Polydoris Wins Individual Title At CSL North Championship Invite

At the Indoor CSL North Championship Invite, the Giants had several highlights. The meet also made it apparent that the team needs to continue to make great strides towards improvement to be competitive in the CSL.

Sophomore Jason Polydoris was the only event champion for HP. He took command of the 3200 Meter Run from the start and pulled away from the field to dominate the event in 9:39.71! This is the new Highland Park High School sophomore record. The old record was 9:50.0 set in 1975! His time also puts him in the All-Time Top 10 for HP! Polydoris came back to run well in the 1600 Meter Run. Despite being pushed back at the start, he raced back towards the front. He ended up finishing in 2nd place with a time of 4:44.02.

Junior Corey Fairchild also ran well in the 3200 Meter Run to take 4th place in 10:23.72.

In the frosh-soph 3200 Meter Run, freshmen Hunter Kells had a huge breakthrough race. He took a rest and attempted to stay with the leaders that had already run much faster times this season. Kells finished with a great freshmen time of 10:51.33 for 5th place.

The HP hurdlers continued to have success on both levels. In the varsity races Max Kaplan had a great meet. In the 55 Meter High Hurdles he took 3rd (9.04) and finished 4th (8.89) in the 55 Meter Low Hurdles. Senior Joseph Beaudet was 5th (9.54) in the HH and also 5th (9.06) in the LH race. On the frosh-soph level sophomore Evan Diethrich was 3rd (9.44) in the HH and 4th (9.17) in the LH. Sophomore Gabe Kirsch took 6th (10.08) in the HH while he was 7th (9.88) in the LH.

Freshmen Alejandro Seiden has continued to show that he has a great deal of potential in the 800 Meter Run. He had another great race as he placed 4th on frosh-soph in 2:20.73. He was the top freshmen finisher in the event.

In the frosh-soph 50 Meter Dash, sophomore Lucas Ugaz ran 6.99 to take 6th place.

The field events once again proved to be an area of greatly needed improvement for the Giants. On varsity only seniors Ben Kirsch and Jack Casey placed in the top 5 in their events. Kirsch took 3rd (12’2”) in the Pole Vault and Casey was 4th (5’8”) in the High Jump. Sophomore Jaden Holzman was able to take 6th on varsity in the Long Jump with a 17’7.5” mark.

In the frosh-soph field events Gabe Kirsch took 6th (17’2.75”) in Long Jump and 3rd (35’11”) in the Triple Jump. Freshmen James Griswold got 5th (4’8”) in the High Jump. Sophomore Nate Cohen finished 5th in the Shot Put with a 36’6”. The Pole Vault had sophomores Simon Auerbach (3rd, 8’6”) and Kyle Slavin (6th, 7’6”) placing for HP.

The team looks forward to having everyone healthy and ready to compete at their best when we reach the end of the season. The Giants must put in the work going forward and improve their ability to perform at their best in the big meets in May!