Barrington captures MSL Indoor crown
After Friday night's Mid Suburban League Jim Nagel Indoor Invitational at Lewis University in Romeoville, Barrington coach Todd Kuklinski found himself in a rather unusual position.
It's not like the Broncos haven't been here before. Barrington has been one of the top programs in the MSL the last decade and has the team this year to make another run at the team outdoor title. But the Broncos are also young and most have not experienced all that goes with being the prohibitive favorite.
Like it or not, Barrington earned that moniker again by capturing the MSL Indoor title Friday night. The Broncos scored 75.3 points to edge Schaumburg (70.3) and Buffalo Grove (64.3).
"I think we all know and I told that to the guys tonight how hard it is to win the conference meet," Kuklinski said. "We are all happy with today. Today was the indoor meet. We are happy, but we are certainly not satisfied."
The Broncos earned a pair of indoor champions and it came from their very strong youthful core. Sophomores Erik Peterson and James Pajich won the 3,200 meter run and the triple jump respectively for the two individual titles.
Barrington also earned runner-up finishes in the 800-meter relay and the shot put.
Upstart Schaumburg put together one of its best nights of the early indoor campaign and looks primed to be a serious contender once the competition goes outside in two weeks. Seniors Dionte Hackler and Pat Lesiewicz each captured individual crowns and Hackler teamed with Wyatt Kondras, Ryan King and Jake Fritzler to win the 1,600-relay in 3:34.4.
Hackler ran a personal best 50.7 in his 400-meter dash win and came within a whisker of breaking the indoor school mark of 50.6.
"I came out and trained a lot earlier this year after football," Hackler said. "This is my last year so I didn't want to have any regrets."
Lesiewicz took top honors in the 1,600 in an indoor season best 4:21.4 holding off Rolling Meadows senior Photis Karkalis right at the line. The field was loaded and featured top talent from Barrington, Palatine and Prospect senior Ken Halloran who ran an indoor best of 4:25.9
Another record setting performance came from Prospect senior Pat Meyers. As the only remaining competitor in the pole vault, Meyers achieved a new personal best with a clearance of 14-2. It also established a new indoor mark and qualified Meyers for the indoor state meet at Illinois Wesleyan in Bloomington next weekend.
"I really have been stuck at 13-feet for the last few meets so it was nice to get past that tonight," Meyers said. "I really want to keep going higher. I would love to get up to 15-9, which would be a new school record."
Despite finishing down in the team standings, Wheeling earned a pair of wins from senior Weston Ross. The Western Michigan-bound senior captured the high jump with a best mark of 6-6 then helped the Wildcats 800-meter relay team that included Matt Splon, Joel Rangel and Kevin Koranda to a winning effort of 1:36.2. Splon also captured the long jump with a best effort of 21-1.5.
Buffalo Grove flexed its sprinting muscles again thanks in large part to junior Ryan Darcy. Darcy earned wins in the 55 meter and 200 meter dashes. Mike Garrity also earned a pair of wins for BG capturing both the intermediate and high hurdles races.
Ohio State-bound junior Brian Bobek captured the shot put for the Vikings and the team of Ryan McGough, Chano Bernardo, Alec Bollman and Tim Meincke captured the 3,200-relay for Palatine in 8:12.90.