Outstanding Team Effort At Quad Results In Sweep For HP

CSL Quad Meets are always a great opportunity to go head to head with our conference rivals in a smaller meet format. The meet being scored as separate duel meets makes each runner doing their job and following their race plan even more crucial.

Highland Park executed their race plan nearly to perfection in the varsity race. The plan was to get out well in the first mile and then attack the second and third miles to put the hurt on our competitors. Deerfield helped get the race out well by having a pack lead the race early. By the mile junior Brett Davidson, senior Ben Casey, Niles North's Patel, and Maine West's Liston started to pull away from the rest of the runners. After the lead pack the rest of the team was in good position and ready to move.

After the two mile, Casey and Patel started to pull away from Davidson as Liston had already been fading back. The rest of the team was already starting to take control of the meet. Sophomore Jonathan Rosenfeld once again showed his toughness as he got out into good position and moved up throughout the race. After Rosenfeld, senior Andrew Huddleston and freshmen Fitz Laurie got into the mix with both the number three runners from Niles North and Deerfield. Not far behind them was senior Eddie Herz who got out much better on the Sunset Woods course then he did at the Libertyville Invite. Battling the number four runners from both Deerfield and Niles North was freshmen Nate Amster.

As Casey came down the hill the last time he started to break Patel and kept pushing the pace as he raced to the finish in 15:10.2 for the victory. That time is the second fastest time ever run on the Sunset Woods course! Davidson was able to finish with a strong third place time of 15:31.9 which also made the all-time list on the course. After our top two finished, the rest of the team came flying into the finish in great positions. Rosenfeld finished in 6th place in 16:13.2. He continues to be a very reliable number three runner for the team as he finished well ahead of Niles North's number three runner, just behind Maine West's number one, and ahead of Deerfield's number one runner. Huddleston ran a marvelous race as he pulled away from NN's number three runner and was closing on DF's top two. He finished in 9th place with a time of 16:32.2. Next in was Laurie who had an outstanding race finishing in 11th at 16:41.2 as he out kicked DF's number three runner. For a freshmen to step up and run with the confidence he did is very impressive. Herz ended up in 13th place at 16:46.4 with Amster taking 15th in 16:58.1 to round out the top seven! The next pack for the team packed it up from 21st-25th (Josh Drummond, Matthew Casey, Joe Pinsky, Kevin Merkel, and Juan Estela).

This wonderful team race gave the Giants the victory in each of the duels: HP 19-DF 39, HP 23-NN 36, HP 18-MW 45. The team ran with superb confidence on their home course and will need the same kind of effort at the Quad Meet next Tuesday hosted by Deerfield.

In the Frosh-Soph Race, Highland Park only ran three freshmen.   The sophomores and our top freshmen ran up on varsity.   The freshmen who ran in the 2.05 mile race took an aggressive approach to the race and did well.   They all got out in very fast first miles and will continue to work on closing better in their second miles as they progress their training.   They finished in the following order:  Alex Frank (13th, 12:48.7), Danny Friedman (16th, 13:08.3), Sam Falberg (24th, 13:32.2).