Naperville North took first place in the boys overall team competition at its Gus Scott Invitational with 186 points on Friday evening in Naperville.

The Huskies had a good time while doing it according to some of their top athletes.

“It’s so fun. This is my favorite meet all year,” said Huskies senior Andrew Hebron, who placed first with a time of 49.6 in the 400.

“I think we’re crushing it so far,” he added, midway through the event. “We have a bunch of top Illinois times, so we know we can compete with the top teams in the state.”

Cary-Grove placed second with 164 points, Wheaton Warrenville South (144) took third, Jacobs (128) placed fourth, Benet (98) was sixth and St. Charles East (80) was seventh.

Hebron’s Naperville North teammate Shawn Kyereh won multiple events for the Huskies, including both long jump and triple jump.

Kyereh, a sophomore, leapt 20 feet, 8.5 inches in the long jump and 44-0.75 in the triple. He was happy with his performance in both events, particularly the long jump.

“My preparation was pretty solid. I felt like that was my best performance today,” said Kyereh. “I got to work on my landing.”

As for his triple jump, he is hopeful that he can continue improving and earn a trip down state later this spring.

“I’m just inching towards the state goal, which is 44-0.5 for 3A. And I’m just trying to get closer to it, and be ready for sectionals, jump that mark, and go to state,” he added.

There was a tornado watch throughout the meet and the high winds were a factor all evening long, particularly during sprint events.

Another Huskie, Charlie Minott, felt the impact it made when he sprinted to first place in the 800 with a time of 2:00.64.

“As I was warming up, I noticed the wind was super strong,” said Minott. “I came out here, and practiced strides against the wind, just to get myself used to how strong the wind would be and kind of match my pace to that.”

That same wind was used as an aid in the 100, where Aden Applewhite of Wheaton Warrenville South took first place with a 10.77 sprint. He is determined to get off to a hot start this spring after a few struggles with injuries this winter.

“Winter season was kind of a little rough,” said Applewhite. “I came into the season injured and I fell on my face at the conference race with the 55 meters, so that made me really hungry to come outside and do a lot of good things.”

It is exactly what he did this afternoon, launching out of the gate strong and finishing the event out in front.

“When I picked my head up and I didn’t see anybody with me, I knew I was gone,” he added. “I just had to hang on and finish the race.”

Meanwhile in the field events, Logan Abrams of Cary-Grove took home first place in both discus and shot put, with throws of 188-6 and 62-4.5 in the respective events.

His coach Josh Freeman feels that the best is yet to come for Abrams this spring.

“He is just finally getting his groove back that he had during the indoor season,” said Freeman. “[With] the weather that we’ve had the last, like, 3 weeks or so…we’ve had a lot of rained out practices, and then when things get moved inside [there’s] not a lot of room in the school to practice and obviously throw things.”

Abrams has been doing what he can to get by in practice and clearly seems to be hitting his stride in the early goings outdoors.

The wind did not impact shot put very much; however, it did affect discus throws.

“[The discus] was all over the place,” said Wheaton Warrenville thrower Zachary Turner, who placed second in discus with a 171-10 and third in shot put at 49-10.5.

“The disc looked like it was flying straight, and then it just turned straight over,” added Turner.

Abrams’ teammate, Jameson Tenopir, won the 3,200 in 10:04.32.

There were several other standout performances around the meet.

Kieran Nally took first place in the 200 sprint for Jacobs with a time of 2.38. The Golden Eagles placed fourth overall.

John Rigali of St. Charles East competed in the 4x800 and the 800 events for the Saints.

“We had a really great start. Even though, like, maybe the last 800, we kind of even fell back a bit,” said Rigali. “It is kind of windy, so I feel like times don’t really matter.”

Rigali ran a 2:05.78 in the solo 800 and the Saints 4x800 relay squad ran a 8:37.47 as a group.

Bob Johnson, Will Niziolek, and Lucas Catapia led coach Brian Quick’s Benet squad.

Johnson placed third in the 1,600 run with a time of 4:25.22, while Niziolek ran a 14.92 in the 110 hurdles, good for second place. Meanwhile, Catapia ran an 11.18 in the 100.

“We’re only two weeks in, but already starting to see the fruits of the labor from the indoor season,” said Quick. “I try to run them as much as possible to get ready for all this outdoor fun stuff, because it’s more meets in less time.”