Boys’ varsity track is hungry for a three-peat.

The Knights have won two sectional championships in a row—the team even placed second in state last year—and want a third one.

“We really need to beat Burlington because they’re our closest competition at sectionals. If we beat them, we will 3-peat as sectional champs,” junior Andrew Essex said.

Despite the loss of several key players who graduated, this year’s team has been holding its own.

“I’d say we’re doing pretty well. We are doing better than a lot of people expected us to do considering we lost all of those seniors last year,” senior Curtis Secrest said.

The team competed at the Kane County Meet on May 6, coming in fourth with 57 points, a weaker performance than last year’s second-place finish. West Aurora came in first with 109.5 points, followed by Batavia with 82.5 and St. Charles North with 62.

Though the Knights are headed to the playoffs, they have to get past stiff NIB-12 competition from Yorkville and Burlington Central, some of the Knights biggest rivals in this conference.

The Knights previously beat Burlington at the Crystal Lake Central Invite on Apr. 29, placing third at the invite with 81 points, behind Crystal Lake with 112 and Belvidere North with 85; Burlington Central earned 60.6 points.

There, the Knights’ 4×100 meter relay team took first, with Jesse Balluff, Brandon Cottier, Taylor Andrews and Tommy Whittaker coming in at 43.91 seconds.

The 4×200 relay team also took first, with Balluff, Seacrest, Essex and Cottier running in 1:33.48.

The Knights also bested Yorkville at the Peterson Prep meet in April, when they came in second behind West Aurora; Yorkville came in sixth.

In a year that Kaneland needed to prove its power, it showed it the most this year with people stepping up from everywhere, Essex said.

“We are so different from last year’s team because we have so much more depth and talent in sprints. We have a bunch of younger kids stepping up for our mid and long distance. We lost the best senior class Kaneland has ever seen, and we have huge shoes to fill,” Essex said.