Brinlee, Lake Zurich finish fast at Palatine

Whether on the track or the football field, getting in the way of Lake Zurich senior Jacob Brinlee has proven to be a bad idea.

Friday night, in the final race of the night, nothing was going to get in the way of Brinlee in his pursuit of earning a boys track state meet berth.

In three previous attempts to qualify for state at the Class 3A Palatine sectional, Brinlee had come up short. His fourth attempt was the charm.

As the anchor on the Bears’ 400 relay, Brinlee took a lead built by Alex Brend and turned it into a 3:20.1 clocking and a trip to the state meet at Eastern Illinois in Charleston next week.

“I just tried to get out quick and stay relaxed,” Brinlee said. “I wasn’t about to let anyone catch me.”

Mike Rantis and Chris Rantis joined Brinlee and Brend on the winning foursome. The race itself saw six teams earn state meet berths: Barrington, Fremd, Palatine, Carmel and Stevenson also will be racing at state next week.

“What a great race and a great way to end the meet,” said Palatine coach John Nalley.

In the team race, Deerfield captured its first sectional title since 1977 with 73 points to 70 for runner-up Stevenson. Lake Zurich finished third with 66 points.

Lake Zurich started the night well, qualifying its 3,200 relay team that included John Ramirez, Pat Juras, Brend and Chris Rantis. The Bears ran a season-best 7:53.8 in finishing second to Barrington. Brend also took top honors in the 800, running the second-fastest time in the state this year in 1:53.4. Matt Message of Warren finished second to Brend and qualified in the 800.

The Broncos loaded up their 3,200 relay, taking Erik Peterson out of the 3,200-meter run and inserting him in the relay. Peterson joined Eric Schneider, Pat Mangan and Karl Eiring to run a state best 7:49.7. Barrington also shattered its school record in the process. Palatine was third and qualified in 7:58.9.

“We have put this group together three or four times and tonight we got it right,” Peterson said. “We have the talent to go faster.”

Peterson later took care of matters by winning the 1,600. He outdueled Juras to the finish line winning in 4:19.2. Juras ran a personal best 4:19.5 in his second-place finish to earn his first individual trip to state.

Juras’ teammates Ryan Moncrieff and Victor Delatorre earned their first trips to state, finishing second and fourth in the 3,200-meter run, respectively. Both ran personal bests, with Moncrieff running 9:22.1 and Delatorre dropping over 10 seconds from his seed time to finish in 9:23.9.

Stevenson senior Kevin Wood busted out a personal best in winning the 3,200 in 9:20.9. Palatine’s distance duo of Ruben Frey and Tony Gregorio earned trips to state with qualifying runs as well.

The Patriots’ sprinters were just as impressive, led by Illinois-bound senior Brandon Stryganek. Stevenson qualified two other relays besides the 1,600 relay, and Stryganek battled through back spasms to win the 100 and 200 dashes. In the 100, Stryganek edged Ryan Darcy of Buffalo Grove but both finished with 10.7 qualifying times.

Stryganek looked much fresher in the 200, taking down the field in 21.5.

“I honestly thought that tonight would be a little easier than this,” Stryganek said. “But I got through and it’s all about next week now.”

Fremd senior Justin Wallace knew he had to be ready if the Vikings needed him in the 1,600 relay. Turns out, they did. With just a few minutes before the race was to start, Wallace had to fill in for Jarrell Lewis, and did so without missing a beat.

Wallace joined Eric Wolski, Christian Vail and David Ferguson to a qualifying effort in the 1,600-relay. The Vikings ran 3:23.2 making three relays downstate on Friday night.

“I have run the race before so when I saw Jarrell start to cramp up after the hurdles, I knew I had to be ready,” Wallace said. “I was able to run confident, knowing what Christian and David could do.”

Altogether, it was a record-setting night for the Vikings relays. Fremd tied the school mark in finishing second in the 400 relay, then shattered the mark in the 800 relay with a quick 1:28.5 clocking. The Vikings also earned qualifiers in the shot put, where Brian Bobek finished second with a toss of 57-0, and in the 110 and 300 hurdles.

Lewis finished second to Adam Rabushka of Deerfield, running 39.3 to qualify. Davy Mellado also ran second to Rabushka in the 110 hurdles and qualified in 14.9.

Fremd earned a qualifier in the pole vault, where senior Nick Bednarek set a personal best with a vault of 14-3. Palatine senior Nick LaRocca also qualified by clearing 14-0.

Other qualifiers for the state meet next week included three in the high jump. Libertyville senior Jeremy Birck cleared 6-7 for his fourth trip downstate. Warren senior Isaac Jean-Paul and Buffalo Grove sophomore Kevin Newman also made the necessary 6-5.

Jean-Paul and teammate Kyle Ward qualified by finishing 1-2 in the long jump. Barrington junior A.J. Scarbrough took the top spot in the triple jump with an effort of 45-6.

The shot put added six more qualifiers to the mix, including Mark Tabaka of Lake Zurich and Matt Gilbert of Libertyville.

AJ Gawin of Carmel earned the Corsairs an individual qualifier by winning the 400 in 49.7.