HP Varsity Sweeps CSL North Quad Meet!

In the first of two CSL North Quad Meets this season, Highland Park looked to use the strength of the pack to help secure victories on both levels.

The Giants only had freshmen racing in the 2 mile Frosh-Soph race as all the sophomores were competing in the 3 mile Varsity race. The freshmen have been working very hard this season and it really showed in this race. The team got out very well in the first mile and had strong packs. They also moved well throughout the race and had many strong finishes and personal best times. The freshmen were led by strong races from Jason Polydoris (5th, 11:43.5) and Erik Anderson (7th, 11:49.5). This is a 1-2 punch that HP can build a championship team with.

Then, a tight pack of runners came in 12th, 13th, and 14th. These were outstanding races run by Evan Diethrich (12:06.8), Max Friedman (12:08.0), and Tyler Carlson (12:08.6).

They were followed by Jason Werneth (20th place, 12:20.0) and Nathan Kornberg (22nd, 12:23.5). The next trio came in led by Levi Pasikov (30th, 12:39.6) with Chance Martin not far behind (33rd, 12:40.7) and with another strong finish was Ari Kaden (34th, 12:49.3). Kaden made a big move with about 500 meters to go to pass a large pack of Deerfield runners. His teammate Jack Levine (41st, 12:57.1) also passed a few Deerfield runners to finish well. Rounding out the freshmen crew were solid performances by Mason Goldstein (13:33.4), Albert Klayman (13:58.0), Max Laky (14:04.3), Kevin Weinberg (15:36.2), and Artom Miller (15:44.7).

Despite only running freshmen in this race, the Giants beat Deerfield 26-29! They also beat Maine East (20-41) and lost to Vernon Hills (35-20). This was a tremendous step forward for this talented and hardworking group of freshmen. The future looks very bright for Highland Park cross country if enough of this crew is willing to make the commitment to excellence over these next 4 years!   

The Varsity race showed the strength of the pack as junior Jose Reyes and seniors Fitz Laurie, Nate Amster, and Alec Glazier finished in 2nd-5th place! They ran well together with Fitz taking a risk mid race to try and push with the top runner from Vernon Hills. In the end Reyes ran 16:01.4, Laurie was 16:06.6, Amster clocked a 16:07.4, and Glazier came across the line in 16:19.2.

All season the team has been wondering who would be able to step up in that 5th position and close the gap on the impressive top 4. Today the team got a taste of how good it can make the team as junior Jordy Mazza had a breakthrough performance to run a 16:41.6 and finish in 8th place! This gave the team a 1-5 gap of only 40.2 seconds!

Senior Sebastian Arias had a strong race as well to finish in 13th place with a 17:11.0. Next in was junior Sam Lothan in 18:47.6 followed closely by senior Alex Frank with a 18:51.3. Both runners had very strong finishes. The team had a nice pack with junior David Halfin (19:34.5), sophomore Jake Margolick (19:36.6), and junior Ben Gordon (19:38.4). The next two HP finishers battled through some injury issues as sophomore Ryan Rosenfeld ran 20:47.6 and junior Andrew Biondi finished in 20:49.9. The HP squad was completed with junior Noah Canel running 22:02.7 and sophomore Haiven Garcia finishing with a burst in 24:05.9.

The team completed the Quad Meet sweep as they beat Deerfield (17-40), Vernon Hills (20-37), and an incomplete Maine East team. These 3 Dual Meet victories make it 36 straight for the Giants! That is 12 straight Quad Meet sweeps dating back to the second Quad Meet in 2011! This was a big leap forward for this year’s team, but they are not satisfied yet and will continue to push themselves and each other to be the best athletes and people they can be!