Lake Forest crowned in NSC meet
Lakes coach Kurt Rowells figured the race between senior Lamarr Pottinger of Antioch and Marcell Kirkmanbey from Lakes would be the headline story of the North Suburban Conference boys track and field meet at Antioch on Thursday night.
He was right -- until the very last race.
Going into the 1,600-meter relay, Zion-Benton led Lake Forest by 1½ points. To make the suspense even greater, the Zee-Bees and Scouts were the top two seeds in the event.
Since Zion was the heavy favorite, much like the Zee-Bees were before the meet, the likelihood that Lake Forest would catch the Zee-Bees at the end was not good.
But then again, Lake Forest wasn't supposed to be this close.
Relying on sophomore Sam Howard to bring it home, Lake Forest caught Zion at the finish line to give the Scouts their first-ever NSC boys track title in what turned out to be the tightest team finish in history.
Lake Forest edged Zion 113½ to 113. Lakes ran a strong third with 54 points, ahead of Lake Zurich (45) and North Chicago (40).
Zion won seven events, including one relay. Lake Forest captured two relays and two individual events.
As close as the team battle was, the race in the 110 high hurdles was even closer between Kirkmanbey and Pottinger.
Kirkmanbey used his long and lanky 6-foot-5 frame to pull away from Pottinger at the end -- winning in a conference-record-tying 14.1.
Pottinger's second-place effort of 14.2 broke a 13-year old school record.
"It's been great racing against (Marcell), but I just can't catch him yet," Pottinger said. "Hopefully I will get a few more chances in the next couple of weeks."
Kirkmanbey also likes how the rivalry has helped improve his times.
"(Racing against Lamarr) has helped me so much this season," Kirkmanbey said. "He has been so fast, and it has pushed me a lot."
Kirkmenbey got off to a good start with a second-place finish in the high jump. His 6-2 jump matched a personal best but wasn't good enough to catch Mundelein senior Adam Bassett.
Bassett also cleared a personal best with a 6-6.
"I feel so much better this week," Bassett said. "Last week my legs were sore, but today I felt a lot better."
Defending conference co-champion Lake Zurich showed flashes of what is to come, but it was the distance events and not the strong sprints from years past that the Bears showed off.
Gerry Perez and Andrew Morrison surprised the field in the 3,200, pulling away for a 1-2 finish. Perez ran a solid season-best 9:43.00, while Morrison was second with a 9:46.6 effort.
The Bears' other top finish came in the 3,200 relay. Though the 8:12.3 clocking was not as quick as the time they posted at the county meet last week, it was still good enough for second place.
Stevenson ran third (8:12.8) followed by a season-best performance from Derek Hall, while Grant was fourth (8:15.3).
Hall also turned in a tremendous race in the 800-meter run. His 1:58.8 clocking was good for third, but more importantly, a personal best.
Warren senior Karsen Green ran second in a season-best 1:57.2.
Stevenson improved dramatically from the county meet with a sixth-place team finish.
Senior Tyler Bartlow won the 1,600-meter race in a season-best 4:27.2. Teammate Oliver Rose was fourth in 4:32.3.
Patriots junior Derek Chmielweski had his best day of the season in the discus. His personal-best toss of 140-10 took the event by more than two feet over Pavel Zurkowski of Grant (138-0).
Zach Wheeler of Vernon Hills won the pole vault with a leap of 13-3. His narrowly missed three attempts at a conference record of 14-4.