Team Has Strong Showing At Antioch Invite

The Antioch Invitational is the first big test for the Giants each season. This year’s team showed a passion to compete and a desire to support their teammates throughout the meet.

The field events continue to be an area in which the team needs more depth to be competitive in championship meets, but much improvement was shown since last season. 

Despite having their flight switched from the 4th to the 1st flight to compete, the HP throwers stepped up. Senior Charlie Kleiman and junior Chris Lee both had personal best throws of 44’5” to tie for 3rd place in the meet! Last season they went 35’2” and 34’2.5” at this meet! Juniors Zach Hopmayer (32’6”) and Logan Feinstein (27’9”) also threw new personal bests.

Junior Jaden Holzman had a big mark in the Long Jump with a personal best 19’1” to finish in 8th place. Senior Danny Springman finished with a 17’9.25” while junior Gabe Kirsch was at 17’3”.

In the Triple Jump, junior Carson Rager had a personal best 35’”5.25”. Kirsch was just short of that with a 35”4.5”.

Sophomore Tayshawn Cureton cleared 4’10” in the High Jump while juniors Simon Auerbach and David Sarowitz cleared 9’0” in the Pole Vault.

Highlights on the track started with the 4X800 Meter Relay. The team of Erik Anderson (2:16.3), Alejandro Seiden (2:14.4), Noah Jackson (2:21.6), and Ted Zinox (2:32.5) took 8th place in 9:25.12. Last year at this meet the 4X800 ran 10:10.62. 

Holzman led the way for the team in the 55 Meter Dash with a 7.01 for 14th place out of 66 competitors. His time also puts him in the All-Time Top 10 Indoor for HP! Junior Lucas Ugaz had a great race as well with a 7.18. 

In the 55 Meter High Hurdles, seniors Max Kaplan (9.14) and Eduardo Monk (9.27) led the way. Sophomore Peter Soutsos ran 9.84 while freshmen Finn Davis improved from his first meet to run 10.76.

Sophomore Alex Brown was the top HP finisher in the 1600 Meter Run with a 4:54.02 while junior Max Friedman ran 5:15.74 and freshmen Angel Zeferino crossed the line in 5:20.91. 

The 4X200 Meter Relay ran 1:42.56 (Emre Gulpinar, Joe Dart, Max Mauer, and Holzman). The sprint relays have some nice possibilities this season. 

The 400 Meter Dash had Springman racing to a 1:00.18 and junior Aaron Bach finishing in 1:00.85. 

The 800 Meter Run finishers for the Giants were led by Erik Anderson in 2:14.97. This was faster than his lead off leg for the 4X800 he ran earlier in the meet.

Ugaz had another strong race in the 200 Meter Dash with a 26.16. Junior Josh Hollander ran 26.43 while senior Euhun Eam (26.73) and Gulpinar (26.8) were also under 27 seconds.

The 3200 Meter Run delivered the most exciting race of the night for the team. Junior Jason Polydoris led from start to finish with a competitor from Warren trying to keep up with him. Polydoris finished in 9:28.71 for a new meet record and the 2nd fastest time ever run indoors in this event by a Highland Park HS runner. Senior Corey Fairchild also had a great race as he took 3rd place in 10:01.91. These two tremendous distance runners showed how much all of their hard work has started to pay off from last season as they ran 9:52.96 and 10:38.2 at this meet a year ago. 

The night ended with guys racing with great heart in the 4X400 Meter Relays. The times need improvement, but the coaches loved the way they raced with their teammates cheering for them loudly on the first curve. The team had two relays: Werneth (:58.6), Seiden (1:00.1), Monk (1:00.2), Springman (1:01.1)   and

Bach (1:02.5), Anderson (1:00.9), Brown (1:03.5), Kaplan (1:00.3).

The team really came together at this meet and showed that they are a team that wants to compete and wants to get better. With continued commitment to the process, the remainder of the season looks bright for the Giants!