Varsity Wins CSL North With 7 All-Conference!

The 2016 CSL Invite hosted by GBN saw many outstanding performances by the GIANTS!

Varsity:

When the team came up with their team goals for the season, they made one of those goals to have 7 All-Conference. With that in mind the team wanted to get out strong and be near the front of the race. At the mile HP had their top five 7 seconds apart and top seven 14 seconds apart. The coaches and team were hoping for a little tighter of a pack so early in the race, but they still got out fast. Junior Fitz Laurie was leading the way for the HP pack with fellow junior Alec Glazier coming up on him by the 2 mile. The rest of the pack was shuffling up as seniors Jonathan Rosenfeld, Charlie Skurie, and Matthew Casey were starting to move up in the final mile. Sophomore Jose Reyes and junior Nate Amster were struggling a bit, but both runners continued to fight to stay with their teammates. As the runners entered the track for the finish, Rosenfeld was closing in on the top CSL North runner, Alex Gold from Deerfield. Gold had too big of a gap and took 1st while Rosenfeld was 2nd in a personal best time for 3 miles of 15:27.26. Next in for the GIANTS was Glazier as he  just got passed at the line to take 4th in 15:40.06, also a personal best. A few seconds behind was Laurie as he broke 16 for the first time to take 5th in 15:45.74. Finishing in 8th with a 15:50.96 was Reyes. Despite not having his best race, he still battled to earn All-Conference again and will be ready to have great races throughout the State Series. Following Reyes was a pack of 3 GIANTS within two seconds of each other in 9th, 10th, and 11th.  Each earning All Conference were Skurie (moved up to finish with a 15:55.34), Casey (had a monster last mile to run under 16 for the first time with a 15:55.68), and Amster (despite struggling this day was able to push himself to a 15:57.22).  Another one of the team goals was to have a 30 second 1-7 gap.  At this meet it was 29.96 seconds! The team won the CSL North with 28 points as Deerfield was 2nd with 55 points. It was a special performance by this team as they had all 7 guys earn All-Conference and run under 16 minutes for 3 miles! Now on to the State Series and even better performances to come.

 Video of Varsity Race

Junior Varsity:

Senior Juan Estela got out well and went right to the lead for the first mile of the race. As a pack of New Trier runners went by him, Estela continued to fight to hold on and push himself to a fast time. Late in the race he had a large gap on the next CSL North runner. When he got on the track Estela fought hard against a runner from New Trier and outkicked him to run a personal best time of 16:19.69 and win the CSL North Division of the JV race by over 30 seconds! Senior Hayden Schott also ran a great race as he was shooting to break 17 minutes for three miles. Despite a tremendous effort he fell short running a 17:02.8 to take 5th in the North Division. Junior Sebastian Arias has worked extremely hard this season and this race was the pay off as he ran a big personal best of 17:06.98, taking 6th in the division. Next in for HP was senior Josh Drummond in 9th place with a time of 17:44.88. Despite an up and down career with injuries, Drummond ran a gutsy race and had a strong finish to help his team be successful. Senior David Heller took 20th with an 18:21.54 to finish just ahead of a runner from Deerfield. Senior Ethan Small had a strong race with an 18:23.88 to take 22nd. Senior Matthew Drummond battled through injuries this season and finished the race with a burst to take 25th in 18:31.32. HP won the JV race for the CSL North by one point over Deerfield! This was a wonderful team effort for these boys!

Sophomore:

The sophomores were led by first year team member Jordy Mazza. He got out extremely well and was leading the field through a very fast first 400. After settling into his pace, Mazza found himself in second place for the CSL North (behind a runner from Deerfield). As the race progressed, the runner from DF seemed to have a comfortable lead on Mazza, but when they got to the track that changed. Mazza closed on him and battled down the final stretch to pass him and win the sophomore race for the CSL North. He finished in a huge personal best for 3 miles of 16:42.02! It will be exciting to see what this tough and talented young runner can do over the next two years if he commits to the training! The rest of the sophomores ran very inspired races as well. This is a group that has several guys that came into the season undertrained and a few that have been dealing with injuries. Richard Heller took 6th place in 17:53.03 despite some recent back and shin issues. David Halfin had a huge breakthrough race due to all of the hard work he has been putting in since the season started. He finished just behind Heller in 7th place with a 17:54.05. Jack Casey was dealing with some intense hip pain, but gutted it out for his teammates to take 10th in 18:11.32. Sam Kachergius has not been able to put together much consistent training this season due to some injuries.  Despite these injuries he stepped up like he did last year at the conference meet and fought hard out there for his teammates. He finished in 15th place with an 18:40.64. Ryan Smith ran a great race to take 19th with a best time of 19:23.34. This was an outstanding effort by Smith. Andrew Biondi was one of the sophomores that was able to get in a solid summer of training this year. The training showed in this race as he ran a personal best to go under 20 minutes in 19:36.99 and finish in 21st place. Jack Gonzalez finished in 33rd (24:18.46) with an inspiring kick to pull ahead of a runner from GBN by over 20 seconds in the final 300 meters of the race. The sophomore team ended up taking 2nd place by 1 point over a very good Vernon Hills team 37-38. Look for this group of sophomores to use this lose as motivation to get healthy and work hard over the next 365 days and come back to help HP dominate the CSL North!

Freshmen:

This freshmen group has had tremendous growth this season. Each of these boys are running their pace per mile for 2 mile races much faster than what they ran for their first timed mile!  They have worked hard this season and each ran a personal best in this meet. The team was led once again by Jake Margolick. He took 5th in the very competitive CSL North with an 11:19.68 for 2 miles. This is a very fast time for a freshmen. Next in for the GIANTS was the duo of Ryan Rosenfeld and Nolan Espinoza. They finished in 22nd and 23rd as they nearly broke 12 minutes! They ran 12:03.62 and 12:03.95. John-Henry Ohlwein was the next HP finisher in 26th place running 12:20.28. Frankie Pecaro was 31st in 12:49.22 while Zach Voltz took 34th in 12:58.11. That puts all 6 of these freshmen under 13 minutes. With how much this group improved this season, there is no telling how good they can become next season with a full year of training under their belt!  They finished 4th in the CSL North, but if they commit to the training, you can bet they will finish higher next year as sophomores.