CSL North Indoor Frosh Invite Champions!

Highland Park put together an outstanding, gutsy team effort to win the 2016 Indoor Freshmen CSL Championship!   Despite having a small team, GIANT efforts were made by HP athletes as many of them competed in 3-4 events.

The field events went well for the Giants as the team scored 36 points in those events.   One of the HP victories came in the Pole Vault as Ben Kirsch cleared his personal best of 9’6” to take the win.  Jakob French cleared 7’0” to take 5th place.

Jack Casey tied for 2nd in the High Jump (5’0”) while teammate Alec Parthe was 5th (4’8”).

The Triple Jump had Amir Fakhari taking 2nd place with a 34’10” jump in his first time doing the event.  Kirsch took 5th with a 32’1.25” leap.

Fakhari also took 4th place in the Long Jump at 16’2.25”.

On the track Jack Schulman had a strong finish in the 3200 Meter Run to take 5th in 11:38.4.

The 4X800 Meter Relay ran tough to take 2nd place (10:27.9).  Richard Heller had a strong lead-off leg after running the 3200 shortly before, Andrew Biondi run tough to keep us in 2nd place, Jonathan Tinc who is a sprinter stepped up big and battled tough to keep us in good position going into the final leg, and Schulman ran a gutsy anchor after he also ran the 3200 earlier and outkicked two other teams to secure 2nd place.

The HP hurdles scored big points for the team.  Parthe to 1st place in both the 50 Yard High Hurdles (7.9) and 50 Yard Low Hurdles (7.6).  Teammate Joseph Beaudet was 2nd in the Highs (8.2) and 4th in the Lows (7.8).   This 1-2 punch for HP in the hurdles has a bright future ahead of them in track & field!

The 800 Meter Run had Casey and Chris Cizek finishing strong to outkick a runner and take 4th and 5th (2:25.1 and 2:25.6).

French took 4th in the 400 Meter Dash with a time of 61.1 despite a slow start.

Jose Reyes, who has been battling a knee injury, cruised to the victory in the 1600 Meter Run (5:07.4).

Fakhari had a busy day and was able to pull off a 6th place in the 200 Meter Dash on tired legs with a 27.5.

The final event was the 4X400 Meter Relay.   At this point the team was filled with exhausted young men.   We had four guys that went to the line ready to compete despite their fatigue.   French led-off with a strong 59.6 to get us into 2nd place just behind Deerfield.   Heller also ran tough (60.0) as he kept us the same distance just behind DF.   Cizek battled to keep us close (63.9) and pushed through to the line to hand-off to the anchor.   Casey got the baton and took off after DF and closed the gap quickly.  He then relaxed with his opponent briefly before pushing by.   As Casey was completing his final lap, the DF runner made an effort to close back on us, but Casey (61.9) and the team would not be denied!    The Giants won the 4X400 in 4:05.4 and won the meet in a complete team effort!

The coaching staff is extremely excited to see what this group of talented freshmen can do with their track & field careers at HPHS!   If each of these athletes makes the commitment to be the best track & field athlete they can be, there is no telling how successful this TEAM can become!

“Everyone has a fair turn to be as great as he pleases.” -Jeremy Collier

“Few of us know what we are capable of doing...we have never pushed ourselves hard enough to find out.” -Alfred Montaport