was runner-up in the 3,200 (14:38.21) and third in the 1,600 (6:23.4), while Ashlyn Weber was second in the triple jump (9.69m) and Kiana Brokaw third in the 3200 (14:43.48).

Hall’s Elizabeth Wozek won the pole vault and Clara Jablonski was runner-up in the 300H with thirds going to Promise Giacometti in the 100 (13.67), Evelyn Bryant in pole vault (1.83m) and Isabella Templeton in high jump (1.29m).

The Devils (160) placed third in the five-team field.

St. Bede picked up second-place finishes from Maci Zeglis in the 110H (17.87) and Macklin Brady in the discus (31.71m).

The Princeton boys had their own double in the weights with juniors Bennett Williams winning the discus at 49.78 meters (163-3 3/4) and Payne Miller the shot put with a PR of 16.68 meters (54-8 3/4). Teammate Ian Morris was third in the discus (42.07m).

“It’s good to go 1-2 [in the shot] for sure,” Miller said. “Lot of what we’re trying to do, even though we want to PR, of course, we’re trying remember our team. Bennett would attest to that fact.

“We’re trying to make sure when we PR, or if we PR, it’s after the fact we’ve already got a throw in so that if we continue to foul or trying to get a PR, we’ve secure points for our team.”

Miller said he’s still working out some glitches.

“Little bit of technique error for sure,” he said. “They’re my best outdoor PR right now, not too bad. We’re just kind of plugging away at it. Everybody’s working their techniques in practice, and we’re going to go from there.”

Williams said his discus went well, but not so much for his shot put.

“I threw only about meter off my previous PR, so pretty solid,” he said. “But my shot put there’s room to improve. I know what I need to work on, and I’m going to focus on that in practice.”

Other top performers for Princeton were Andrew Peacock, second in the triple jump (11.0m), Grady Thompson, second in the 400 (55.4) and third in the long jump (5.56m) and a second-place finish in the 4x800 relay (9:31.3).

St. Bede’s Tom Makransky placed third in the pole vault (3.05m).

Mendota’s Sebastion Cole won the 400 (53.58).

Kewanee’s Jaiden Little was named as the boys Most Outstanding. He won the 300H (44.53) and 110 H (16.74) and ran on the Boilers’ winning effort in the 4x200 relay.