Niles West Pat Savage Invite Invite

The Giants competed at the Niles West Pat Savage Invite this season due to not being able to attend the Loyola Flight Night Meet the following weekend. The team came away from the meet with numerous personal or season best times. There were 3 different levels for the boys races. 

In the freshman 2 mile race, Tristan Perkes led the way for HP. He ran a personal best 11:31.24 to take 11th place out of 294 runners. Shea Jackson also ran his best time with a solid 12:30.35 to take 54th place. 

The next group of 4 HP finishers all ran in the 13s for the 2 mile race. Manuel Jauregui continued to show improvement with another personal best and nearly broke 13 minutes with a 13:07.23 finish. Charlie Szot had a strong performance running his best 2 mile time of 13:23.13. Danylo Mykolyshyn showed much improvement in his racing with a personal best 13:33.14. Chase Temple had a solid race to finish in 13:42.84. Liam Hsu has shown tremendous improvement since the start of the season and ran a personal best 15:07.02. 

The HP freshmen continued to show significant growth as a unit. If enough of the current freshmen are willing to make the commitment to train in the winter, do track & field, and have a great summer of running in 2025, they will be able to develop into a really strong team. Hopefully, they will also add some more teammates along the way. 

The varsity race was much bigger with 509 athletes competing. All of the racers had to work to navigate through the course with turns and narrow portions of the race. HP came away with some decent performances in the varsity 3 mile race but they know they need to be better as they head to the championship phase of the season. 

Dylan Dominguez (Sr.), Henry Gamson (Jr.), and Lucas Hoobler (Jr.) stayed close together through 2 miles. Gamson pulled ahead until the final 400 when Dominguez had another great finish with a 67 second last 400 to pass Gamson. Dominguez ran 15:28.85 to finish in 12th place overall. Gamson had a great race with a new personal best 15:33.20 to take 18th overall. Hoobler cramped up in the final half mile and managed to run 15:50.75 to take 31st place. 

The next pack struggled to get out fast enough for the first mile and tried to move up the remainder of the race. Usiel Rodriguez (Sr.) continued to be the team’s 4th runner with another strong final mile to run a season best 16:35.29. A big breakthrough race is coming for him in the final weeks of the season. Josh Brown (Jr.) also ran a season best covering the 3 mile course in 17:10.88. 5 seconds back was Truman Evans (Jr.) running 17:15.25. Another 5 seconds back from him was Daniel Doyle (Jr.) with a personal best 17:20.19. Theo Soifer (Fr.) battled tough, but faded back to finish in 18:01.22. Look for him to have a bounce back race at the conference meet. 

Quentin Kelley (Sr.) led the next HP pack with a great race. He ran a personal best 18:15.27 for 3 miles. Luke Byrnes (Sr.) had a solid race with an 18:51.92 with Spencer Pedraza (Jr.) just a few seconds behind in 18:54.24. Will Redmond (Jr.) was the next HP finisher, running a 19:03.56 for the 3 mile course. Gal Raviv (Jr.) in his first race back, ran a 21:51.09.  

The varsity did not finish as well as they were hoping as a team. Lessons were learned from this meet and the team will focus on executing their race plans much better at the conference meet. The team needs to stay fierce in all that they do these final weeks of the season if they are going to have the success they are capable of achieving. 

The final boys race of the day was the 3 mile boys sophomore race. Makena Duggan led the way for the Giants with an over 30 second personal best. He ran 18:03.17 for the 3 mile course. Sub 18 is coming soon! Gabriel Jackson also ran a personal best time as he crossed the line in 18:23.32. Joaquin Martinez ran a solid 19:22.56 to be the next HP finisher. Vasco Leite ran a big personal best for 3 miles as he came across in 20:14.97. Nate Goldberg ran a season best time as he finished in 20:20.23. 

This was a nice team performance for the sophomores as they look to continue improving. This crew could have a really positive impact on the team moving forward if they stay committed.