Highland Park Vs. Deerfield

Deerfield won the annual Dual meet vs. Highland Park by a significant margin. The Warriors were able to outperform the Giants in most of the events. The HP coaches were hoping for a stronger showing from the team. The expectation is that everyone will continue to commit to working hard, staying focused, and improving as the season progresses.

Despite a disappointing meet at both levels, the team did have several highlights.

On the varsity level, the Shot Put was extremely competitive. It was a tight competition with senior Michal Steczek taking the lead on his second throw with a personal best of 44’6”. That throw pushed the Deerfield throwers to have to step-up with some monster throws and they unfortunately did. Steczek ended up 3rd while junior Zach Auerbach also threw a personal best (43’11”) to take 4th.

Senior Keith Greenwood cleared 5’8” for the first time to take 3rd in the High Jump.

Junior Ben Zavell and sophomore Ben Kirsch went 1-2 in the Pole Vault with both athletes clearing 10’6”.

The only other varsity field event points came in the Triple Jump as senior Nick Kirsch took 2nd (37’8.5”).

On the track things did not get much better for HP. The Giants only won two more scoring events. Junior Fitz Laurie ran an impressive time of 4:34.7 to win the 1600 Meter Run. Then, the team ended the meet on a high note with a 4X400 Meter Relay victory (sophomore Jose Reyes, senior Zev Motew, Laurie, and senior Jonathan Rosenfeld) in 3:55.5. The hope is that the team will take confidence from seeing the way those boys on the relay competed and bring that level of grit to the conference meet.

The Frosh-Soph score was much closer, but still not what the coaching staff was hoping for. The team did have several top finishers.

The Shot Put was won by sophomore Will Pfeffer at 32’2”. He was followed by freshmen Charlie Kleinmen in 2nd at 31’10”.

Devlyn Arrington won the Long Jump with a 14’6.5”.

The Pole Vault was won by Jakob French and 2nd place was Pano Drosos both clearing 8’6”.

Sophomore Joseph Beaudet had a great meet as he won the High Jump (4’8”) and both hurdle races.

The team has many athletes that can do great things this season and future seasons. They now have to be mentally tougher and be able to perform at their best under pressure when the team needs them to step up. Look for a much improved team as the season progresses.