4X400 Sophomore School Record Puts Exclamation Mark on Mustang Classic For HP

Highland Park competed at the Rolling Meadows Mustang Classic and came home with many great performances and another sophomore record.

Field Event Highlights:

In the varsity discus, junior Caden Hellrung threw a 2 foot personal best of 96’2”. In frosh-soph, sophomore Dmitry Derbedyenyev came in 2nd place with a throw of 113’3”. 

Hellrung also had a personal best in the shot put, with an over 1 foot improvement going 36’10.5”.  Sophomore Larry Jenkins won the frosh-soph competition with a 38’7” throw. 

Junior Christian Billetdeaux earned a medal by taking 6th place in the varsity high jump clearing 5’3”. Derbedyenyev finished in 3rd place at 5’3” for frosh-soph.

Senior Peter Soutsos got 3rd place in the triple jump on the varsity level. Freshman Quentin Kelley and sophomore Tyler Rosenthal took 7th and 8th place on frosh-soph (33’11.5” and 33’6.75”). 

Junior Darius Robinson tied his best long jump at 19’9” for 2nd place on varsity. On frosh-soph, Rosenthal got about a 1 foot personal best to go 17’3.5” for 3rd place. He was not originally in this event, but the coaches had to make a change the day of due to another athlete being injured.

In the pole vault, junior Enrique Lipezker equaled his personal best by clearing 8’0”. Freshman Dylan Dominguez placed 3rd on frosh-soph with a personal best of 88’6”.   

Track Event Highlights:

The frosh-soph 4X800 ran well with freshmen Brian Hatoum (2:24.7) and Charlie Ludington (2:29.4) trying to keep the team close to the pack and score points. Sophomore Andrew Kern had his best race of the season with a personal best split of 2:23.4 and had a great handoff to sophomore Ben Kerch. Kerch took a risk and got out much harder than he ever has for an 800. He got the team in the mix to battle for a top 6 position. He fought tough all the way to the line and ran a massive 11 second personal best of 2:21.8! This incredible effort helped the team take 5th place in the relay with a time of 9:39.38. Kerch’s effort did result in him having to spend some time puking into the garbage can after his race. He really gave it his all.

The varsity 4X100 meter relay team (Calliste, Robinson, senior RJ Guhl, and junior Paul Eam) came in 3rd place running a :45.22. The frosh-soph team (freshmen Sam Kee and Liam Mckenzie along with sophomores Zach Liss and Tyler Rosenthal) ran :48.29 to take 6th place. 

Freshman Robby Mendoza had a strong race in the frosh-soph 3200 meter run to finish in 12:16.76. Sophomore Nate Wehner got out fast in his 3200 race but was unable to hold the lead at the end and finished in 2nd place running 9:40.03. 

Kee took 8th place in the frosh-soph 100 meter dash in 12.62. Liss ran a personal best 12.83. On varsity, sophomore Lukaas Nales ran 11.39 to take 4th place while Eam took 7th in 11.92. These were both personal best times and the first time Eam ran sub 12 seconds. 

In the 800 meter run, all 4 HP competitors equaled or ran personal best times. On frosh-soph, sophomores Zach Coren (2:09.31) and Connor Edelstein (2:16.74) took 3rd place and 7th place. In the varsity race, junior Noah Jackson ran 2:05.35 to take 7th place and senior Ted Zinox had a five second personal best in 2:20.88.

The frosh-soph 4X200 meter relay took 5th in a season best 1:40.77 (Kee, Kelley, Liss, and Rosenthal) while the varsity were 4th in 1:37.60 (Robinson, Guhl, Billetdeaux, and Eam).

In the frosh-soph 400 meter dash, Edelstein ran a personal best 1:00.05. On varsity, sophomores Lukaas Nales and Doug Anderson went 1-2 with Nales running down Anderson in the final strides. They ran personal best times of :51.36 and :51.53. 

Dominguez raced to 2nd place in the 300 intermediate hurdles as he was unable to hold off another competitor when he hit the final hurdle. His final time was :45.54.

In the 1600 meter run, all four HP runners raced to big PRs! On frosh-soph, freshmen Usiel Rodriguez and Brian Hatoum ran tremendous races by getting out well and racing tough throughout the race. Rodriguez took 4th place after making a big move on the 3rd lap and finishing with a great kick to run 4:53.72. His previous best time was 5:07.86. Hatoum had an over 10 second PR going from 5:25.43 to a new best time of 5:15.24. On varsity, sophomore Barak Goldstein continued his great racing this season. He ran a 4:34.35 to take 5th place and run a nearly 7 second PR. Freshman Carter Livermore improved his time to 4:43.32 from 4:48.31. This is an extremely fast time for a freshman. 

In the 200 meter dash, Eam placed out of the slow heat. He earned 6th place by running :24.69. 

The final event showcased HP’s great 4X400s. On frosh-soph, all 4 runners raced to personal best splits. Kelley led off in an awesome :56.8. His previous best was :58.0. Coren was next with a :55.4 and his best before this was :57.7. Rodriguez improved his best time to :58.9 from :59.1. Finally, Dominguez battled tough with the athlete that won the frosh-soph 400 and ended up helping the team take 2nd with his :54.9 split. The final time was 3:46.29. On varsity, the team was going for the HPHS sophomore record of 3:34.64 from 1963. Anderson led off with a strong :52.3. Wehner ran a season best :55.5. Calliste came through in a :54.7. Each guy up to that point had run great and the team was in 4th place when the baton was handed off to Nales. On the back stretch he moved into 3rd place. On the curve, he still had a significant amount of ground to make up. Nales shot off the curve and sprinted past the two runners in front of him to run a :49.7 split! The team ran a 3:32.42 to set the new HPHS sophomore record and win the event in dramatic fashion. 

The team ended up in 4th place on both levels, but not far out of 3rd place. Hopefully, with all of the young, talented, and hard working athletes that team has returning next season, they will be able to compete to win this meet. 

The nominations for Giant of the Meet included:

Frosh-Soph -

Usiel Rodriguez - Ran a great 1600 for first sub 5 1600 and did so by a large margin. Also, PR split in the 4X400.

Tyler Rosenthal - 4 events. LJ (3rd), TJ, 4X100 (6th),  and 4X200 (5th). Subbed in for an injured athlete.

Ben Kerch - Helped 4X800 get 5th place with giant PR on anchor leg (11 seconds).

Dylan Dominguez - PR in PV (3rd), 300 IH (2nd), :54.9 split on 4X400 (2nd).

Zach Coren - Tough racing in 800 for 3rd place. Also ran big PR in 2nd place 4X400 of :55.4.

Varsity - 

Lukaas Nales - 100 PR (4th), 400 PR (1st), 4X400 incredible anchor of :49.7 for 1st place and sophomore record.

Caden Hellrung - Big PRs in both the SP and the Discus.

Doug Anderson - Breakthrough 400 race to take 2nd in :51.53. Also, strong lead-off on 1st place record breaking 4X400.

Barak Goldstein - Huge PR in 1600 for 5th place. 

Paul Eam - 4 events. 100 PR, 4X100 anchor (3rd), 4X200 anchor (4th), and 200 (6th).

Giants of the Meet:

Frosh-soph - Ben Kerch

Varsity - Paul Eam