Cary-Grove's Freeman steals the show at Stevenson
It hasn't happened many times this season that Cary-Grove senior Josh Freeman has had equal competition in the throwing events, but the newly signed SIU recruit found a formidable competitor in Grant senior Brandon Lombardino Thursday night at the 41st annual Stevenson Patriot Relays in Lincolnshire.
Freeman has been among the best in the country this outdoor season in the shot put, but in the discus, Lombardino came into the relay meet holding the top seed.
Lombardino broke the Bulldogs school record in the discus during a meet at Antioch on Monday, and his 175 foot, 9-inch mark is among the best in the state this spring. Freeman had put up a 169-foot effort before the two met Thursday.
“I think it raises your level when you have someone like Brandon to go against,” Freeman said. “I don't see a lot of that when I start, and you have competitors starting 25-30 feet less than you.”
Freeman made up the gap in the discus with a personal best of 178-6 to help the Trojans break the meet record. Lombardino threw 169 as Grant also surpassed the existing meet record.
“You definitely could tell it was a big-meet competition,” said Lombardino. “It was great because we worked after and he showed me some things in my shot that helped already.”
Freeman also launched a state-best 63-6 to win the shot put. That is also the fifth best throw in the country so far this spring.
“I have big goals,” Freeman said. “I want the state record and I want to win both throwing events — a lot of room for improvement yet.”
Barrington showed off its depth in capturing the team race title. The Broncos won a tight meet with 87 points to 83 for runner-up Grant. The host Patriots ran third (76) and Lake Zurich was fourth (66).
“It was nice to see the depth we got out of our freshman and sophomore relays,” said Barrington coach Todd Kuklinski. “I think overall with some guys banged up, I'm proud of how we stepped up tonight.”
The Broncos captured wins on the freshman and sophomore level in the 3,200-meter relay, the 400 relay and the 1,600 relay. On the varsity level, Butler-bound senior Erik Peterson helped lead the Broncos to a pair of wins.
Peterson teamed with Nolan Wojtowicz, Konrad Eiring and Ryan Skelly to win the 3,200 varsity relay in a season-best 8:10.2. Peterson then captured the marquee race of the night, the 1,600 run in a field loaded with some of the areas best milers.
Into the final lap, Peterson took the lead away from Pat Juras of Lake Zurich and Martin Martinez of Warren and held off a strong push from Juras to win in a meet record 4:20.8. Juras was also under the meet record with a second place time of 4:21.4 and Martinez ran the third-fastest time in Warren history at 4:22.7.
“It was a sit-and-kick kind of race,” Peterson said. “I thought the pace got a little sluggish mid-race, but I had enough at the end. I am happy with my time.”
In its runner-up team finish, Grant showed off its strength in the high hurdles led by senior Sean Wells and his brother Jonathan. Wells and Wells anchored the relay to a near-record win in 1:06.1.
Despite finishing down the pack, Cary-Grove finished the meet in style capturing a pair of relay wins. The Trojans' 400 relay team of Max Anderson, Tommy Rohn, John Pearl and Ryan Maloney won in 44.3.
But the biggest and most pleasant surprise of the night wasn't the fact that they won the 1,600-meter relay, but that they did so in such style. Anderson, Pearl and Rohn teamed with Alex Bussan to break off a meet record 3:22.6. The spectacular part of that relay was a blistering 46.8 anchor from Rohn.
Cary-Grove also won the shot put relay with JT Mitchell and Rick Hurley teaming with Freeman for the event win.
“I was thinking we would be in the 3:25 neighborhood tonight,” said Cary-Grove coach Layne Holter.
The Trojans' time is also the fourth-fastest in Illinois this spring.
The host Patriots looked strong in capturing five event wins. The team of Carl Miller, Parker Deloye, James Vestuto and Ki Hwan Kim ran a season best 1:32.1 to capture the 800 relay. Deloye also jumped a personal best 6-2 to help the Patriots capture the high jump relay.
Round Lake, led by a 41-1 jump from Deangelo Lockett captured the triple jump relay.