HP Competes at GBN

Highland Park competed in a meet at Glenbrook North High School which has a 160 meter track. Athletes were not allowed to wear metal spikes on the track. The Giants still had some strong performances with many of the team members competing in their first high school track & field meet. 

Field Event Highlights:

In the long jump, the team was led by junior Lincoln Seidman. He took 3rd place with a jump of 18’2”. Junior Eli Perkins finished 4th with a big indoor personal best of 18’.5”. Junior Quentin Kelley and senior Tyler Rosnthal were the only other HP jumpers over 15 feet. Kelley jumped a personal best 17’4.75” while Rosenthal got 16’11.25”. Freshmen Preston Reed and Elliot Schraub led the way for the newcomers. They both jumped a solid 14’6.75”. Vasco Leite was not far behind with a best jump of 13’10.5”. Sophomore William Sheahen was another returning jumper that got a personal best of 13’6.5”. Freshmen Josh Alberts and junior Alejandro Jauregui also got over 13 feet going 13’3” and 13’2.5”. Sophomore Matthew Nielsen jumped 12’2” while freshmen Luca Ritchie and Gabriel Jackson jumped 12’.5” and 11’1.75”. 

In the triple jump, senior Russell Czerwinski got 1st place. This was his first time ever doing the triple jump and he got an impressive mark of 38’8.5”. Perkins was 2nd in an indoor personal best 36’11.25”. Kelley was near his indoor personal best with a jump of 36’8.5”.  Seidman did the triple jump for the first time and he got 36’6.25”. Rosenthal got an indoor personal best of 35’9.25”. Sheahen got another indoor personal best in this event with a 28’8.5” jump. Ritchie and Jackson were HP’s only two freshmen in the event and they got 26’3” and 24’3.25”. 

Czerwinski also had a great day in the high jump. He cleared a personal best 6’.25”. This is the first time he has gone 6 feet or higher! 

Despite not having a pole vault pit to practice on indoors at HPHS, the pole vaulters had a good day. Junior Gavin Flory won the event by clearing an indoor personal best of 10’6”. Senior Yonatan Garfinkel cleared 7’6.25” in his first time ever trying the event. Sophomore Will Redmond tied his outdoor personal best by clearing 6’11.75”. 

The throwers had a solid day in the shot put with several personal bests. The team was led by junior Braxten Peterson in 2nd place. Sophomore Constantine Soutsos threw a personal best 33’10.25” for 3rd place. Freshman Jacob Both had a nice first meet with a throw of 33’8” to take 4th place. Sophomore Max Sukenik was 5th with a throw of 33’7.5” for a new indoor personal best. Junior newcomer Devin Symonette had a solid throw of 33’2”. Senior Ezekiel Hightower got an indoor personal best with a throw of 32’9.75”. Sophomore Ismael Vazquez threw an over 1 foot indoor personal best of 31’2.5”. Junior Rodrigo Sanchez got a new indoor personal best by 2 feet with a toss of 30’1.75”. Junior Alexandros Drosos had a nearly 3 foot indoor personal best. He got a mark of 29’6.25” which is also an all time personal best for him. HP’s other two freshmen Henry Flory and Leo Buss threw 26’6” and 21’9.75” in their first meet. 

Track Event Highlights:

In the 55 meter high hurdles, Czerwinski led the way for the Giants in a personal best 8.5. Junior Lachlan Knapp was next, also in a personal best with an 8.7. Junior Mateo Diaz rounded out the personal bests with his own of 10.1.

HP had 25 competitors entered in the 50 meter dash. Sophomore Shamar Wilson finished in first place. His 6.0 time ties the HP indoor sophomore record for the 50 meter dash. The next HP finisher was senior Damian Zuno with a quick 6.2. The team then had 3 runners at 6.6…senior Owen Murphy, freshman Jacob Both, and junior Eli Perkins. This was a .2 personal best for Perkins. The Giants had another trio at 6.7 in freshman Mishkin Filstrup, junior Lincoln Seidman, and sophomore Hayden Tortora. Tortora ran a personal best by .4. The Giants had 3 more competitors under 7 seconds. Senior newcomer Tony Temple ran 6.8 while freshmen Elliot Schraub and Reyden Edeyaoch both ran 6.9. Here are the times for the rest of the HP sprinters that ran the 50 meter dash. On that list, sophomores Ethan Glovsky, Matthew Nielsen, William Sheahen, and Will Redmond all ran personal best times.

Sophomore Truman Evans led the Giants with a 2nd place finish in the 800 meter run. He ran an indoor personal best 2:18.4. His best time from last year indoors was 2:35. Sophomore Lowell Redmond also ran very well to win his heat and take 4th overall in a personal best 2:23.5. Sophomore David Miller also ran a personal best in 2:32.9. Junior Luke Byrnes tied his outdoor personal best from last year in 2:33.4. Freshman Russell Bleiman had a goal to run 3:30 for the 800 and he crushed that by running 3:20.0. 

The varsity 4X160 meter relay ran within just over 1 second of last year’s best time in this event by the Giants. The team consisted of Rosenthal, Knapp, Zuno, and Murphy. They ran 1:18.8 for the event. The frosh-soph relay team was .2 faster than last year’s personal best by the frosh-soph. This year they ran 1:24.7 and the team included Filstrup, Both, sophomore Gal Raviv, and Tortora. 

HP only had two competitors race the 400 meter dash. Senior Connor Edelstein beat his indoor personal best by running a :58.8. Freshman Gabriel Jackson ran :59.6 for a solid time in his first 400. 

In the 55 meter low hurdles, all of the HP competitors that did this event last year ran personal best times. Knapp led the way in 8.1. He was followed by Czerwinski (8.4), senior Robert Oboza (8.5), junior Usiel Rodriguez (9.4, he did not run this race last year), Rosenthal (9.9), and Diaz (9.9). Other newcomers to the event include Temple (10.1), Schraub (10.7), Edelstein (10.8), and Reed (10.8). 

The 1600 meter run featured a pack of HP runners and Cormick Buti (yes, my son). The Giants went to the front with sophomores Henry Gamson and Lucas Hoobler along with seniors Robert Oboza and Luke Rhoads all packed together with Buti. Eventually, Gamson started to pull away and got the win with Buti making a late charge. Gamson finished in 4:50.4 compared to his 2023 indoor personal best of 5:14.1. Hoobler finished 3rd in 4:56.2 with Oboza (4:58.5) and Rhoads (4:59.9) finishing close behind in 4th and 5th. Freshman Abel Reese came in 7th with a time of 5:20.4. After being a sprinter last season, sophomore Spencer Pedraza joined distance this year and ran a solid 5:28.8. Sophomore Joey Naftzger showed significant improvement from last year indoors where his best was 6:45.91. At this meet he ran 5:52.1. Freshman Joaquin Martinez got sub 6 minutes with a 5:55.3. Sophomore newcomer Dylan Stiller returned from a knee injury to run 6:17.5. Freshmen Maksar Oyurskiy and Joaquin Rivera both ran very well. Oyurskiy finished in 6:52.4 and Rivera just missed breaking 7 minutes for the first time with a 7:03.8 finish. 

In the 200 meter dash, Shamar Wilson once again led the way with a :24.7 to just miss the HP sophomore indoor record (:24.1). Knapp ran :24.8 while Zuno (:25.2) and Kelley (:25.3) were the only other sprinters from HP under 26 seconds. Tortora had another race with a big improvement from last season indoors. He ran :28.6 last year and finished in :26.3 at this meet. HP had a few others that finished in the 26s. Murphy (:26.7), Filstrup (:26.8), Edelstein (:26.9), and Perkins (:26.9 to improve from :28.1 in 2023) all had strong 200 meter dash races. Schraub ran a solid :28.9 to lead the next group of Giants sprinters all in the 29s. These sprinters included Mateo Diaz (:29.1), Edeyaoch (:29.2), Glovsky (:29.3 after not breaking 30 indoors last season), Will Redmond (:29.3 with his best indoor in 2023 being :32.4), freshman Vasco Leite (:29.5), and Reed (:29.9). Freshmen Micah Humes and  Nityananda Amin both ran :30.2 and were followed by Luca Ritchie in :32.7. 

HP entered 1 team in the throwers 4X160 meter relay. The team stepped up and showed great pride in how they competed. They were led off by Constantine Soutsos to get the lead and never looked back. Devin Symonette ran an inspired leg, giving it everything he had before handing off to Braxten Peterson. Peterson held the lead with a strong 3rd leg and gave the baton to Jacob Both. Both extended the lead with a fast anchor leg. The team ran 1:32.8 to win the race and run nearly 5 seconds faster than last year’s best time in the throwers relay. 

The final event was the 4X400 meter relay. HP entered 4 relays. The relays included many newcomers running their first 4X400s and also included numerous indoor personal best splits. The fastest relay of the 4 ran 3:57.8 with all four runners running indoor personal best splits. Raviv ran 1:01.2 (2023-1:02.9), then Gamson split a :59.5 (2023-1:06.8) before handing off to Evans in :59.8 (2023-1:06.0) and finally to Rodriguez with a :57.6 (2023-:57.9). Other big improvements from 2023 indoors in the other 3 relays included Miller (1:11.2 to 1:07.5), Lowell Redmond (1:10.6 to 1:05.9), Pedraza (1:14.1 to 1:04.6), and Tortora (1:06.9 to 1:00.2). 

This was a nice showing for HP in their first open meet. The Giants won the meet 222 to 206. The meet helped show what kind of depth the team has in certain events and where the team needs more help to develop a complete championship team. The team will now focus on some big invites before preparing to close out the indoor season. Big things to come for this team in 2024!

Giant of the Meet Nominations:

Henry Gamson - 1st in the 1600 (4:50.4) and 4X400 leg to get the lead and split a :59.5 PR.

Russell Czerwinski - 4 events, 4 PRs. HJ 6’ .25”, TJ 38’8.5” (first time doing event), 55HH 8.5, 55LH 8.4.

Lowell Redmond - Went from 2:32.76 indoors last year to 2:23.5 to win his heat, also a big 4X400 split PR of 1:05.9 (1:10.6 in 2023 indoors). 

Throwers 4X160 Meter Relay Team - Soutsos, Symonette, Peterson, and Both all ran extremely well with energy, focus, and determination. 

Hayden Tortora - 4 events that included big improvement from 2023. 50m 7.1 to 6.7, 200 28.6-26.3, ran anchor on the 4X160, and ran on a 4X400 with a 1:00.2 split (best last year was 1:06.9 indoors). 

Truman Evans - 2nd place in the 800 with big improvement from indoors last year going from 2:35 to 2:18.4. Also, sub 60 4X400 split after only running 1:06.0 indoors in 2023. 

Eli Perkins - 4 events and 4 indoor PRs. 50m 6.8 to 6.6, 200m 28.1 to 26.9, LJ 17’2.75” to 18’ .5”, and TJ 36’5.75” to 36’11.25”. 

Giants of the Meet:

Frosh-Soph - Hayden Tortora

Varsity - Russell Czerwinski