ONU High School Classic Highlights

This season the Giants added a new meet to the schedule. The Olivet Nazarene University High School Classic took place on a great 200 meter track facility. The team was missing several athletes, but those that came ready to compete turned in several strong performances. 

The field events continue to be an area the team needs more quality depth. That being said, a few guys in the field events had big performances. In the Shot Put sophomore Thomas Marquardt had a big personal best with a 33’1.75” throw. Senior Danny Springman had a personal best in the Long Jump as he got a mark of 18’1.25”. Junior Gabe Kirsch had his best mark of the season in the Triple Jump as he went 36’7”. Junior Simon Auerbach was near his season best with a 9’10” clearance in the Pole Vault to take 10th place.

On the track the team had some nice highlights. The 4X800 Meter Relay was led off by sophomore Alejandro Seiden with a personal best 2:13.7. Juniors Jason Werneth and Max Friedman battled through the middle legs of the race even as Werneth fell stepping on the inside rail. The relay was closed by freshmen Noah Jackson with his best time of 2:20.0. 

Senior Corey Fairchild had a great first mile in the 3200 Meter Run but was not able to hold that pace during the second mile. He still had a solid race with a 10:06.81 for 7th place.

Senior Max Kaplan led the hurdlers with a 9.72 in the 60 Meter High Hurdles. 

Junior Lucas Ugaz did four events at the meet and led the team in the 60 Meter Dash with a 7.79. Senior Eam Euhun ran 8.09 followed by sophomore Cayden Veltman with an 8.41. 

Jackson came back with another personal best in the 800 Meter Run. After a slower start, he came back strong while passing several runners to finish in 2:16.43. In his first race of the season, sophomore RJ Guhl had a nice run with a 2:22.73.

In a wild 4X200 Meter Relay, the Giants had their fastest time of the season with a 1:42.35. Senior Emre Gulpinar led off the team well and handed off to senior Joe Dart. The next handoff took place as several teams made contact and even had some falls. Dart got around the mess to get it to Ugaz as he had to hurdle a fallen runner and then ran into another. He was still able to get by and run a strong leg before handing off to Springman with a great anchor leg. 

Highland Park had 3 runners entered in the 1600 Meter Run. All 3 ran personal bests. Freshman Simon Snead had a big personal best as he battled tough to finish in 5:50.94. Friedman came back from the 4X800 to run a great race in 5:10.37. Junior Jason Polydoris got out fast in his heat. The pack caught back up to him and in the final laps, two Lockport runners passed him. Polydoris battled back to take the lead but then got passed by the Lockport duo again. Polydoris was able to get by one of them down the final stretch to take 2nd place. The top three times were 4:31.25, 4:31.56, and 4:31.75.

The 3 Giants in the 200 Meter Run all ran well. It included Gulpinar (25.72), Ugaz (25.89), and Eam (26.38).

The 4X400 Meter Relay team raced to the season’s best time. Werneth came back with a sore ankle to run 1:00.9. Seiden ran a personal best :58.9 as he handed off to Springman. He also ran his best time of :58.7. Polydoris anchored with a :58.5 to have the team finish in 3:57.08.

This new addition to the schedule was a tremendous opportunity for the team to compete against high level competition at a great facility. It was disappointing to the coaching staff that numerous athletes were unable to attend. High level competition is a key experience in the process to becoming the best possible athletes and team. It is the expectation of the program that the athletes, along with the support of families, do their very best to attend all meets they are expected to compete in. The 2020 HP Team has the potential to have success this season if EVERYONE makes the commitment to excellence.