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Batavia's Brandon Clabough won the pole vault at the Batavia High School Track Meet on Saturday, Apr. 07, 2012. | Donnell Collins~For Sun-Times Media

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Updated: April 7, 2012 10:25PM

They keep no team scores at Batavia’s Les Hodge Invitational, and schools can enter as many athletes in events as they want. But the unique format failed to keep Geneva junior Peter Archibald from making a big individual statement.

Coming off a sophomore season plagued by injury, Archibald set himself up with a solid seed time for the future by running a meet-record 1:54.68 in the 800 meters to bury the competition in the early-season outdoor meet.

“I had no idea I was going to do this,” said Archibald. “I thought it was going to be a really tough day because it was windy and everything, but to my surprise a 1:54 — that just blew my mind.

“You’ve got to be proud of that with this wind.”

Archibald won by 4.44 seconds over Burlington Central’s Mike Gulik for one of the Vikings’ four first-place finishes, tops among area teams.

“He ran a great split for us, too, in our four by 400 relay, so he had an incredible day,” Geneva coach Gale Gross said of Archibald, whose best 800 time this year had been a 1:58 split in the four by 800 indoors.

Archibald suffered a shin stress fracture last year and it didn’t keep him from making state, but did prevent him from making an impact.

“I tried to run through it for a while because we didn’t know it was a stress fracture right away, then when we found out later on I had to stop everything for a long time and work back into it slowly,” Archibald said. “I feel like I could have been competitive at state.”

A time like he ran Saturday would have made him a state medalist last season, and he did it in his first outdoors open 800.

Joining Archibald in the winner’s circle for the Vikings was Zac Miller with a 15.93-second effort into the wind in the 110-meter high hurdles, Ben Rogers at 21-5½ inches in the long jump, and Kyle McNeil at a personal best 45-3¼ in the shot.

Miller might have won both hurdles races if not for Burlington Central’s Ryan Olsen alertly getting up after falling over the last hurdle of the 300 intermediates, and getting his hand across the finish line before Miller could catch up. Miller lost that by .41 seconds.

“Zac has been sort of waiting in the wings,” Gross said. “He’s been behind some really great hurdlers for the last three years and he’s just been waiting for his chance and now he’s going to get it. We’re expecting great things.”

It was Rogers’ first effort as the Vikings decided to take it easy with him following some injuries in football and basketball.

Batavia came away with two first-place finishes in the meet that was dominated by St. Charles North, and East Aurora with one.

Rourke Mullins, Marquise Jenkins, Noel Gaspari, and Jon Gray comprised the Bulldogs’ 800 relay team that won in 1:32.28 by 1.13 seconds over Burlington Central. All four played football, and with Gaspari (the quarterback) handing the baton to Gray for the anchor, Batavia coach Dennis Piron said, “It was a nice football passing connection there at the end of it.

“Marquise Jenkins had a fantastic split. He was a defensive end in football and, boy, can he do some nice things.”

The Bulldogs also got a 13-6 effort in the pole vault from winner Brandon Clabough.

“We think he’ll do better. It was a tough day in his event with that wind,” Piron said.

East Aurora sophomore Desmond Gant buried the competition in the 200-meter dash, finishing in 23.12 seconds into the wind. Runner-up Josh Phelan was .47 seconds back.

“We’re really excited about Desmond,” East Aurora coach Shane Gillespie said. “He just came to us off the basketball court recently so he hasn’t had much time to work on starts. He’s going to be a stud for us, a strong kid. We’re going to stretch him out in the 400 a little bit, too.

“All our sprinters are sophomores and we’re excited about that and our numbers. We’ve got 50 out and only three or four are seniors. That’s great, but it’s going to be a little rough at times early.”