A relay good day at state for Lake Zurich
CHARLESTON - Were there nervous moments for the Lake Zurich Bears during the prelims of the 116th state track and field championships at Eastern Illinois' O'Brien Stadium on Friday?
Absolutely, but the results were just what Jacob Brinlee, Colin Wanat, Braxton Klavins and Christian Williams had hoped for.
The Bears came into the preliminary heats of the 400-meter relay with a good time - probably good enough to earn a finals spot. Instead of resting on their laurels, the Bears went out to secure a spot in the finals.
Racing in the first heat of the relay turned out to be the best thing that could have happened to the Lake Zurich foursome. The team ran to a third place finish in the heat in a season best 42.14, then sat back and watched the next three heats.
"It was hard to wait like that, but it was great when we found out we made it," Klavins said.
Lake Zurich is back in the finals of the 400 relay for the first time in three years and will be there as the fifth overall seed. But that was hardly the only highlight for the 2010 North Suburban Conference champs.
To start the Class 3A session, the 3,200 relay team of Paul Geimer, Francisco Soto, Alex Brend and Chris Rantis surprised the field by winning the third and final heat - a group that featured top-seeded New Trier and perennial power York. The winning time of 7:52.52 is another school record and puts LZ in the finals in this event for the first time ever.
"I really wanted to get this for Francisco and Alex, since they gave up running their individual events for the relay," Geimer said. "Of course, it makes life easy when you get a new PR every week."
To close the afternoon session, Brinlee, Klavins, Brend and Jackson Rathe ran a school-record time of 3:21.60. The team will be in the final race of the state finals as the fifth overall seed.
"This has been a great experience," Klavins said. "Now we get to go out and make tomorrow better than today."
Friday was pretty darned good for Stevenson junior Brandon Stryganek. While he will only race in two out of the four events he qualified for state in, the day was another record-setting experience for the speedy Patriot.
Stryganek helped lead the team of Zach Rose, Brett Kraiman and Jon Fajardo to a school record in the 400 relay. The 42.89 clocking sets a new mark for the foursome that has continually gotten better each week.
Then, in what has become a signature race for Stryganek, he captured his heat in the 100 dash to become the first Patriot in the sprint finals since Rick Heyward finished fourth in 1983.
"This has been a great experience down here," said Stryganek after winning his 100 heat. "Definitely, the competition here is the best I have seen all year."
Stryganek earned his second spot in the finals with a second-place finish in his heat of the 200 dash. His time of 21.56 is a school record and seeds him third in Saturday's finals.
Lakes Junior John Pfeiffer also took advantage of his chance to make history. In the fifth year of the Eagles track program, no one had earned a medal in state meet competition; now Pfeiffer has a chance to earn a pair.
He started out in the shot put, where his throw of 54-4.75 sits him second behind Matt Strack from Champaign Centennial.
"Being here at state for the first time, in this atmosphere, is just amazing," said Pfeiffer. "I told my coach when I came down here last year that I would come back here and win the shot and that is still my goal today."
Add the discus to Pfeiffer's goal-setting strategy. Though far from his best day, his throw of 152-7 earned him yet another berth in the finals. This time he won't go it alone as senior Bill Brinser and Antioch rival Brandon Ginter will also be there. Brinser tossed the disc 145-6 while Ginter earned his place with a throw of 148-2.
It was not a banner day for Grayslake Central junior Jahard Nelson. Instead, Nelson will take this as a major learning experience.
"I think we learned that it's a whole other game down here," said Nelson who raced in four events for the Rams. "Everyone down here is fast and if we want to be a part of that we have to work to get back here."
Vinnie Culhane, Michael Katona and Dan Hsu made up the Rams' 400 relay team. Will Reed raced on the 800 relay team and Jordan Bustos, Matt Mohrfeld, Devon Osborn and Ryan Seiffert raced on the 1,600 relay.
A bright spot for the Rams came in the field events, where Bryant Jennings and Chris Makey both qualified for the finals. Jennings battled through a tough day to earn a spot in the triple jump (43-3.75) while Makey cleared 12-9 to make the pole vault finals.
Jeremy Birck of Libertyville cleared the required 6-4 to earn his spot in the high jump finals for the second year in a row.
Sean Wells and Kyle Lombardino of Grant, Xavier Suarez, Matt Goad and Jake Jerewicz of Warren, Christian Cacciatore and Mitch Neubauer of Libertyville, Antonio Farley of Round Lake, James Vestuto of Stevenson, Marcel Kirkmanbey, John Beckman, Ryan Prais and Tyler Swindle, Mike Pfeiffer and Donte Arnold of Lakes also competed in the state meet on Friday.