Stevenson's improving, at least in the short run
Stevenson's track and field has been synonymous with excellent distance runners over the years. Since 1982, Stevenson has earned a pair of state titlists in the 1,600 and numerous other distance medal winners.
But only once in their history have the Patriots earned a sprinting medal, and that was 27 years ago.
Times at Stevenson are changing - and quickly, thanks in large part to junior Brandon Stryganek. He qualified for state a year ago in the sprints, and if his performance as part of two relays at the 39th annual Patriot Relays on Thursday night is any indication, Stevenson may be about ready to end its spriting state medal drought.
Teaming with Brett Kaiman, Jon Fajardo and Zach Rose, the Patriots ran to a strong second-place finish in the 400 relay in a blazing 43.5, just behind Lake Zurich (43.4). While Stevenson ended up in second place in the team standings to Barrington, the Patriots unveiled a sprinting group that will certainly steal the spotlight from the distance group, at least for a little while.
"It really feels good to be known as a good group of sprinters here where distance has been so good," Stryganek said. "It's been 10 or 15 years since we have had this type of sprinting here, so times are changing."
One thing that hasn't changed at the Patriot Relays is the dominant team performances each year from Barrington. Despite being a bit short-handed due to injuries, the Broncos rolled to the team title, scoring 113 points.
"Tonight overall was a good team performance," said Barrington coach Todd Kuklinski. "We have a good distance core and good depth and we needed it tonight with some guys out with injury."
The Broncos captured four relay event wins, including a record-setting performance in the frosh/soph 3,200-meter relay. The time of 8:34.7 set a meet record, besting the old mark set by Warren in 2006.
Other wins for Barrington came in the shot put, where Kenny Greer had the best toss of the afternoon at 51-6, the high jump led by Blake Landa and the 440 hurdle shuttle relay.
One performance that didn't earn a first place spot but was still notable was the effort by Chris Cogswell in the 1,600 for the Broncos. Cogswell ran to a solid time of 4:29.1 just behind Kenny Farleigh of Cary-Grove. Farleigh ran 4:25.8 to give the Trojans their only event win.
Sometimes, a meet like this can give coaches perspective on where their teams are headed and what needs to be tweaked. In the case of Warren, the 1,600-relay team of Matt Goad, Kevin Absil, Eddie Lopez-Villa and Jake Jurewicz provided plenty of answers for coach Bill Dawson. The Devils dropped over 10 seconds from their outdoor best this season and won impressively in 3:28.6.
"I think we had some questions answered today," Dawson said. "We still have a few things to work on, but we learned some good things about that relay today."
Jurewicz and the Devils were also good in the triple jump, capturing the event led by a 43-1 jump from Jurewicz.
While Warren found a few things out, Lake Zurich was reassured that its sprint teams are one of the best in the area. The team of Christian Williams, Braxton Klavens, Colin Wanat and Jacob Brinlee ran to wins in the 800 and 400 relays. The 800 relay team came in at 1:32.0 while the 400 relay team held off Stryganek to win in 43.4.
The 3,200-relay also was a pleasant surprise for Beaver and the Bears. Anchored by returning state medalist Francisco Soto, the Bears popped loose a season-best 8:08.5 to win the 2-mile relay.
"I was proud of how the kids came here and just worked and competed," said Beaver, whose team finished third in the team race behind Stevenson and Barrington. "We have a group of kids here that want to work to get better and they came out and performed well tonight."
Grant captured an event win led by Kyle Lombardino; the Bulldogs captured the discus event with a combined team toss of 383-9.