Oboza, Nales, Coren, and Wehner Set Meet Record at Prospect Relays

The Prospect Relays was the first outdoor meet of the 2024 track & field season. Just like the indoor portion of the season, the Giants compete in some very competitive meets including this one. The team had several highlights but also showed where it needs to improve the team’s depth in certain areas. 

Field Event Highlights:

The throwers had some solid performances. In the shot put, Dmitry Derbedyenyev (Sr.) led the way for HP with a toss of 42’3.25” for a season best mark. He placed 13th overall. Braxton Peterson (Jr.) was near his personal best with a throw of 36’7.75”. Jacob Both (Fr.) threw 36’4.25” while Devin Symonette (Jr.) got a mark of 35’7.75”. In the discus, Derbedyenyev led the way again finishing in 14th place with a mark of 118’3”. Max Sukenik (So.) threw 101’11” for a nice start to his outdoor season. Peterson threw a big personal best going from 84’11” last year to 92’8” at this meet. Ismael Vazquez (So.) also had a nice personal best with a toss of 88’1”. 

The pole vaulters had an off day for HP and will look to bounce back at the next meet. Yonatan Garfinkel (Sr.) and Will Redmond (So.) both cleared 7’2”.

In the high jump, Russell Czerwinski (Sr.) cleared 6’0.75” to take 1st place. Jayden Corchado (Fr.) cleared 5’1”. 

In the long jump, HP only had one jumper over 18 feet at this meet. Lincoln Seidman (Jr.) jumped 18’5”. Oliver Baterdene (Sr.) competed in the long jump for the first time this season and jumped 17’6”. Quentin Kelley (Jr.) got a mark of 17’2.25”. And Tyler Rosenthal (Sr.) was at 16’7.75”.

Czerwinski was also the team’s top triple jumper with a 40’4” mark good enough for 3rd place overall. Rosenthal was near his outdoor personal best with a 37’3” jump. Kelley jumped 36’11.75”. Seidman equalled his best with a 36’6.25” mark. 

Track Event Highlights:

Recently, the Prospect Relays added two open events at the start of the meet. The first event was the open 1600 meter run. All the HP 1600 runners ran a personal best or near their best time. Lowell Redmond (So.) and Joaquin Martinez (Fr.) both ran near their best times (5:24.61 and 5:47.72). Robby Mendoza (Jr.) raced for the first time this season and won his heat in 5:48.67. Dylan Stiller (So.) ran a personal best of 6:09.84. Joaquin Rivera (Fr.) ran a big personal best going from 6:41 to 6:26.56. Maksar Oyurskiy (Fr.) also had a big improvement to his best time, running 6:36.87. 

In the open 200 meter dash, HP had 4 personal best times. Anthony Temple (Sr.) had an over 1 second personal best with a :27.00. Nityananda Amin (Fr.) went sub 30 for the first time with a :28.55. William Sheahen (So.) ran a best time of :29.30. Luca Ritchie (Fr.) broke 32 seconds by racing to a :30.94. 

Next up were 4 heats of the 300 intermediate hurdles. The Giants had a strong crew of hurdlers that were hoping to place well in this event. Czerwinski led the way with the fastest time of the day by an HP hurdler. He ran :43.00 to take 2nd place overall. Lachlan Knapp (Jr.) took 4th overall with a :43.06. Robert Oboza (Sr.) had the next fastest HP time to take 9th in :43.69. Baterdene ran a :46.99 for the event. The combined time for this hard working HP quartet was good enough to take 2nd place behind a very good Prospect hurdle crew. 

Highland Park only had two runners entered in the 1600 for the 4X1600 relay (which combines the times of all 4 runners). Lucas Hoobler (So.) ran 4:55.49 and Luke Rhoads (Sr.) ran 5:01.10. 

In the 4X100 meter relays, the frosh-soph improved on the best time run by the frosh-soph in 2023. The team of Mishkin Filstrup (Fr.), Hayden Tortora (So.), Jonathan Blidee (Fr.), and Jayden Corchado (Fr.) ran :47.83. The varsity squad had a handoff mistake that significantly slowed down their time. 

The 3200 medley relay was an event that the coaches looked to highlight. Oboza led off with a 400 in :54.4. He handed off to Lukaas Nales (Sr.). Nales ran a :50.1 to give the Giants the lead and they never lost it. Zach Coren (Sr.) was next running an 800. He ran a personal best 2:02.0 as he continued to show all of his hard work pay off. The anchor was Nate Wehner (Sr.) running a 1600. He was all by himself, but was determined to push himself to run fast. He ended up splitting an impressive 4:26.6! The team won the event by a huge margin as they ran 8:13.19. Their time was a new meet record, beating the old record (8:15.7) that was set by Prospect High School in 2011.

The 1600 meter medley relay team was one of the relays the coaches really did not know what to expect. The team was young with Filstrup (Fr.), Corchado (Fr.), Rodriguez (Jr.), and Truman Evans (So.). Filstrup and Corchado each ran great 200 legs to get the relay in good position. Rodriguez ran an outstanding personal best 400 split of :54.7. Evans anchored with a personal best 800 time of 2:11.4. The team ran 3:55.19 to take 4th place. 

The 4000 meter distance medley relay (DMR) was run by Luke Byrnes (1200 in 3:59.9), Connor Edelstein (400 in :57.1), Yonatan Garfinkel (800 in 2:20.8), and Spencer Pedraza (1600 in 5:45.8). The team ran 13:03.73 for the event. 

The 110 meter high hurdle crew for the Giants took 2nd place with their combined times, just like the 300IM hurdlers. Knapp led the way in this event with a 17.30 to tie for 6th place. Czerwinski ran 18.30 for 12th place. Baterdene crossed the line in his heat with a time of 18.90. Mateo Diaz (Jr.) ran 19.00 in his heat for a personal best time. 

The 4X200 meter relays were the next event on the track. The frosh-soph 4X200 team was the same as the 4X100 (Filstrup, Tortora, Blidee, and Corchado). They ran a time that was again better than last year’s best time for frosh-soph in this event. They ran 1:38.70 to tie for 2nd place! The varsity crew consisted of Knapp, Damian Zuno (Sr.), Edelstein, and Baterdene. Edelstein and Baterdene stepped up for the team as they were subbed at the last minute. The team ran a 1:38.80. 

Next up were the 4X800 meter relays. The frosh-soph team did not run any personal best splits, but they raced tough when they got the baton. The team consisted of Lowell Redmond (2:29.1), David Miller (So.) (2:29.2), Joey Naftzger (So.) (2:34.0), and Martinez (2:56.6). The team ran 10:28.80. The varsity team was led off with another impressive leg run by Wehner. He split a 2:02.9 to give his team the lead. Rodriguez was next and split a 2:10.1. Rhoads got the baton and split a 2:11.8. The final leg was run by Hoobler with a 2:15.0. The final time for the team was 8:39.60. 

The frosh-soph 4X400 meter relay team ran a 3:53.40. They were led off by Gabriel Jackson (Fr.) in a personal best :57.0. Tortora was next and in his 3rd event of the day ran a huge personal best of :57.0. Pedraza was subbed in and ran a slight personal best of 1:02.1. Evans anchored with a :57.5. 

The varsity 4X400 meter relay team ran slightly faster than last year at this meet with 4 different runners on the relay team. They were led off by Oboza in :53.9. Coren got the baton and blazed a big time personal best split of :51.8. Kelley also ran a big personal best as he split a :53.6. Finally, Nales got the baton with a significant amount of distance to make up on the top 2 teams. He closed on them and was able to catch one, but was just a second behind the leader. The team ended up tied for 2nd place in 3:28.70. 

Overall, the team did not place as high as they would have liked. Many of those that earned opportunities to fill in spots due to injuries and team members missing the meet made the most of it. Growth was made, but much is left to be done to build a championship team. The focus, desire, commitment, and work ethic of this team will need to be strong for the success to come. Look for more great things to come from this team in 2024!

Giant of the Meet Nominations:

Zach Coren - 2:02.0 PR split on meet record breaking 3200 Medley Relay and :51.8 PR split on T2nd place 4X400.

Mishkin Filstrup - 3 strong lead-off legs: F/S 4X200 T2nd, varsity 1600 Medley Relay 4th place, and FS 4X100. 

Nate Wehner - 4:26.6 anchor 1600 on meet record breaking 3200 Medley Relay and 2:02.9 lead-off leg on varsity 4X800 to give them a big lead. 

Jayden Corchado - 4 events: HJ 5’1”, F/S 4X100 anchor, varsity 1600 Medley Relay 4th place, F/S 4X200 anchor T2nd place.

Dmitry Derbedyenyev - 42’3.25” SP (was at 40’11” indoors) and 118’3” in the discus.

Lukaas Nales - 1st time this season running two 400s. :50.1 split in meet record breaking 3200 Medley Relay and :49.6 anchor for T2nd 4X400.

Giants of the Meet:

Nate Wehner