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Princeton’s Landen Hoffman sweeps throws, Rock Falls boys win Ferris Invite

Princeton‘s Landen Hoffman got the gallery to clap ahead of his final throw in the discus in Monday’s Ferris Family Princeton invite.It got him pumped up a little too much perhaps as he launched a moon shot seldom seen from the Prather Field ring that almost hit the tennis courts fencing, way out of bounds.Nonetheless, he tossed the winning throw of 48.82m, topping Rock Falls’ Zach Walker by nearly nine meters.For good measure, Hoffman also made off with the blue ribbon in the shot put at 14.34m.“My first one (in the discus), I was just taking it calm and easy, just getting one in. It felt good. So after that, I just slowly started to try harder and then I just kept losing it early and kept coming out too early,” Hoffman said.“It’s way different when you have a crowd clapping. You can feel it, like the energy building. It felt like it was a mix of getting to over pumped and really wanting to do a big throw instead of the correct things to get a big throw.” The Tigers settled for second place behind Rock Falls. The Rockets won seven events with four seconds to beat out the Tigers 237-212.5. They were followed by Kewanee (197.5), Mendota (194) and Hall (116).“It’s a great meet. We enjoy coming to it,” Rock Falls coach Eric Bontz said. ”Princeton did a fine job tonight and pushed us to do our best. Really a nice night for us. We’ve had very few meets this year with cancellations. I felt like this was the first time we got to get out and run against some really good teams."While the distances were not quite what he wanted in his throws, Hoffman was pleased to win both events.“Feels good to take home first even if it wasn’t a great day especially in a meet like this where points matter. If we win this meet, we get a trophy,” he said. “I was really wanting the meet record (in the discus) because what I threw last week would have got it. I wanted it really bad. I’ll get it next year. I’ll get both of them next year.”It was also a good day for the Tigers’ Casey Etheridge. He swept the hurdles with times of 15.15 in the 110HH and 40.29 in the 300 LH and led off the Tigers winning relay effort 4x400 (3:32.02) with Gavin Lanham, Ayden Agushi and Tyler VandeVenter.The same relay group also took second in the 4x100.“We ran together last year and have good team chemistry (in the relays) and all bought in. We want to keep improving each meet,’ Etheridge said. ”I’m really happy with my 110s. My 300s, I didn’t PR. Some people say you can’t PR every meet, but it’s still under state (qualifying) time. Nothing to be ashamed about."“Our goal isn’t to get second (as a team), but we’ll keep improving and get there.”Agushi also won the 400 (54.02) and took third in the high jump (1.70m) while VandeVenter claimed the 800 (2:09.3). Princeton also got thirds from Aiden Robinson in the long jump (5.53m) and the 4x200 (1:38.62).Rock Falls had the running events covered on both ends with Alexavier Oquendo sweeping the 100 (11.14) and 200 (23.07) and Ian Finley claiming the 1,600 (4:58.69) and the 3,200 (11:01.5).The Rockets also won the 4x100 relay (44.5) and went 1-2 in the triple jump with Connor South (12.15m) and Josiah Tarbill (11.95). Hall’s Joseph Perez claimed second in the high jump (1.85m) and Christopher Hollenbeck was second in the thrower’s 100 (13.2) while the Red Devils took third in the 4x100 (47.1).Mendota won the 4x200 relay with Ryder Woods, Robert Botello, Johan Cortez and Jamal Lesley turning in a 1:36.27 while Komen Denault won the pole vault (3.56m).The Trojans got seconds from Jamal Lesley in the 100 (11.38) and 200 (23.18), Sebastian Carlos in the 800 (2:10.07), Berat Imeri in the 1,600 (5:03.65), Carlos Toribio in the 3,200 (11:03.22) and the 4x800 (9:06.97) and 4x200 (1:36.27) relays.

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