HP Competes at New Trier Meet

Highland Park competed in another open meet to give many team members an opportunity to earn a spot in upcoming invites. This meet took place at New Trier.  

Field Event Highlights:

In the shot put, HP had several personal bests. Junior Dmitry Derbedyenyev got a huge personal best to take 7th place. He got over 40 feet for the first time throwing 41’4.5”. Freshmen Max Sukenik got a small personal best throwing 34’0.25”. Junior Ezekiel Hightower got a big personal best with a throw of 32’5.75”. Two other throwers for the Giants got over 26 feet for the first time. Senior Aidan Tobias threw 26’7.75” and sophomore Rodrigo Sanchez got 26’6.25”. Freshman Gabe Leon threw a personal best 24’5.75”. Junior Jon Bacci got a season best 19’1.25”.

The discus did not produce as many personal best marks for the Giants. The team was led by Derbedyenyev with a throw of 117’4” and a 3rd place finish. Hightower had a massive nearly 10 foot personal best of 86’1”. Junior Alex Knight had an over 5 foot personal best throwing 77’11”. Sanchez had another personal best with a throw of 60’0”. Freshman Zach Shapiro had his best throw of 56’5”. His was an improvement by over 6 feet. Tobias followed up his shot put personal best with another in the discus of 48’8”.  

All HP pole vaulters cleared heights with a few getting their first clearance. They were led by seniors Enrique Lipezker and Finn Davis. They both tied for 2nd place. Senior Diego Alvarez cleared 8’7”. Freshmen Fin Nunez and Will Redmond both cleared 6’11.75”. Freshman Lucas Hoobler got over 6’6”. 

In the long jump, junior Hugh Crawford took 4th place with an over 1 foot personal best of 18’6”. Sophomore Eli Perkins also got a personal best as he too got past 18 feet for the first time jumping 18’2.5”. Juniors Tyler Rosnethal (17’7”) and Oliver Baterdene (17’2.25”) along with sophomore Quentin Kelley (17’0.75”) all jumped over 17 feet. Sophomore Alejandro Jauregui got 14’1.75” in his first meet doing the long jump outdoors. Freshmen Matthew Nielsen and Spencer Pedraza also got personal best marks of 12’11.5” and 12’3.75”. 

The triple jump produced several personal best performances by the Giants. Perkins won the frosh-soph with a 36’11.75”. Kelley was 4th on varsity jumping 36’2.75”. Four freshmen also jumpered personal bests. William Sheahen (28’4.25”), Will Redmond (28’1”), Matthew Nielsen (25’3.5”), and Spencer Pedraza (25’3.5”).

Track Event Highlights:

Junior Nolan Schott and senior Ramey Heimgartner had solid races in the 3200 meter run. Schott ran 11:18.30 and Heimgartner ran 12:16.90. 

Junior Oliver Baterdene ran near his personal best in the 110 meter high hurdles to take 6th.

HP had some good performances in the 100 meter dash. Junior Asher Stern led the way for the Giants with a time of 12.19. Crawford was the next Giant finisher with a 12.32. Junior Eddy Picazo (12.77), sophomore Luke DePaolo (12.86 = to PR), and sophomore Eric Rojas (12.95) all ran sub 13 seconds. Senior Jacques Munkhjarjal just missed sub 13 with a personal best 13.10. Senior Alex Labedz ran a personal best 13.82 and freshmen Gabe Leon equaled his best time of 14.07. 

In the 800 meter run, junior Yonatan Garfinkel ran an outdoor best time of 2:15.81. Junior Connor Edelstein ran near his best time with a 2:16.83. Freshman Gal Raviv ran a personal best 2:19.94. Freshmen Carter Ramirez also ran a personal best 2:36.40. 

The 400 meter dash had 7 HP runners cross the line at 1:00-1:02. Junior Ben Kerch (1:00.07) led the way. He was followed by a close tough battle between DePaolo (1:00.13) and Rojas (1:00.15). Nunez ran 1:01.27 with Jauregui (1:01.48) and Rosenthal (1:01.85) right behind him. Sophomore Sean Bell was next in with a 1:02.37. Hayden Tortora ran 1:05.35 and Julian Chroman ran 1:07.23.

Baterdene came back from the 110s to run a season best :46.66 in the 300 intermediate hurdles. Junior Andrew Kern ran an almost 2 second personal best in the event finishing with a time of :48.48.

Senior Angel Zeferino led the way for the Giants in the 1600 meter run taking 6th place. He ran a 4:50.46. The next finishers for HP were a trio of freshmen that were hoping to break 5 minutes, but did not get out fast enough. It included Josh Brown (5:04.39), Logan Liu (5:04.42), and Henry Gamson (5:07.27). Freshman Lowell Redmond just missed his personal best running 5:35.68. The rest of the 1600 meter runners for HP all ran personal best times. David Miller went from 5:56 to 5:39.65. Yousuf Ansari ran 6:23.15 with his previous best being 6:59. Miller and Ansari had great breakthrough races and battle tough throughout. Senior Marco Schulze also ran a personal best of 6:29.77.

HP had 22 runners racing in the 200 meter dash after a long meet on a cool night. The team was led by Crawford with a personal best :25.02 to just miss going sub 25. Diego Alvarez was next, also in a personal best. He ran :25.35. Stern (:25.73), Kelley (:25.73), and Picazo (:25.76) all ran under 26 seconds. A crew of 6 more runners ran in the 26’s. DePaolo (:26.45), Rosenthal (:26.45), Perkins (:26.49), Davis (:26.64), junior Owen Murphy (:26.81), and Rojas (:26.85). 3 other personal bests were run by Jose Martinez (:27.42), Julian Chroman (:27.78) and William Sheahen (:28.30). 

In this meet, Highland Park had 3 4X400s competing. HP had several sub 60 second splits. Raviv (:58.0), Zeferino (:58.1), Edelstein (:58.8), and Garfinkel (:58.9). Liu (1:00.6) and Truman Evans (1:00.4) both ran personal best times. 

The nominations for Giant of the Meet included:

Tyler DePaolo - Equaled his 100 PR, raced a tough 400 in 1:00.13 (first time racing the 400), came back to just miss PR in the 200 (:26.45).

Eli Perkins - 1st on Frosh-Soph in bith the LJ (18’2.5”) and TJ (36’11.75”) with PRs in both. Also ran a 200 PR (:26.49). 

Hugh Crawford - Big LJ PR of 18’6”, 100 in 12.32, and 200 PR of :25.02. 

Ezekiel Hightower - PR in discus (86’1”) and outdoor PR in SP (32’5.75”).

Yousuf Ansari - Huge PR in the 1600 going from 6:59.53 to 6:23.15.

Gal Raviv - 800 PR 2:19.94 (first time sub 2:20), 4X400 split PR :58.0 with big comeback.

Giant of the Meets:

Tyler DePaolo and Eli Perkins