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Boys track and field: Jacobs takes 2nd at Gus Scott invitational

With the Jacobs crew's hollering one might think senior Noah Melick hadn't run a race before in high school.

One would be pretty close in thinking that.

Melick ran his first outdoor race since his freshman year Friday night at Naperville North's Gus Scott Track & Field Invitational. Competing in the 400-meter run, he ran in the A division of the three-tiered coed meet and topped all comers in 51.40 seconds.

It confirmed his goal coming in.

"To win," said Melick, a high-scoring soccer forward, was named the Illinois High School Soccer Coaches Association's player of the year last fall.

"Freshman year I did the four-by-800, that was my main event," said Melick, who also anchored the Golden Eagles' second-place 1,600-meter relay with Brett Bognar, Mark Lemke and Zach Albrecht.

"After that I focused on soccer," Melick said. "Then I decided to come out (for track) this year to just keep in shape. I'm going to Wisconsin next year to play soccer, so just keep in shape, do my thing."

Jacobs did its thing in fine fashion, placing second both in the A division and overall behind boys leader New Trier. Naperville North won the girls meet.

In a perennial Golden Eagles strength, Jermaine Maegdlin-Ferguson placed second in both the A-level 110 and 300 hurdles. Tommy Subaric won both distances at the B level and freshman Danny Ditter took the C-level 300 hurdles.

Eric Schutt added to Jacobs' overall haul with a B-level shot put victory at 44 feet, 3 inches; Noah Peterson won the C level at 39-9.

For a second straight year, Jacobs junior Zach Albrecht won the Gus Scott 1,600-meter run. He blasted off the line and was never challenged to handle the field by nearly 17 seconds, winning in 4 minutes, 28.43 seconds. It wasn't a personal record for Albrecht, but running alone in frigid temperatures isn't a recipe for PRs.

"According to the heat sheets I had it by like 10, 15 seconds, so I was just going out, looking for a good time. I went out pretty fast but the wind was rough today," Albrecht said.

"I'm happy. It was really cold, like your legs get stiff and the wind's just rough to run through."

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