18-year drought ends for Bombers

RENSSELAER -- Dan Yeager's first guess was 12 years. As in, the last time his Rensselaer boys track team won a sectional.

Yeager could be forgiven for not knowing -- and being more than a little off on his guess. He was 13 years old in 1990, the last time the Bombers accomplished what they did Thursday night.

"We had talked about it the last three or four days," Yeager said. "We talked about what they wanted to do. They were determined to win a sectional."

It took every ounce of determination Rensselaer could muster, and then some, to snap that 18-year skid. In a meet that wasn't decided until the final events, the host Bombers tallied 121.1.5 points to edge Winamac (106) and Kankakee Valley (99), the two-time defending champ.

Junior Braylon Gagnon and senior Chris Pfledderer led the way for the Bombers. Gagnon won the discus, capturing his first sectional victory, and also advanced to next week's Valparaiso Regional with a fourth-place finish in the shot put.

Gagnon's personal-best throw of 154-4 in the discus edged Hebron's Mark Passine by 3 inches.

"After reading about him in the paper," Gagnon said of Passine, "it kind of psyches you up to beat him."

Pfledderer drew his motivation from near victories in the 110 and 300 hurdles at last year's sectional.

"It kind of made me mad," he said.

Pfledderer won the 110 hurdles, his first sectional victory, and took second in the 300 hurdles to Kouts' Steve Furdeck, who also got his first individual sectional victory.

Furdeck's victory also marked his first time qualifying for regionals in an individual event.

"I've been on relays," he said, "but (going as an individual) feels so much better."

Furdeck and teammate Ben Osborne were supposed to run the 200. But the two decided on Wednesday to drop out of the race to preserve energy for the 1,600 relay.

"We decided the relay was more important," said Furdeck, who also advanced with a third-place finish in the 100.

Thanks to Furdeck's strong final leg, the Mustangs shattered the school record in the process of winning the 1,600 relay.

"I knew if we had the lead or we were right there (on the final lap), we were going to get it," Furdeck said.

Despite being seeded third in the 800, Kankakee Valley's Caleb Tillema also figured he had a shot at winning it. While top-seeded Mike Fauser of Boone Grove had already run -- and won -- the 1,600, Tillema was fresh. On top of that, his older brother, Josh Tillema, last year's 800 sectional champ, gave him some advice before the race.

"He told me what not to do," Caleb said.

If, by chance, Josh told his kid brother not to show him up, Caleb didn't oblige. He won the 800 in 2:01.27, more than a second faster than Josh's time last year.

"I didn't want to lead the whole way," Caleb said. "I wanted to stay back and see what they had."

Other individual winners included: Morgan Township's Zach Marvel, who also advanced in the 800, in the long jump; Kankakee Valley's Bo Vanderwoude, who also advanced in the 100, in the 200; Kouts' Ben Osborne in the 400; Kouts' Jacob Carden in the 3,200 and LaCrosse's Travis Zippel in the high jump.