Daily Chronicle sports roundup for Thursday, May 11, 2023

The DeKalb girls track and field team took second in the team standings and qualified five individuals for state with three sectional champions at Wednesday’s Class 3A Metea Valley Sectional in Aurora.

The Barbs scored 60 points, finishing a distant second to DuPage Valley Conference rival Naperville Central, which won its first sectional title since 2001 with 117 points. Metea Valley rounded out an all-DVC top-three with 59 points.

DeKalb’s Jayme Redmond won the shot put with an effort of 11.13 meters (36 feet, 6.25 feet) and Sariyah Watson the 400-meter dash in 57.96 seconds, just beating out Naperville Central’s Sophie Kusserow in 58.00 seconds.

A similar close finish between DVC rivals played out in the pole vault and 800. In the pole vault DeKalb’s Joscelyn Dieckman and Naperville Central’s Kait McHale both cleared 3.87 meters (12 feet, 8.25 inches), with Dieckman prevailing on fewer misses.

In the 800 DeKalb’s Korima Gonzalez just missed chasing down Naperville Central’s Lola Satre-Morales on the final straightaway, Gonzalez taking second in 2:18.07 to her opponent’s 2:17.98.

“It was OK. It was a good race,” Gonzalez said. “It wasn’t exactly the strategy I was hoping for but I think I did kind of what I could do.”

The two runners were no strangers, having also gone head-to-head at conference with Gonzalez winning that race last week.

“That was a better race for me because I won it in like 2:17, but I felt good in both of those races,” Gonzalez said. “I was probably more nervous today than I was for DVC which probably played into how ready I felt mentally, which I think was reflected in my place and time. Last week I think with school I was distracted so I didn’t have time to stress myself out about racing. Today I had more time to think about it.”

Gonzalez will be heading to Charleston next week for the first time in an open race. She qualified with DeKalb’s 4x400 relay last year.

“I think as the season progressed I kind of shifted my focus to the 800. I think at the beginning of the season and in indoor I was in between the 800 and 1,600,” Gonzalez said. “As the season progressed and I dropped time I saw this more as a possibility.”

DeKalb’s Sydney Myles also qualified for state in the high jump with a qualifying standard of 1.57 meters for third place.

Class 2A Sterling Sectional: Genoa-Kingston had one state qualifier in three events, and Sycamore had three state qualifiers in three events at DuWayne Dietz Track at Roscoe Eades Stadium.

The Cogs’ Ellie Logsdon qualified in the 100 meters, the 400 meters and the 200 meters. She ran a 26.01 for the sectional title in the 200, a 12.49 for second in the 100, and a 57.78 for second in the 400.

“I felt really good about doing it. I definitely pushed myself to be able to get to this point,” Logsdon said. “I’ve worked really hard this year to make this happen, because I went last year as well, but only for the 200. I wanted to go for more events, so I felt really good about getting there, because this is what I worked for.”

Sycamore’s Malerie Morey qualified in the pole vault, clearing 3.13 meters to tie for second place with Plano’s Sasha Helfgott-Waters. The Spartans’ Karissa Clawson qualified in the high jump, clearing 1.54 meters for second place, and sophomore Alyssa Stacy qualified in the 100 meters, clocking a 12.7 for fourth place - the exact cutoff time for Class 2A state girls qualifiers. She also ran a 26.76 for fourth in the 200 meters, missing the qualifying mark by .47 seconds.

“I was really happy with it, because I’ve never broken 13 [seconds], so I was really excited when it came back and I did make it to state, and I was shocked because I was ranked sixth,” said the first-time state qualifier Stacy. “So I was really happy that I was able to push myself and make it. My goal was to get fourth place, I thought that was a logical goal since I was ranked sixth, and I did want to break 13, so I was happy with that.”

Boys track and field

DuPage Valley Conference: DeKalb’s Riley Newport and Jacob Barraza turned the 1,600-meter run into a personal dual.

Newport ended up taking the race in 4:17.39 - one of the top times in the state this spring. Barraza wasn’t too far behind running a solid 4:20.42.

Both should be in prime position to qualify for state at sectionals, which for DeKalb is at home Wednesday.

“I felt pretty smooth the whole time and controlled. It’s nice to get back into running more miles and feeling good about them. That’s a confidence builder where I can run that time and still feel like I got more in the tank,” Newport said. “It really feels like I was cruising. This is obviously such a tough conference. It’s anybody’s day so I said let’s make it mine. I went out there and tried to take it out as quick as I can and finish it as quick as I can.”

Andrew Tumminaro finished second in the pole vault for the Barbs.

Big Northern Conference Meet: At Rock Falls, Kyle Halter was the top finisher for Genoa-Kingston at the Big Northern Conference meet. Halter ran 53.66 and finished second in the 400 meters.

Baseball

Crystal Lake Central 8, Sycamore 6: At Sycamore, Tommy Townsend homered and doubled twice and drove in three to lead the Spartans. Central put up a six-spot in the sixth inning to break the game open. Owen Piazza had a pair of RBIs for Sycamore (23-5).

Dixon 9, Genoa-Kingston 0: At Genoa, the Cogs were limited to a Connor Grimm double in the Big Northern Conference contest. GK fell to 7-19 overall, 2-16 in league play.

Neuqua Valley 11, DeKalb 0: At DeKalb, the contest got away from the Barbs after the Wildcats plated five in the top of the seventh. Jackson Kees struck out seven in six innings and Brodie Farrell had the lone hit for the Barbs (13-14-1, 4-11 in the DuPage Valley).

Softball

Neuqua Valley 5, DeKalb 2: At Naperville, Lauren Gates drove in both runs for the Barbs in the DVC contest. Hazel Montavon and Madison Hallaron had two hits each for DeKalb (5-14, 1-8).

Genoa-Kingston 12, Byron 1 (6 inn.): At Genoa, Kiearah Mitchell struck out five and had two hits incl3uding a double and two RBIs to lead the Cogs in the BNC. Olvia Vasak had RBIs and Corinne Lavelle two RBIs for GK (12-15, 7-8).

Girls soccer

Benet 6, Kaneland 1: At Lisle, the Knights dropped their regular-season finale to the Redwings. Kaneland closed the regular season at 12-5.

*Dan Wussow, Josh Welge and Stan Goff contributed to this report.