Record-setting day

Huntley's Marcus Popenfoose set two Fox Valley Conference Track and Field meet records Friday in McHenry. He threw 61 feet, 3 inches to win the shot put and won the discus in 184-6, both meet records. (Lauren M. Anderson - landerson@nwherald.com)

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McHENRY – Two throws, two records.

Huntley senior Marcus Popenfoose stamped his final Fox Valley Conference Track and Field Meet with two records, each on his first attempts in the shot put and discus.

Popenfoose busted out of his shot put slump with a career-best 61 feet, 3 inches on his first throw Friday at McCracken Field. He then threw 184-6 on his first discus attempt, breaking his own record in that event. Popenfoose set a tone for the field events, where four records were set.

Shortly after Popenfoose set the two marks, McHenry junior Corey Szamlewski cleared 14-10 in the pole vault and Cary-Grove junior Anthony Golowach high jumped 6-9 to set that meet record. Golowach made 6-8 on his first jump, then 6-9, also on his first jump, before missing his three attempts at 6-10.

McHenry won its second consecutive team championship with 93 points, finishing 20 ahead of second-place Dundee-Crown. Jacobs was third with 70 points.

Popenfoose demonstrated his penchant for delivering in key situations right away.

He threw 61-3, then added another 60-foot throw in the shot put, an event in which he’s struggled with fouling this season.

“I took it a little slower out of the back [of the ring],” Popenfoose said.

“We decided it would be best to slow things down. I was thinking before it always had to be faster,” Popenfoose said.

Popenfoose broke Jacobs’ Matt Whalen’s 2002 record of 58-111⁄2 in the shot put, and broke his own discus record (174-1) set last year.

Popenfoose enjoys the atmosphere and expectations of bigger meets.

“The more people I throw in front of, the better,” said Popenfoose, a repeat champion in both events. “It’s easier for me to throw big in front of bigger crowds.”

Szamlewski, jumping off a new pole, cleared 14-10 to break the pole vault record set last year by Crystal Lake Central’s Zach Siegmeier by one inch.

“It’s a carbon fiber pole that shoots you up faster and gives you some spring at the top,” said Szamlewski, who missed at 15-3. “I’m pretty comfortable on that pole. I think I would have made 15-3, but my standards were too far back. I’m real happy with this.”

Shortly after Szamlewski’s record came Golowach, who wiped out the oldest record on the list, the 6-7 1⁄2 jump of Dundee’s Craig Everett in 1981. Golowach made 6-8, then 6-9, both on his first attempts.

“I set my goal to beat that record, it feels great,” Golowach said. “It’s very exciting. At the beginning of the year my left knee didn’t feel that well.”

Golowach missed the indoor season, but has hit his stride now heading into next week’s sectional.

Jacobs’ hurdler Danny Trevor ran 14.52 in the 110-meter high hurdles to tie the meet record of Cary-Grove’s Brad Thornton. Thornton’s 14.3 was a hand-held time, so with the conversion to fully-automatic timing (which was used Friday), both athletes will share the record.

Trevor nearly swept the hurdles, but McHenry’s Jon Schmitt nipped him by the slimmest or margins to repeat as champion in the 300 intermediate hurdles. Schmitt won in 39.664, Trevor was given 39.669, as Schmitt caught Trevor just before the finish line.

“I still thought he had me,” Schmitt said. “I messed up at around the 200 mark to the 100 starting line and he got away from me a little bit. On the last hurdle he stutter-stepped a little bit and I was able to get him.”

McHenry now has won the McHenry County and FVC meets each of the last two years.

“It’s crazy,” Schmitt said. “We practice our hearts out so we can be one of the best teams in northern Illinois.”