Stevenson's in style at Palatine sectional
The Stevenson Patriots were dressed for style and built for speed at the Class 3A Palatine boys track and field sectional on Friday night.
Donning new speed suits for the first time this season, the Patriots proceeded to qualify for the state meet next week at Eastern Illinois University in four events - their most since 1982.
On top of that the team of Zach Rose, Jon Fajardo, Brett Kraiman and the speedy Brandon Stryganek also set school marks in the 400- and 800-meter relays. Stryganek also qualified as the champion in the 100 and 200 dashes, becoming the first multi-event qualifier for Stevenson in decades.
"Yesterday morning, the coaches pulled the speed suits out of a bag and tossed them to us," said Kraiman of the new duds. "It just seems like with the competition getting better each week, we keep rising to the competition level each week and are getting better and better."
James Vestuto was the other qualifier for the Patriots with his second-place finish in the 400.
Zion-Benton captured the team title with 78 points. Deerfield was second with 64 followed by Lake Zurich with 58.
The Bears did a little record-setting of their own in the first relay of the night - the 3,200. The team of Paul Geimer, Francisco Soto, Alex Brend and Chris Rantis broke a 28-year-old school mark in winning the relay in an impressive 7:53.5.
"This really means a lot to me in just my second year in track," said Brend, a junior. "I had been reading the times on dyestat(.com) and saw that we were right there and I knew we could be among the best."
The newly crowned North Suburban Conference champions then proceeded to take two of the next three relays on the track. The 400 team of Jacob Brinlee, Braxton Klavins, Colin Wanat and Christian Williams ran a sparkling 42.2 to hold off runner-up Zion.
Jack Rathe, Williams, Brinlee and Klavins earned another trip to state in the 800 relay with a second-place finish in 1:29.2. Then Brinlee brought home the Bears' third relay crown of the night, anchoring a season-best 3:22.4 in the 1,600 relay title with Rathe, Brend and Klavins.
Palatine had a plan for success in the 1,600 and senior Alec Bollman and sophomore Tim Johnson followed it to perfection. Only Libertyville senior Mitch Neubauer decided he wanted a little of the Pirates' master plan.
The Iowa State-bound Bollman proceeded to set the pace and keep it such so Johnson could get himself in position to qualify. Neubauer picked up on the Palatine plan and rode the heels of Johnson all the way around the track.
It worked to perfection. Bollman won, as expected in 4:21.0. Right behind in second was Johnson in 4:21.5. Just behind the two Palatine frontrunners was Neubauer. As he crossed the line with a full fist in the air, it wasn't long before he was mobbed by his teammates in a wild celebration. His 4:21.7 time was a personal best by more than seven seconds, earning Neubauer a trip to the state meet table next week.
"I knew that Bollman had a plan to get Johnson down and that if I stayed with them, who knew what might happen," Neubauer said. "I just felt fantastic the whole way."
Other Palatine qualifiers included David DiCristofano in the long jump, Tyler Jones in the discus, Chad Bobbit in the shot put and the 3,200 relay team that included Bollman.
Libertyville picked up two additional qualifiers in the triple jump where Christian Cacciatore won the event with a personal best 43-3 and in the high jump where junior Jeremy Birck earned his third straight trip down with a second-place finish to Weston Ross of Wheeling.
Fremd picked up its share of qualifiers, including Ohio State-bound junior Brian Bobek. Despite being delayed in the discus due to bad weather, Bobek popped off a season best throw of 165-0 to earn a trip to the state meet. Then, in the shot put, Bobek left little doubt.
In the prelims of the shot, Bobek earned a PR with a toss of 56-10. Despite a pair of second-place finishes, Bobek clearly had a great day.
"I felt so much more relaxed going in the discus first," Bobek said. "I usually start with shot first, but felt so relaxed in the discus that it made me more relaxed in the shot."
Fremd's 3,200 relay team of Spiros Angelakos, Christian Vail, Eric Wolski and Mike Varela ran a season-best 3:23.3 to qualify.
Angelakos earned a bid in the 800, Varela picked up another in the 300 hurdles and Aaron Ferst stamped his ticket in the 3,200-meter run.
The amazing effort of the Buffalo Grove 3,200 relay got the meet off to a great start on the track for the Bison. The team of Ryan Pater, Joey Bernardo, Julian Grills and Mike Galla dropped an amazing 20 seconds from their previous best time to earn a state berth in 7:59.8.
BG also earned qualifiers from Ryan Darcy in the 100 and Mike Garrity in the 110 high hurdles.
Warren picked up multiple qualifiers on Friday night. Jake Jerewicz earned his spot in the triple jump. Matt Goad earned his first trip to state in the 200 and Xavier Suarez picked up a trip to state in the 800 with a personal-best 1:56.6.