Freshmen Shine At Season Opener

The first meet of the 2018 Track & Field season took place at Glenbrook North with GBN and Marist.

The meet included many great performances by the Giants. The freshmen on the team showed that HP has a very strong future.

The field events had several strong performances, but also showed that the team needs to improve the depth in those events.

The throwers showed great improvement from last year. Senior Zach Auerbach started his season off ahead of last year in the Shot Put. Last year he threw 40’10” and improved to 43’ this year at the same meet. Junior Will Pfeffer went from 30’7” last year to 32’4” at this meet. Sophomore Charlie Kleinman got 31’6” after throwing 28’3” one year ago. Also, promise was shown by freshmen Chris Lee started his high school career with a 29’8” throw.

In the High Jump junior Jack Casey cleared 5’8” while freshmen Jaden Holzman got over 4’8”.

Freshmen Zion Griffin displayed his athleticism with a 17’6.5” mark in the Long Jump. Junior Jonny Rossen had a 17’1” jump. Two other freshmen were over 16’ as Joe Dart got 16’10” and Giovonni Volpentesta was 16’6”.

In the Pole Vault junior Ben Kirsch and senior Ben Zavell both cleared 10’6” as they work to find which poles will work best to get to those higher heights. Freshmen Andrew Kerpel cleared his first height to get 7’0”.

On the track the team had some fast times but also had some events that need drastic improvement.

In the 50 Meter Dash, Griffin led the way with a 6.1 tying the HP freshmen record in the event. Senior Sedric Gonzalez ran a 6.2. Senior Michael Menaker and Volpentesta both ran 6.3’s. The top finishers were rounded out with senior Andrew Derdena running a 6.5.

The hurdlers had a solid start to the season. Each of the returning hurdlers improved from what they ran at this meet last year. Junior Joseph Beaudet led the way with a 9.2 in the 55 Meter High Hurdles and 8.8 in the 55 Meter Low Hurdles. Junior Alec Parthe returned after two hip surgeries and a year away form the sport to recover. He ran a 9.4 in the HH and an 8.9 in the LH race. Sophomore Eduardo Monk finished with a 9.4 in the HH and 9.3 in the LH while sophomore Max Kaplan comes across the line in 9.7 for the HH and 9.6 in the LH.

The top HP team in the 4 Lap Relay (4X160) had a solid time of 1:22.6. The team consisted of Menaker, Derdena, Gonzalez, and Rossen.

Derdena had the top 200 Meter Dash time for the team with a 25.3 while Dart was the next fastest in 26.3.

The distance runners included mostly freshmen at this meet and they performed very well in their first high school meet. The top HP runner in the first heat of the 800 Meter Run was senior Sebastian Arias with a 2:20.2. The second heat saw the HP freshmen take it out with an aggressive start. They finished well as Tyler Carlson ran 2:27.4 followed by Ari Kaden in 2:29.6, Nathan Kornberg with a 2:31.8, and Albert Klayman in 2:33.9.

In the 1600, freshmen Erik Anderson took it out fast with freshmen Jason Ploydoris close behind. Freshmen Levi Pasikov also got out well chased by junior Ben Gordon. All four HP runners finished with personal bests. Polydoris broke 5 minutes for the first time with a 4:54.3. Anderson finished in 5:08.8. Pasikov came across the line in 5:21.9 while Gordon ran 5:40.5.

The final event, the 4X400, is an event the team will need to do much better in if they are to have success as a team this season. The fastest splits were run by the following athletes: Carlson (60.3), Pasikov (61.0), Kaden and Casey (61.9), and Arias (62.3).

This is a starting point for the season and things will improve from here as more athletes compete in meets and everyone commits to putting in the work necessary to be successful.