Wehner and Goldstein Lead HP Varsity to CSL Quad Meet Sweep!

The Giants competed in their first of two CSL Quad Meets. This one was hosted by Niles North at Harms Woods. They raced against Niles North, Vernon Hills, and Maine East. The course for the frosh-soph was a little short of 2 miles and the varsity course was a bit less than 3 miles.

In the frosh-soph race, Highland Park’s first 7 finishers were all freshmen. Daniel Doyle took a risk early and went with the leaders, even taking the lead for a while around the mile. In the end, the leader pulled away and Doyle got outkicked to finish in 3rd place overall. He ran a gutsy race to finish in 11:36.77. Josh Brown also ran well and finished under 12 minutes in 11:57.37. He placed 7th in the race. Henry Gamson rounded out the Giants strong top 3 with a 13th place finish, just 5 seconds away from a top 10 finish. He ran 12:15.41. The top 3 will continue to work hard to close their gap and help this freshmen group have team success. 

Logan Liu and Moss Roberts tried to go out closer to the Giant’s top 3 in this race. They were not able to hold that pace, but it helped them both have strong races as they continue to improve. Liu ended up taking 17th place in 12:43.28. Roberts finished 18th place running a 12:52.78. These two hard working runners are getting closer to the top 3 which will make the freshmen a much stronger team. 

Harvey Hayes and Lowell Redmond are two other runners that have been showing significant improvement as they continue to work hard. They both had their best races so far this season at this meet.  Hayes finished in 13:21.32 for 23rd place and Redmond ran 13:32.32 to take 26th place. 

Sophomore Mateo Diaz ran well and crossed the line in 13:59.06. Freshman Ethan Glovsky had his best race of the season so far with a 14:08.68. 

Sophomores Lincoln Seidman and Gavin Flory battled tough and both ran sub 15 minutes. Seidman finished in 14:26.96 while Flory crossed the line in 14:53.71.

Freshman Gal Raviv has been showing improvement and raced to a 15:04.24. The pack of freshman Noah Carson and sophomores Sean Bell and Brody Schultz worked well together for the first half of the race. Carson pulled away in the second half to finish in 15:37.64. Bell and Schultz stayed close to the finish as Bell came in at 15:53.20 and Schultz at 15:57.27. 

The frosh/soph beat Maine East (21-40), but lost to Niles North (32-23) and Vernon Hills (29-27). It will be nice to see how this freshmen group does against just freshmen at the Conference Meet in October. They are starting to really come together as a team. They had a 1:16 top 5 gap and a 1:56 top 7 gap. If they can get those numbers down, they should be very competitive at the CSL Conference Meet.

In the varsity race, the Giants were focused on having their best team race of the season up to this point. They showed the strength of their pack running from the start of the race.

Up front, juniors Nate Wehner and Barak Goldstein followed a Niles North runner early before taking control of the race. Wehner pulled Goldstien through the first mile of the race with 2 Niles North runners hanging on. Wehner then pulled away for the win in 15:17.24. Goldstein had to work hard to stay in front of the Niles North duo before laying down a big kick (final 400 of 1:12) to finish in 2nd place at 15:44.68. It was a great boost for the team to see these two running with such confidence.

Senior Noah Jackson finally is starting to see his hard work this summer pay off. He ran his best race of the season so far to finish in 7th place with a time of 16:06.42. He had two Vernon Hills runners within 6 seconds of him that he will eventually need to be able to beat. Senior Angel Zeferino has been battling a knee issue, but raced extremely tough. He was with Jackson through the mile before fading back a bit later in the race. He ended up racing with sophomore Usiel Rodriguez late in the race. Rodriguez came across the line in 16:24.79 for 8th place.  Zeferino came in 11th place at 16:33.72. Senior Alex Bradshaw was with Rodriguez early in the race then faded back by junior Lukaas Nales. Nales had another great performance as he finished the race in 16:50.67 to take 13th place.  Bradshaw never gave up and fought at the end with a strong final 400 to take 14th place in 16:51.35. 

The next pack of 3 for the Giants (all juniors) did a tremendous job working together throughout the race. In the end, it was Doug Anderson (16:58.71) in 16th place, Yonatan Garfinkel (17:02.78) in 17th place, and Robert Oboza (17:04.96) finishing in 18th place. That gave HP 10 runners in the top 20!

Sophomore Dylan Dominguez and junior Eli Neiman raced together early and finished just 5 seconds apart at the end. Dominguez came in 21st place (despite a missed turn and running a bit extra at the end) with a time of 17:27.98 while Neiman finished in 24th place to run 17:32.90.

Juniors Brian Hatoum and Connor Edelstein were the next two HP finishers. Hatoum had an off race after his awesome race in Peoria. He still ran 17:54.09 despite not having his best race, Edelstein battled tough to finish in 18:05.58. 

Junior Oliver Baterdene, along with seniors Enrique Lipezker and Davide Albiani worked well together through the first mile. At the two, Albiani fell back several seconds. By the finish, Baterdene pulled away to cross the line in 19:06.46. Lipezker then came in at 19:19.04 and Albiani finished in 19:38.04.

Juniors Eddy Picazo and Tyler Rosenthal were the next two finishers for Highland Park. Picazo finished in 20:15.05 while Rosenthal crossed the finish line in 21:05.06. These two track & field sprinters have done well battling through these longer distances. Sophomore Charlie Ludington worked with Rosenthal throughout the race to finish in 21:07.34 for a solid finishing time. 

Sophomore Mason Zoeller finished in 21:40.67 which is a much faster pace then he ran last year for the shorter race. Senior Marco Schulze also improved on last year’s performance after running 24:20 on this course last season. This year he raced to a 22:23.53!

The team swept the meet by beating Niles North (21-38), Vernon Hills (22-37), and Maine East (16-47). This was a nice confidence boost for the team. That being said, they know they have to be even better to reach their team goals in 2022! They will work hard to get everyone healthy and continue to improve.