HP Hosts Meet with Loyola and Evanston

The Giants hosted a meet that included Evanston and Loyola. Both are very strong track & field programs. The meet had great weather and great competition. HP athletes left the meet with numerous personal best performances. This meet was the first open meet which allowed most of the team the opportunity to compete. 

Field Event Highlights:

In the shot put, HP had several personal best marks and a few guys competing for the first time this season. The Giants had 6 of the top 10 places for the event. Dmitry Derbedyenyev (Sr.) led the way in 2nd place with a toss of 41’5”. Braxton Peterson (Jr.) got a personal best 38’7.75” for 3rd place. This was an almost 2 foot improvement. Alex Knight (Sr.) was right near his best mark with a 38’4.75” mark to take 4th place. Ismael Vazquez (So.) also had a near 2 foot improvement as he took 5th with a 37’6.75” throw. Devin Symonette (Jr.) got a mark of 36’7.5” to place 7th.  Peter Soutsos (So.) had a big personal best throw of 36’2.75”. This was over 2 feet further than his previous best. This placed him 10th in the event. 35’7.75”. Alexandros Drosos (Jr.) and Henry Flory (Fr.) both threw near their personal best with marks of 33’7.25” and 27’6.75”. Justin Lopez (Fr.) was another HP thrower that had a personal best mark. He got 31’5.25” to improve by over 1 foot. 

In the discus, HP had a bunch of throwers that were participating in this event for the first time since they were new to the team this year. Dmitry Derbedyenyev once again led the way with a toss of 114’1” to take 2nd place once again at this meet. Soutsos continued to have a great meet with another massive personal best. He threw 109’2” for a nearly 19 foot improvement to take 5th place. Peterson got another personal best with a 100’2.75” toss for 7th place. Max Sukenik (So.) threw 97’9” for 8th place while Vazquez improved on his best from the Prospect meet to throw 90’0” for 9th place. Jacob Both (Fr.) rounded out the top 10 by throwing 89’8” to just miss going over 90. Henry Flory (Fr.) and Daniel Derbedyenyev (Fr.) were the next two HP throwers with marks of 84’9” and 81’3.25”. Drosos got a big personal best in the discus with a toss of 79’5”. Zachary Shapiro (So.) also threw a best mark by getting 56’9”. 

In the high jump Russel Czerwinski (Sr.) continued his successful season. He won the event and cleared 6’2.75” which is 9th all-time outdoors at HPHS. Jayden Corchado (Fr.) cleared 4’11” in the event. 

The HP pole vaulters had a great day. The 3 vaulters each cleared personal best heights. After a disappointing meet at the Prospect Relays, Gavin Flory (Jr.) bounced back with an impressive personal best by clearing 12’0”! Yonatan Garfinkel (Sr.) continues to learn the event as he just started this season. He was able to clear a bar at a solid 9’0”. Will Redmond (So.) also cleared a personal best by getting over 8’0”. 

A few of the triple jumpers from HP were near their personal best marks with Lincoln Seidman (Jr.) leading the way in 5th place. He jumped 36’5”. William Sheahen (So.) and Luca Ritchie (Fr.) were near their personal bests with jumps of 31’3.25” and 29’3.75”.

The Giant long jumpers were led by a huge personal best jump from Knight for 3rd place. He went from a best of just over 17 feet to 18’7.25”. Seidman was the next HP finisher taking 5th place with a jump of 17’10.75”. Two other HP jumpers were over 17 feet. Oliver Baterdene (Sr.) jumped 17’2.75” and Quentin Kelley (Jr.) got a mark of 17’2.25”. Sheahen was near his personal best with a 14’5” jump and Alejandro Jauregui (Jr.) was also near his best at 14’1”. Vasco Leite (Fr.) jumped a personal best of 13’11.75” while Ritchie got over 13 feet for the first time with a jump of 13’9”.     

Track Event Highlights:

The frosh-soph 4X100 meter relay team of Mishkin Filstrup (Fr.), Hayden Tortora (So.), Jonathan Blidee (Fr.), and Jayden Corchado (Fr.) ran a season nest :46.93. 

Oliver Baterdene (Sr.) went sub 18 for the first time in the 110 meter high hurdles to take 6th place. He ran :17.94 for the event. Mateo Diaz (Jr.) ran :20.04 while Elliott Schraub (Fr.) raced this event for the first time and got :20.83. 

Filstrup led the way for the Giants in the 100 meter dash with a 12.08. Damian Zuno (Sr.) was the next HP finisher in 12.16. Corchado (12.2), Both (12.44) and Blidee (12.73) were all under 13 seconds. Jauregui (13.25), Will Redmond (14.04), and Sheahen (14.24) all ran personal best times. There were also several guys racing the 100 for the first time. 

Barak Goldstein (Sr.) and Zach Coren (Sr.) were well ahead of the pack in the 800 meter run. They went 1-2 in 1:59.12 and 2:00.95. This was a huge personal best for Coren and a season best for Goldstein. A trio of HP sophomores worked extremely well together throughout the race. They all came into the finish within .42 seconds of each other. Truman Evans, Lucas Hoobler, and Daniel Doyle raced to the finish in 2:10.53, 2:10.92, and 2:10.95. These were personal best times for all three athletes. David Miller (So.) ran a 2 second personal best in 2:26.99. Joey Naftzger (So.) was near his best in 2:33.88. Joaquin Martinez (Fr.) ran a personal best 2:38.13 and Ari Dobos (Sr.) ran his best time of 3:36.87. 

HP had 4 of the top 10 finishers in the 400 meter dash. Gal Raviv (So.) led the way for the Giants with a 4th place finish in an impressive personal best :56.03. Ben Kerch (Sr.) was next, also in a personal best with a :56.43 for 5th place. Zuno raced to 6th place in his first ever 400 and ran a strong :56.89. Tortora was next in 8th place running :58.08. Ethan Glovsky (So.) ran a 3 second personal best just missing sub 60 running 1:00.36. Eric Rojas (Jr.) was near his best time with a 1:04.96. 

HP had 9 athletes race the 300 meter intermediate hurdles. 5 of them were racing the event for the first time. The Giants were led by Lachlan Knapp (Jr.) in 4th place. He ran a personal best time of :42.45. Robert Oboza (Sr.) also ran his best time with a :43.55 to take 5th place. Baterdene came through with another personal best to finish in :45.24. Connor Edelstein (Sr.) raced the event for the first time and ran a solid :45.90. Usiel Rodriguez (Jr.) also racing the event for the first time ran :46.20. Diaz ran a personal best :47.57. Schraub ran sub 50 with a time of :49.60. Preston Reed (Fr.) ran :54.02 while Luke Byrnes (Jr.) ran a :54.79.

The 1600 meter run produced numerous PRs for the HP distance runners. The team was led by Henry Gamson (So.) in 4:44.65 for a 6 second personal best and 3rd place finish. Josh Brown (So.) ran 4:56.38 for 9th place. Logan Liu (So.) ran a season best 4:58.25. Lowell Redmond (So.) ran a huge personal best of 5:11.95. His previous best was 5:21. Abel Reese (Fr.) had a 5 second improvement as he ran 5:15.79. Spencer Pedraza (So.) ran 5:27.50 while Robby Mendoza (Jr.) crossed the line in a personal best 5:45.64. Dylan Stiller (So.) broke 6 minutes for the first time with a 5:57.69. Joaquin Rivera (Fr.) continues to be having a great season and dropping time each meet. He ran a personal best 6:16.77. That is a 10 second drop from his previous best time run at the last meet. Maksar Oyurskiy (Fr.) also continues to drop time as he ran 6:31.37. 

The 200 meter dash was another event in which the Giants ran a ton of best times. Quentin Kelley (Jr.) and Coren ran the same time of :24.03. This was a big improvement for Kelley and the first time distance runner Coren raced this event. Filstrup was close behind in a :24.19 personal best. Kerch also ran another personal best with a :25.18. Zuno competed in his 3rd event of the meet and still ran a personal best :25.19. Blidee ran over 1 second faster than his previous best with a time of :25.49. Schraub dropped nearly 2 seconds, running :26.74. Jauregui ran :27.11 while Eric Rojas (Jr.) ran a season best :27.43. Leite ran 2 seconds faster with a ::27.50. Will Redmond crossed the line in a best time of :27.92. Jude White (Fr.) ran :28.00 while Reed ran a personal best :28.27 and Ritchie ran :31.30. 

HP had 5 teams competing in the 4X400 meter relay. The team of Knapp (:54.9), Goldstein (:52.9), Oboza (:52.6), and Rodriguez (:54.9) had a big win in 3:35.63. The frosh-soph team of Jackson (:56.0), Tortora (:57.3), Raviv (:59.1), and Evans (:54.4) ran a season best 3:47.16. Several other personal best splits included Edelstein (:56.6), Baterdene (:58.8), Garfinkel (:57.8), Czerwinski (:54.0), Doyle (:56.0), Hoobler (:58.3), Miller (1:00.8), and L. Redmond (1:01.4). 

This was a nice meet of growth for the Giants. There were many positives, but plenty of things to work to get better at. 

Giant of the Meet Nominations:

Constantine Soutsos - 2 huge PRs - Discus 91’6.75” to 109’2” and Shot Put 33’10.25” to 36’2.75”.

Braxten Peterson - 2 PRs - Discus 92’8” to 100’2.75” and Shot Put 36’9.5” to 38’7.75”.

Daniel Doyle - Great race in the 800 to run a 6 second PR of 2:10.95 and then another big PR in 4X400 with a :56.0 split.

Elliott Schraub - 4 events: 100m 13.1, 110HH 20.83, 300IH :49.60, and 200 PR in 26.74.

Damian Zuno - 3 events: 100 11.16, 400 :56.89, and 200 :25.19. All PRs.

Gavin Flory - After struggling at Prospect Relays, bounce back with a big PR of 12’0”.

Giants of the Meet:

Constantine Soutsos and Daniel Doyle