Sam Hill didn’t mind running a bit of a slower time in the 3,200-meter race.

The St. Charles North junior entered the 107th running of the Kane County Meet seeded 46 seconds ahead of his teammate, sophomore Miles Dill. And while he knew that he could try to go for the meet record, the thought never came to his mind.

“I didn’t even think about running it fast, I just wanted him to run fast as well and get second,” Hill said. “He’s been through a ton of hardship, and I wanted to be there for him. I wanted to push him through to a personal-best and a second-place finish there.”

It was that sort of display that led to team success for the North Stars, as they ended up double-scoring across seven events to lead to 130 points to help them defend their team title at East Aurora.

“It’s hard to be more proud of a situation than seeing that in this kind of meet,” North Stars coach Kevin Harrington said. “Sam had some kids take care of him growing up, and to see him do the same thing there, that just speaks numbers of his character.”

Hill ended up taking the victory in the 3,200 in 9:34.26, which was one of two wins the team had on the night. Cooper Kowalczyk had the other, winning the shot put with a throw of 16.16 meters.

“We just wanted to go 1-2 in that race and secure those points,” Hill said on his win. “We wanted to defend that title, and making sure that Miles stayed right there was important to us winning the meet.”

Harrington said he was more surprised by the amount of silver medals the team finished with. The North Stars had nine second-place finishes on the evening.

“It’s kind of shocking when you think about what it takes to win this meet and not have a lot of wins,” Harrington said. “We had some issues earlier in the meet, but I’m proud of the team stepping up, especially with some of those kids coming out of the woodworks for those silvers. This was a big team win.”

Geneva would take second on the night, finishing with a meet-high five wins and 106 points. The biggest story of the night came from sprinter Bennett Konkey. The junior set meet records in both the 100 (10.41) and the 200 (21.00), with the latter of the two being the fastest time in Illinois this season.

“I mean, it’s the county meet,” Konkey said. “There’s a lot of fast runners here, and I just wanted to keep my head down, stay locked in and just do my thing, and that’s exactly what I did.”

Konkey also ended up leading the Vikings to a win in the 4x100, taking the team from fifth to first in the final leg to take the gold in 42.06.

“He’s just unbelievable,” Vikings coach Boone Thorgesen said. “There’s not many words to describe him besides that. He’s the fastest man in Kane County history, and he just put up an unbelievable effort, and I think everybody knows who he is now.”

Mason Halbach added to the medal pile with a win in the 400 in 49.90, and Lex Griffith added another with a win in the discus with a throw of 50.13 meters.

“We ran great and our studs came out and competed and did what they were supposed to do,” Thorgesen said. “We have some really special guys on the team, so it’s fun to see them compete at such a big meet and have that success.”

Kaneland rounded out the top three teams for the second consecutive season, collecting four wins to lead the Knights to 88 points.

“When they wear those orange jerseys for this meet, special things tend to happen, and we saw that,” Knights coach Andy Drendel said. “The boys really got out for this one. We’ve got it circled on the calendar, and the kids really embrace the atmosphere and the history of the meet.”

Brady Mittman won the 110 hurdles in 15.55, Gavin Smith won the 800 in 1:55.03 and Griffin Seaton won the triple jump with a leap of 13.33 meters to lead the individual wins for the Knights.

Their biggest win of the night came in the 4x200, with the team of Colton VanDyke, Noah Cronell, Jackson Boryc and Ben Karl running an Illinois No. 2 time of 1:27.58, breaking the meet record that the team set just a year prior despite Karl being the only returner from that relay.

“There were four extremely competitive kids in that relay, and we just needed some good weather,” Drendel said. “That time was still jaw-dropping even for me though. They wanted to win it, and they’ve finally gotten rewarded for their efforts.”

Dennis Piron, who’s retiring from coaching track and field at the end of the season, saw his Batavia team take fourth on the day with 69 points. The Bulldogs didn’t get a win until the final event of the night, taking the gold in the 4x400 in 3:24.26. West Aurora, who took second at the meet last year, was in fifth with 55 points.

Burlington Central just missed the top five, taking sixth with 46 points. Gavin Klingberg had the Rockets’ only win, getting first in the 300 hurdles in 40.12. St. Charles East, who took seventh place with 44 points, had its best event was the 400, where Leo Bolsoni and Peter VanLue took second and third.

Dundee-Crown, who had star sprinter Oreoluwa Sobudu sit out of both the 100 and 200, managed an eighth-place finish with 39 points. Kyle Brents won the long jump with a leap of 6.91 meters and Rylan Schmidt won the pole vault, clearing 4.54 meters.

Aurora Central Catholic (ninth, 30 points) started off the meet with a record, with the quartet of Jack Swiatek, Ben Bohr, Giovannie Gutierrez and John Reinbold posting a 7:50.93 in the 4x800, breaking the meet record and the school record, which was set in 1979.

In coach Dan Thorpe’s final Kane County meet, Marmion (12th, 22 points) would have its best result of the night in the 1,600, with Joseph Dorando winning in 4:20.71, with Michael Whitacre close behind for third.