Knights' Lane turns on the afterburners
When Grayslake North senior Nick Lane sees a lane, he takes full advantage of his opportunity.
On Thursday night in the Lake County Invitational at Libertyville, Lane got a lane and passed the competition in two of the toughest races -- the 3,200- and 1,600-meter runs.
Lane, who will run at Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the fall, got his first chance to hit the fast lane in the 3,200. With 300 meters remaining, Lane was as far back as fourth place before he finally picked the right lane to catch the lead group.
All of the sudden, with 150 meters to go, Lane was passing Deerfield's Scott Friedlander like he was standing still. Lane pulled away over the final 100 meters and won in an impressive effort of 9:31.1.
"That was a hard race for me to figure out," Lane said. "People were moving back and forth trying to get in position. I just tried to find the right lane and when I did, I had a lot left."
Just one win in that fashion would have been impressive, but Lane completed the distance double the same way he won the two-mile.
Though he wasn't as far back this time, Lane pulled away form the field again in the final 200 meters to complete the impressive double in 4:27.0.
"After he ran on Saturday at Palatine, I think he really wanted to come out tonight and test himself," said Grayslake North coach Kevin Collins. "For Nick, this is a real boost of confidence."
Lane's performance was the highlight on a rare good-weather night.
Deerfield mustered up enough points in the field events to win the team title with 73 points. Barrington (64) was second, while Lakes ran to an impressive fifth-place finish with 39 points.
Lakes, which won the North Suburban Prairie title for the second straight year this week, rolled up its points in the events the Eagles have dominated all year -- the hurdles.
Sophomore Marcell Kirkmanbey edged Lamarr Pottinger of Antioch in a great 110 high-hurdles race, winning in 14.95. Pottinger finished .02 behind Kirkmanbey.
Senior Jon DeGrave's win in the 300 intermediate hurdles wasn't quite as tight. DeGrave took the lead in the race at the midway point and pulled away to win in 40.2. Libertyville's Pat Callan ran third in 41.1.
The night was not devoid of record-setting performances.
Lake Forest got the night going on the track, breaking a nine-year old record to win the 3,200 relay. The time of 7:55.01 is the fastest in Illinois this spring.
Mundelein senior Jamell Ross established a personal best to win the long jump. Ross exploded off the board on his second-to-last jump and went 22-7.
But the most impressive and certainly the oldest record that was broken came in the shot put.
Grant senior Pavel Zurkowski shattered a 72-year-old school record. He had been close lately with a throw of 53-0 late last week. On his final toss of the competition, Zurkowski put the shot 54-9 to top the previous mark set in 1936 by Bill Sharp.
"I have been working for four years to get this record," Zurkowski said. "I was getting closer and I knew I could get it this year."
Carmel ran seventh in the team standings, winning the 800-relay in an impressive time of 1:31.33. Socrates Kaitson, Jim Miller, Jim Halford and Jordan Nasenbeny made up the winning relay.
The same group, minus Miller and plus Joe Jeka, was edged by Barrington in the final race of the night, the 1,600-meter relay.
Kevin Crowley, Billy O'Dell, Ryan Mangone and Derek Shelton ran a season best 3:24.96 just ahead of the season best by Carmel of 3:26.95.