HP Continues to Show Growth at GBS Meet

Highland Park competed at Glenbrook South High School in a meet that also included Glenbrook North and Conant. The team continued to show improvement in most events. 

Field Event Highlights:

The throwers had a big day with nearly every thrower getting a personal best. HP was led by junior Larry Jenkins. He put together his best throwing series in the shot put and came away with a new personal best of 44’0.75” and a 2nd place finish. With focus, trust in the process, and hard work, much bigger throws are still to come for Jenkins. Senior Caden Hellrung threw over 40 feet again as he got a mark of 40’ 1”. He knows that another big breakthrough is coming soon. Junior Alex Knight went from 32’4.5” to 35’3.5” as he inches closer to getting to the 40 foot mark. Freshman Max Sukenik had an almost 3 foot improvement as he went from 30’11.25” to 33’6”. This is a really solid mark for a freshman. Hopefully, he can get past that 35 foot mark soon. Sophomore Braxton Peterson improved his best from 30’3.75” to 32’11”. Senior newcomer Jacques Munkhjargal had a best throw of 31’7.25”. Two juniors got over 30 feet for the first time. Ezekiel Hightower went from 29’9” to 30’7” while Jack Denham improved from 27’11.25” to 30’1.75”. Freshman Ismael Vazquez got 28’5.25” to improve from his previous best of 28’ 0.5”. He is looking to be the team’s second freshman over 30 feet soon. Another senior newcomer, Aidan Tobias, threw 26’11.25” in his first meet. Sophomore Alexandros Drosos had a huge improvement. He went from 23’ 0.5” to 26’10”! This is a result of his continued hard work. Another sophomore, Radrigo Sanchez, showed nice improvement as he went from 23’11” to 25’3.25”. Throwing in his first meet, freshman Gabe Leon threw 22’11.25”. 

The pole vaulters were another group that had a big day of personal bests. Sophomore Gavin Flory and senior Enrique Lipezker both improved from 8’ to 8’8”. Senior Diego Alvarez went from 7’6” to a new best height of 7’8” while fellow senior Finn Davis cleared his first height and got over 6’8”. 

In the high jump, both senior Christian Billetdeaux and junior Russell Czerwinski cleared 5’1”. These two high jumpers are both on the verge of big personal best jumps. 

The triple jump showed promise with the Giants top jumper returning and several personal best marks. Senior DJ Robinson competed in his first meet of the season after completing his wrestling season. He got 37’4” with just one attempt due to a nagging knee injury. Once he gets healthy, he will be a big help to the Giants. Sophomores Quentin Kelley and Eli Perkins both jumped personal bests. Kelley went 37’2.5” and Perkins was 36’5.75”. Freshmen William Sheahen and Matthew Nielsen both went from getting no mark at the last meet they competed in to getting 27’11.75” and 24’10.5”. Fellow freshman Will Redmond got 23’4.75”. 

The long jumpers were led by Robinson with a jump of 19’5”. Sophomore Lincoln Seidman got 18’1”. Junior Tyler Rosenthal had a personal best 17’4.75”. Hopefully, he can get over 18 feet soon. Perkins went 17’0.75” while Kelley got another personal best with a jump of 17’0.25”. Junior Oliver Baterdene jumped 16’9.5”. Sophomore Charlie Ludington jumped in his first meet and got 16’7.5”. Another sophomore, Alejandro Jauregui also jumped in his first meet and got 14’1.75”. Sheahen and Will Redmond both got personal best jumps going 13’5.75” and 11’10.25”. Nielsen got a mark of 11’8.25” while freshman Lucas Hoobler long jumped for the first and got 10’6”. 

Track Event Highlights:

Freshman Henry Gamson had a great race in the 3200 meter run. He was trying to run around 11:30, but was able to run significantly faster. He pushed himself to an impressive 11:16.0 in his first high school 3200 meter track race. Senior Ramey Heimgartner ran 13:07.9 for his first 3200 of the season.

In the 55 meter high hurdles, Czerwinski ran a personal best 9.1. He is looking to get a sub 9 in the event soon. Sophomore Mateo Diaz also ran a personal best of 10.3 as he got closer to getting sub 10. Baterdene ran 10.4 for the event. 

In the 50 meter dash, the Giants had 23 guys run personal best times or equal their personal best times. They were led by Rosenthal in 6.4. Junior Eddy Picazo and senior Diego Alvarez both went from 6.7 to 6.5. Junior Zachary Liss ran a best time of 6.6. Seidman tied his best at 6.6 and Davis went from 6.7 to 6.6. Ludington raced to a 6.7 with Flory just behind in 6.8. Perkins improved from 6.9 to 6.8. Sophomore Eric Rojas ran really well as he improved from 7.0 to 6.8. Freshman Francisco Nunez continues to show improvement with a 6.8 after his previous best was only 7.2. Sophomore Lachlan Knapp went from 7.3 to 6.8 to show significant improvement in his speed. Sophomore Tyler DePaolo tied his best in 6.9. Sophomore Julian Chroman had a good race to go from 7.2 to a new best of 6.9. The biggest improvements for the rest of the HP sprinters were freshmen Spencer Pedraza and his 7.6 to 7.3 along with Sheahen with an 8.2 to 7.8.

In the 800 meter run, senior Noah Jackson got in his best race of the season with an indoor personal best of 2:05.6. He was followed closely by junior Zach Coren in 2:06.8. Behind them was junior Robert Oboza in 2:08.3. Junior Connor Edelstein went from a 2:25,5 this season to 2:19.8 at this meet. Gal Raviv was the only other HP runner to get a personal best as he improved from 2:33.7 to 2:30.9. 

Both the varsity and frosh-soph 4X160 relays ran well. On varsity, Piaczo led off well and got the baton to Billetdeaux for an outstanding 2nd leg. Liss ran a tough 3rd leg while Kelley brought it home with a big finish on the anchor. The team ran a solid 1:19.8. The frosh-relay was led off by Depaolo with his typical strong start. Knapp ran a good 2nd leg. The 3rd leg was Rojas in his first relay race with no hand-off practice because he was put in at the last second as a replacement for an injured runner. He ran great and got the baton to Seidman as he ran an outstanding anchor leg. The team ran 1:24.9. 

In the 400 meter dash, Ludington had the best time for the Giants with a 1:00.4. Nunez showed big improvement again going from 1:05.3 to 1:01.9. Rojas came back in this event right after the relay to show great toughness and run 1:03.2. Davis came across the line in 1:05.2. 

Senior Angel Zeferino had a fantastic race in the 1600 meter run. He went out aggressive and battled all the way to the finish. He crossed the line in 4:45.3. Sophomore Usiel Rodriguez was the next HP finish in 5:02.6. Freshman Logan Liu ended up way out in front for his heat and ran an impressive personal best of 5:15.3. Freshman Lowell Redmond got under 6 minutes for the first time with another big personal best and great kick as he ran 5:38.4. Sophomore Luke Byrnes battled tough with the front back of his heat and pushed the pace early to end up finishing with a big personal best under 6 minutes in 5:51.5 and another strong finish. Senior Marco Schulze had his best race as he went from 7:01.8 in his last race to 6:40.7 in this meet. 

The next event was the 300 meter dash. This is a weird distance without many times being run for this event to compare to. The Giants were led by Diego Alvarez in :40.7. Last year at this meet, the fastest HP runner in the event ran :42.5. The next finish for the Giants this year was Knapp in :42.2. Lipezker ran well to finish with a :43.5. Sophomore Sean Bell had a strong race to finish in :45.2. Senior Alex Labedz got out fast and finished in a :45.8. Chroman and freshman Hayden Tortora both ran :47.1. The next 5 HP runners were all freshmen. Ethan Glovsky ran :48.0 with Pedraza right behind him in :48.4. Nielsen (:50.5), Will Redmond (:51.5), and Sheahen (:51.5) were all competing in their 4th events of the meet. That is a difficult challenge, especially for freshmen. 

Highland Park had 3 teams competing in the 4X400 meter relay. The fastest team was led off by Coren in :57.3 for a season best split. He handed off to Jackson and he delivered an indoor best :55.9 split. Rodriguez ran 3rd in tying his indoor best of :57.9. Finally, Quentin Kelley, in his fourth event of the day, battled to a tough :58.4 split. The team ran 4:49.5. Edelstein led off the second team in :59.8. Liu ran a personal best of 1:02.6 which is an over 2 second improvement. Batedene ran 3rd in 1:00.9 and Zeferino anchored with a 1:00.1 for a total of 4:03.5. All 4 runners on the final team were freshmen and ran personal best splits. Raviv led off in 1:02.9 (previous best 1:05.8). Truman Evans went from 1:07.1 to 1:06.0. David Miller got 1:11.2 compared to 1:11.8. Finally, Daniel Doyle went from 1:06.0 to 1:02.4. Their final time was 4:22.4

This was a good meet for the Giants and gave the team confidence moving forward. The journey continues and the team will need to do even better moving forward especially in their preparation to perform at a high level. 

The nominations for Giant of The Meet included:

Varsity:

Noah Jackson - 800m indoor PR 2:05.6 and 4X400 split :55.9

Diego Alvarez - 50m PR of 6.5 from 6.7, PV PR of 7'8" from 7'6", 300m top finisher for team in :40.7.

Larry Jenkins - Personal best in shot put of 44' 0.75".

Enrique Lipezker - PV PR of 8'8" from 8' and asked to run the 300 with a time of :43.5 and 3rd for the team.

Quentin Kelley - 4 events, TJ and LJ personal bests, anchored both varsity 4X160 and 4X400.

Frosh-Soph:

Henry Gamson - Big PR in 3200m 11:16.0.

Francisco Nunez - PR in 50m of 6.8 from 7.2, PR in 400 from 1:05.3 to 1:01.9.

Eric Rojas - Was asked to sub in last second for the 4X160 and ran a great 3rd leg, then came back in 400 right after to run 1:03.2 in first ever 400 race.

Luke Byrnes - Went from 6:34-5:51.5 in 1600m with tough race.

Alexandros Drosos - Huge PR in the SP of 26'10" from 23'0.5".

Giant of The Meet:

Varsity - Quentin Kelley

Frosh-Soph - Eric Rojas