Nate Amster Leads The Way For The Giants At The Wheeling Invite

Highland Park competed at the Wheeling Invite which included several teams that will be in the same Sectional Meet. The Giants wanted to take advantage of a great day to get in a final tune-up race before the Conference Meet.

The Varsity race had senior Nate Amster, junior Jose Reyes, and senior Fitz Laurie out together at the mile in the chase pack. Senior Alec Glazier was several seconds back. As the race progressed, Reyes led the HP pack with Amster and Laurie close behind. In the final portion of the race, Amster had a tremendous kick to pass Reyes and finish in 6th place at 15:48.6.

Reyes finished in 9th place with a 15:54.8. Laurie had fallen back somewhat in the in final mile to take 15th in 16:17.0. Glazier had an off day to take 30th in 16:48.1, but knows he will bounce back in the final meets of the season. At this meet the 5th spot for the team was an unknown with junior Jordy Mazza out resting an injured ankle. Freshmen Jason Polydoris stepped up to fill that spot with a magnificent effort. He raced with great poise to take 66th place with a big personal best of 17:27.3!

Senior Sebastian Arias had trouble holding his position after a solid start and ended up with a 17:46.7. Junior Richard Heller was the next varsity finisher for the team, running 18:34.6. The varsity team took 4th place in the meet.

In the Open Race, the Giants had a great pack that led the way for the team. The pack included freshmen Max Friedman, Tyler Carlson, Evan Diethrich, Jason Werneth, and Sophomore Jake Margolick. Friedman and Carlson pulled away and came down the final stretch stride for stride with Friedman (18:31.5) edging Carlson (18:31.8).

The rest of the pack finished within seconds of eachother: Diethrich (19:00.6), Werneth (19:01.8), and Margolick (19:03.8).

The next 7 runners ran well, as each one was within 2-9 seconds of the teammate in front of them. Freshmen Jack Levine led this crew moving up well throughout the race to run 19:48.7. He was followed by the freshmen duo of Chance Martin 19:54.9 and Nathan Kornberg in 20:03.4.  Junior Ben Gordon was next with a 20:10.6. Freshmen Albert Klayman ran a personal best of 20:12.0. Sophomore John-Henry Ohlwein finished in 20:19.0. The final finisher of the group was freshmen Ari Kaden as he battled through a side stitch to run 20:24.8.  

Freshmen Mason Goldstein ran under 21 minutes finishing in 20:55.8. Sophomore Ryan Rosenfeld was next in running 21:08.0. Freshmen Max Laky ran strong to finish in 22:03.7. Freshmen Artom Miller had a breakthrough race finishing in 22:39.2. Sophomore Haiven Garcia ran 25:23.3 to round out the HP finishers.

Each member of the team needs to focus on the details this week as they go into the Conference Meet. Mental toughness and relentless focus will be necessary for the team to be successful.