Boys track and field: Trattner, Allen add drama to invitational
After all that running, of course it came down to the final 80 meters.
Naperville North junior Nick Trattner and sophomore Jake Allen ran as a duo the entire 3,200-meter run in Friday's Gus Scott Track & Field Invitational at Naperville North. Around the final turn competitive juices flowed and the Huskies battled down the stretch. Trattner got the upper hand this time, by .18 seconds.
"I think we had a good race," said Trattner, pulling in at 9 minutes, 53.70 seconds. "The weather wasn't with us, but it was good to have Jake in the race. Previously in the year, sometimes I'd run alone and it's kind of hard. With a teammate it definitely is easier, you can work together."
On a day not made for personal records, Allen lowered his.
"I was happy with the time. I was expecting a little bit more of a 'PR' especially because the beginning was so fast, but it was a good time, it was a good race."
Naperville North scored a total of 245.50 points to place third overall among boys teams in the three-tiered, coed meet. The Huskies followed New Trier (314.50) and Jacobs (267). Benet placed sixth, Wheaton Academy seventh.
Huskies Will deBolt and Henry Young showed sprinter's speed, while Griffin Blecke finished third in the A-level 800 and ran on a second-place 3,200 relay and a third-place 1,600 relay.
Benet had a flurry of A-level second-place finishes - Connor O'Keefe in the 1,600, Jack Fitzgerald in high jump and Enzo Bilog in triple jump. Matt Hatch prepped for his DePauw University decathlon future by running the 100 and 200 sprints, a leg of the Redwings' 400 relay and winning B-level discus at 118 feet.
The former tennis player is in his second year of track.
"I'm friends with a lot of the linemen so I went to throwing originally for track," Hatch said. "Then I thought I was pretty fast so I might as well try it out. It just ended up working out for me."
Josh Friedland, just a freshman, already owns Wheaton Academy's indoor shot put record and is targeting the outdoor mark. Friday he set outdoor personal bests in shot put and discus despite a slick ring particularly in disc.
"It was pretty wet, but it wasn't awful," Friedland said.