HP Continues to Make Progress With Meet at GBS

In the second open meet of the season, HP traveled to Glenbrook South High School to compete against GBS, GBN, and Conant. It was another meet on a 160 meter track in which competitors were unable to wear metal spikes. The Giants came home with numerous personal bests and strong performances.

Field Event Highlights:

The throwers were led by Devin Symonette (Jr.) who threw a personal best 37’0.5”. This was a nearly 3 foot improvement. A few other personal best marks were achieved by Alexandros Drosos (Jr.) at 33’8.75” (which is an over 4 foot improvement), Ismael Vazquez (So.) at 33’6.75”, Rodrigo Sanchez (Jr.) throwing 33’4.75”, and Leo Buss (Fr.) at 24’6”. Henry Flory (Fr.) also tied his personal best with a throw of 26’6”. 

Tyler Rosenthal (Sr.) tried the high jump for the first time and cleared 4’5”.

In the pole vault, Gavin Flory (Sr.) cleared 11’2” which is well ahead of his indoor personal best from last year. Yonatan Garfinkel (Sr.) had an over 1 foot personal best in only his second meet competing in the event. He cleared 8’8” and looks to continue to improve. Sophomore Will Redmond also got a personal best. He went over 7 feet for the first time. He cleared a new best of 7’2”. 

Rosenthal had a big personal best in the triple jump. It was almost a 3 foot improvement. He jumped 38’4.75” to win the event. William Sheahen (So.) also had a personal best. He jumped over 30 feet for the first time by getting a mark of 30’1.5”.

In the long jump, HP was led by Alex Knight (Sr.) at 15’7”. HP’s next 3 jumpers all had personal best marks. Elliott Schraub (Fr.) jumped 14’8.75”, Sheahen added another personal best with 14’2.5” jump, and Gabriel Jackson (Fr.) got an over 2 foot personal best with a 13’7.5” mark. Luca Ritchie (Fr.) also got his best mark with a 12’6”. 

Track Event Highlights:

Dylan Dominguez (Jr.) competed in his first 3200 meter run of his high school track & field career. After running most of the first mile with a runner from GBS, he pulled away and won the event by over 20 seconds in 10:14.8. 

Both HP 50 meter high hurdle competitors got their best times in the event. Oliver Baterdene (Sr.) ran 9.4 while Mateo Diaz (Jr.) crossed the line in 9.9. 

At this meet, they ran a 50 yard dash instead of 50 meters. The team was led by two freshmen. Jonathan Blidee (5.9) and Mishkin Filstrup (6.0). Eddy Picazo (Sr.) was the next HP finisher in 6.1. Below are all of the 50 yard times for the Giants at this meet.

Connor Edelstein (Sr.) ran the 800 meter run for the first time this season. He ran 2:18.9 in the event.

In the 400 meter dash, Gal Raviv (So.) ran :58.8 and took 4th place. Gabriel Jackson (Fr.) ran :59.9 for 5th place. Picazo and Hayden Tortora (So.) crossed the line in 8th and 10th running 1:01.6 and 1:01.8. Ethan Glovsky (So.) raced to a 1:03.4 with Eric Rojas (Jr.) right behind in 1:03.8. Filstrup ran 1:06.6 in his first 400 of the season. 

HP took 3rd, 4th, and 5th in the 55 meter low hurdles. Lachlan Knapp (Jr.) led the way in 8.2. Oliver Baterdene (Sr.) and Mateo Diaz (Jr.) ran 8.9 and 9.0 which were both personal best times. Alex Knight (Sr.) ran the low hurdles for the first time this season and ran 9.5. Edelstein ran a personal best 9.7. Freshmen Elliott Schraub and Preston Reed also ran personal best times. Schraub ran 10.0 and Reed finished in 10.4. 

Dominguez came back in the 1600 meter run in a time of 4:53.2 for 4th place. Truman Evans (So.) ran the 1600 in a personal best 5:04.9. Spencer Pedraza (So.) ran a 7 second personal best and had a great finish to run 5:21.3. He worked the entire race together with Lowell Redmond (So.) who ran a 5:21.8. The next 4 HP finishers were all freshmen and ran their best times for the event. Makena Duggan ran 5:40.9, Joaquin Martinez crossed the line in 5:47.1, Joaquin Rivera broke 7 for the first time running an impressive 6:41.0, and Maksar Oyurskiy came in at 6:45.4. 

Instead of a 200 meter dash, this meet had a 300 meter dash. The team was led by Rosenthal in :42.8. Raviv and Baterdene were the next two HP runners in :43.2 and :43.3. Below are the remainder of the results.

The Giants had 3 4X400 meter relay teams that competed at the meet. The fastest one had Knapp leading off in a :56.9 handing off to Dominguez in a :59.5 (finishing 32.5 laps on the night). Next was Edelstein in :58.1 followed by Evans in :59.7. They ran a 3:54.2. 

This meet was just another step in the process during a long season. There were some nice positives taken from this meet that the team can build on. 

Giant of the Meet Nominations:

Mateo Diaz - After shins bothering him and unsure he would race, he came home with 2 PRs in the LH (9.0) and HH (9.9).

Yonatan Garfinkel - Doing the pole vault for only the second meet and practicing just a few weeks, he PRed at 8’8”. Doing a new event his senior year is an example of taking a risk and facing an unknown challenge.

Dylan Dominguez - 32.5 laps of racing! 1st in the 3200 (10:14.8), 1600 (4:53.2), and 4X400 split of :59.5. 

Devin Symonette - SP PR going from 34’5.5” to 37’.5”. Positive attitude and great character. 

Alexandros Drosos- SP PR going from 29’6.25” to 33’8.75”.  He has quietly been working hard and just continues to improve. 

Spencer Pedraza - Ran a tough well paced race to run a PR and win his heat with a sprint finish in the 1600 (5:21.3). Also, PR with a 4X400 split going from 1:04.6 to 1:02.9. 

Eddy Picazo - 6.1 in the 50y and gutsy effort in the 400 to run 1:01.6. Battled tough when it started to hurt and someone tried to pass him.

Giants of the Meet:

Dylan Dominguez and Yonatan Garfinkel