4X800 Sets New School Record at Lake County Invite

The Lake County Invite includes 20 schools and is a great competitive meet. The Giants were excited for the opportunity to compete at such a high level meet. Sadly, due to severe weather in the area, the meet ended up being stopped after a few heats of the 400 meter dash. Despite numerous fantastic performances, the team and coaches were also disappointed for the missed opportunities for the athletes that didn’t get to compete in the final handful of events. 

Field Event Highlights:

Russell Czerwinski (Sr.) continued to rise to the occasion during competition in the high jump. He cleared 6’4.75” to win the event against a great field of jumpers. 

Dmitry Derbedyenyev (Sr.) had another strong meet in the throws. He threw 126’9” in the discus and 44’11” in the shot put. Max Sukenik (So.) had a toss of 111’6” in the discus and Jacob Both (Fr.) threw 37’11.5” in the shot put. The meet was a great experience for these two young throwers. 

Gavin Flory (Jr.) cleared 10’11.75” despite dealing with some injury issues. 

Tyler Rosenthal (Sr.) jumped a personal best in the triple jump of 38’11”. Lincoln Seidman (Jr.) got a mark of 35’10”. 

In the long jump, Seidman jumped 17’9” while Alex Knight (Sr.) got 16’9.25”. 

Track Event Highlights:

The 4X800 meter relay was an event the team looked to put together their best line-up to try to run sub 8 minutes and take a shot at the school record. A few other teams put together strong line-ups as well to make for a more competitive race. Barak Goldstein (Sr.) led off for the Giants. By the end of the first lap, he and the runner from Lakes High School started to separate themselves from the remainder of the field. Goldstein took the lead on the back stretch, but was then passed by the Lakes runner as they came down the homestretch just a few strides apart. Goldstein split a 1:56.9 for a great start to the relay. Zach Coren (Sr.) was next up for HP and took the lead on the back stretch of the first lap. With just over 200 to go, Coren got passed by the runner from Lakes and stayed close as he made the exchange and split a personal best 1:58.3. Robert Oboza (Sr.) got out fast and got the lead for his team. He built that lead through a very fast first lap. On the second lap he was able to maintain that lead and get the baton to the anchor leg as he split an impressive 1:57.5 personal best. Nate Wehner (Sr.) was the anchor and had to go past some of the other team’s runners that he was lapping. He battled tough and pushed to a 2:01.6 split as he held the big lead for a team victory. The final time was an incredible 7:54.50 which is a new HP school record. The old record was 7:56.94 set in 2009. 

The 4X100 meter relay team of Lachlan Knapp (Jr.), Damian Zuno (Sr.), Eddy Picazo (Sr.), and Tyler Rosenthal (Sr.) ran well. They were able to make clean handoffs and finish with a season best time of :45.74. 

The 3200 meter run featured the return of Brian Hatoum (Jr.) who has been injured since the start of the season. Lucas Hoobler (So.) was also in the race and planned to work with Hatoum to run a fast time. The two were close together for the first several laps, but then Hoobler began to put some distance between them. Hoobler ran a great race and a huge PR with a 10:05.27. Hatoum battled tough in his first race and came across the line in a respectable 10:13.44.  

In the 110 meter high hurdles, Oliver Baterdene (Sr.) raced to an 18.55 finish while Mateo Diaz (Jr.) crossed the line in 20.77. 

Lukaas Nales (Sr.) raced in the 100 meter dash for the first time this season. He ran 11.43 to take 7th place. Zuno ran sub 12 again with an 11.99 final time. 

In the 800 meter run, Usiel Rodriguez (Jr.) had a breakthrough race. He got out into good position and moved up well in the final lap to run a personal best 2:03.74. Henry Gamson (So.) ran well after navigating around some of the competition and also ran a personal best with a time of 2:06.90. 

The third relay of the night saw HP get another season’s best time. The 4X200 meter relay team of Picazo, Zuno, Ben Kerch (Sr.), and Rosenthal ran 1:35.95. 

The 400 meter dash was going to feature Nales and Doug Anderson, but unfortunately, the meet got canceled at this point.

Despite the shortened meet, the Giants came away with a bunch of personal bests, 2 Lake County Champions with the 4X800 and Czerwinski in the high jump, and a new 4X800 school record. The team was hopefully going to have several more highlights, all-time performances, Lake County Champions, and maybe even school records. The message to the team from the coaches was control what you can control and never take the opportunities you have to compete for granted. The team is ready to do something special in the final few meets of the season. Focus, preparation, and determination will lead to great things for HP track & field.