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Geneva's Ben Rogers competes in the long jump during the Kane County Track Meet. Rogers won both the long jump and triple jump. | Corey R. Minkanic~For Sun-Times Media

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Updated: May 6, 2012 9:51PM

It was a long time coming for the boys track teams at Kaneland and Geneva high schools.

Each finished with 74 points Friday to tie for the team championship at the 94th Annual Kane County Meet and end a streak of four straight wins by host West Aurora.

“That’s only the second time we’ve ever won. The other was in 1975,” said Kaneland coach Eric Baron. “Coming in, on paper, we were seeded fifth. We hadn’t had a flawless meet all season. I thought we could be one of the teams in the hunt.”

Geneva coach Gale Gross, noting his school had won the title just twice and thought the last was in the 1960s, said, “Overall, it was just a great effort. I wasn’t sure we’d win it, but I knew we had a chance. I figured we could be in the top four. I just told the kids it’s an opportunity and you’ve just gotta take advantage of it.”

No one did that better than senior Peter Archibald, a middle distance specialist who broke the longstanding meet’s second oldest record when he edged St. Charles East’s Jake Mazanke to win the 800-meter run in 1:52.76.

Ron Ackerman of Kaneland set the previous mark of 1:54.14 in 1975. East Aurora long jumper Ron Hester has the oldest meet record of 23-0.5, which he set back in 1964.

“That broke a school record that goes back to the ‘70s as well,” said Archibald, who wasn’t sure who held that one.

He started his night by running a 1:53 split in the Vikings’ winning 4X800 relay then came back to anchor the team’s 1600 relay in the final race of the night that decided the team race.

The Vikings entered that event with a 72-70 lead. Kaneland took fourth and scored four points while Geneva held on for fifth and scored two team points leading to the tie.

Geneva also got two wins from senior Ben Rogers, who claimed the long jump (22-4.25) and triple jump (45-8).

Kaneland had two event wins, Nate Dyer in the shot put (50-0) and Dylan Nauert in the 300 hurdles (40.19).

West Aurora finished third with 65 points while St. Charles North (56) and Batavia (50) rounded out the top five. Marmion (37) was eighth, Aurora Central (33) and East Aurora (7) 13th in the 15-team meet.

ACC’s Joe Fese won the 100-meter dash (11.16) and West Aurora’s Lijah Spears improved his personal record in the discus by six feet to win with a throw of 154-8.

Other members of Geneva’s 3200 relay, which won in 7:55.63, were Michael Bianchina, Justin Davis and Nathan Wendt.