HP Has Numerous Personal Best Performances at New Trier Meet

HP sent a small crew of athletes to compete in a meet at New Trier. The evening produced some strong performances for the Giants.

Field Event Highlights:

In the long jump, freshman Lincoln Seidman competed in the event for the first time and had a massive 18’2.25” jump. With this jump he tied for 5th place.

All 5 HP pole vaulters cleared heights in the event. Freshman Dylan Dominguez led the way as he tied his personal best clearing 8’0”. Junior Enrique Lipezker cleared a personal best 7’6”. Seidman was going back and forth between the LJ and PV and tied his personal best at 7’6”. Junior Geoff Buck got his personal best as he cleared 6’6” and junior Diego Alvarez got over 6’0”.

In the throws, Ezekiel Hightower got personal bests in both the shot put (26’10.75”, over 2 foot PR) and discus (65’0”, almost 15 foot PR). Sophomore Jon Bacci got a personal best in the shot put with a throw of 20’6.5”.

Track Event Highlights:

Sophomore Ryan Griffith ran a huge personal best in the 3200 meter run. He got under 14 minutes for the first time by racing to a 13:23.72 finish.

Seidman led the way in the 100 meter dash with a 12.99. Senior Josh Longo ran a personal best time of 13.34. 

In the 800 meter run, senior Alex Brown ran a season best time of 2:14.96. Freshman Charlie Ludington ran his best time as he crossed the line in 2:29.08. Sophomore Ben Kerch also ran a personal best with a 2:32.12.

Longo came back with a great race in the 400 meter dash. His best so far this season has been 1:03.03. At this meet he ran a 1:00.92. His hard work continues to pay off. Junior Diego Alvarez and sophomore Ethan Seligman ran their first outdoor 400 races of the season. They finished in 1:04.22 and 1:09.74.

Dominguez raced the 300 intermediate hurdles for the first time and did very well. He ran :47.28 and will drop that time significantly as he gets better with his hurdling technique. 

In the 1600 meter run, all of the HP runners that were not doubling back from another race ran personal best times. Usiel Rodriguez had a big breakthrough as he went from a previous best of 5:16 to 5:07.86. Fellow freshman Brian Hatoum got out hard and finished with a personal best time of 5:25.43. This was a 7 second PR. Junior Ramey Heimgartner ran a 6:24.36 for his best time. Senior Marco Schulze got under 7 minutes with a strong 6:49.58 finish. Senior Ethan Nicolaz-Davidson ran a best time of 7:07.19. 

In the 200 meter dash, Longo and freshman Dylan Daniels ran personal best times. Longo finished in 27.0 while Daniels was 28.18. 

The Giants had two 4X400 meter relay teams competing. On the first relay team, Brown got sub 60 for the first time with a :59.9 split. Hatoum got about a one second personal best with a 1:02.9. On the 2nd team, Ludington improved by around 5 seconds with a 1:04.9 split. Kerch went from 1:06.8 to a new best time of 1:04.1. Austin Colegio and Ramey Heimgartner ran 4X400s for the first time thai season and ran 1:10.4 and 1:21.3. 

The team continues to see progress and more guys fighting for spots in the invites. More big things to come from the Giants this season.  

The nominations for Giant of the Meet included:

Lincoln Seidman - Huge LJ performance over 18 feet, tied PR in PV going back and forth from LJ, and led the team in the 100.

Josh Longo - Ran 3 personal bests in the 100, 400, and 200 meter dashes. This was a big breakthrough meet for this hard working senior.  

Brian Hatoum - Took a risk in the 1600 with aggressive racing and ran a big PR. Also, came back in the 4X400 with another PR.

Ezekiel Hightower - Big PRs in both the SP and the Discus despite not having his throws coach available to come to the meet. 

Giants of the Meet:

Josh Longo