Lisa Kunzie might have been the only Woodstock Blue Streak who wasn’t prepared during the Kishwaukee River Conference boys track and field meet.

As the enthusiastic and trophy-toting Blue Streaks took a knee and gathered around their coach on Johnsburg’s stadium infield after repeating as KRC champions Tuesday night, they requested a quote.

“All season long, I’ve been starting every week with some kind of motivational quote, like, ‘If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you,’” Kunzie said. “I should have been prepared, I guess. They were looking for something inspirational. It’s cool that they went to that moment, because those little chats that we have every week I guess were sticking with them enough to make that their focus.”

The Streaks competed with an edge the entire meet, both on the track and in the field. Led by Ellery Shutt, who four-peated in the 1,600-meter run, repeated in the 3,200 and also won the 800, Woodstock totaled 125 points. The Streaks finished well ahead of runner-up Johnsburg (81.5), Richmond-Burton (72.5), Plano (71) and Marengo (70).

Woodstock North (61), Sandwich (43) and Harvard (33) rounded out the bottom three. Harvard finished last despite Braden Wittum’s wins in the shot put and discus.

It was Woodstock’s fourth KRC title in the past five seasons, all under Kunzie, who’s in her sixth year. The Streaks finished second to Marengo in her first season in 2021 and runner-up to Richmond-Burton two years ago.

The Nebraska-bound Shutt will go down as one of the most accomplished runners in KRC history, as he finished with nine conference-meet titles, including 3,200 relay championships his freshman and sophomore years. He also helped Woodstock win the KRC cross country championship each of his four years.

His 30-point “triple” Tuesday night saw him clock times of 2:06.75 in the 800, 4:37.62 in the 1,600 and 10:19.14 in the 3,200.

“It’s been fun,” Shutt said. “I can talk about winning individual [races], I can talk about winning that 4x8 [relay] my freshman and sophomore years, but really the best thing is three out of four years we win the KRC trophy. ... It’s been exciting year in and year out to have guys who help lift me, and I try to lift them as best as I can.”

Led by Jackson Heimsoth, Marengo had another good meet in the sprint relays. The foursome of Sam Tucker, Michael Gieseke, Grant Heimsoth and Jackson Heimsoth won the 4x100 (43.14) and 4x200 (season-best 1:29.29) relays. Marengo captured the 4x400 relay (3:30.11) with Jackson Knake, Grant Heimsoth, Gavin Baros and Gieseke.

Jackson Heimsoth’s 4 for 4 night also included wins in the 100 (11.10) and 200 (22.76) dashes. He edged Woodstock North’s Jovan Suay (11.13) in the 100 and nipped Woodstock North’s Adan Castaneda (22.81) in the 200.

Richmond-Burton started the night by winning the 4x800 relay (8:49.58) with Quinn Rockwell, Ryan McClellan, Matt DeServi and Ethan Ehrenkaufer.

Harvard junior Wittum successfully defended his title in the shot put and also won the discus. The 6-foot-3½, 270-pounder put on a show in the discus, uncorking four 50-meter-plus throws. He won with a mark of 53.18, after breaking his own school record with a launch of 51.88 in the preliminaries.

He and teammate Bryan Hernandez went 1-2 in the shot put.

“I’d like to thank my coaches and my teammates,” Wittum said. “My teammates push me every day to get better. I have really good competition in practice with Bryan. He’s always right there with me. We’re always pushing each other.”

Wittum tossed the shot a winning 17.09 meters. He won the shot put last year with a heave of 14.99 meters. Wittum said Cary-Grove throws coach Josh Freeman helped change his technique, from a glider to a rotational thrower, and it has paid big dividends.

“I feel like that really excelled my shot performance and helped my discus,” Wittum said of the technique change. “Today was a really big confidence booster for disc and shot.”

Plano freshman Jayden Lumba Balingit won the long jump (personal-best 6.66 meters) and high jump (1.89 meters) and finished second to Woodstock’s Ty Steponaitis (13.11 meters) in the triple jump.

“I am happy as heck,” a smiling Lumba Balingit said. “I did not expect to get as far as I did in the long jump at all, because my first jump I did not feel it at all. Then the last one [in the prelims], I went into an all-out sprint and then jumped, and it turned out nice, so I did it for the finals.”

Lumba Balingit and the Reapers will seek state berths at the Class 2A Rochelle Sectional on Wednesday, May 20. Lumba Balingit will look to continue a season that has turned out better than he imagined.

“I never expected to do this well,” Lumba Balingit said.

Other winners included Plano’s Johnny Espino in the 400 (50.57), Johnsburg freshman Nico Hartmann in the 300 hurdles (41.07) and Sandwich’s Jacob Ross in the pole vault (4.78 meters). Ross successfully defended his title.

Steponaitis won the triple jump last year as well. His teammate Colton Medley won the 110 hurdles (15.33). Woodstock also got runner-up efforts from Marc Thomas in the long jump (6.46 meters) and William Cain in the high jump (1.84).

“Track is so often seen as an individual sport,” Kunzie said. “Leading up to this, we always talked to them about how much this matters to be a team today. Every effort matters, every little bit counts, and being there and supporting each other and motivating each other was a big deal.”