Boys track and field: Barrington takes title at snowy Palatine Relays
With a lot of wet snow and rain in very late April, the 87th Annual Palatine Track & Field Relays will probably go down in history more for the weather conditions than anything else when people look back at this meet.
The legendary meet had it all, with a few teams not showing up to compete due to the weather, some teams leaving early, and the final two events being called off due to the unbelievable weather for a month into spring.
But when all was said and done and the official scoring was straightened out, it was Barrington that outlasted the host Pirates 116-109 for the championship while Mundelein (102 points) took third place under temperatures that hit 34 degrees by the end of the meet at noon.
The Broncos were actually one of the teams that left early along with Fremd and Hersey, but they still had enough points accumulated to eclipse Palatine for the team title.
"I appreciate the teams hanging in here, and we got 17 or 18 out of the 20 events in today despite the conditions," said Palatine coach John Nalley, who was dressed for winter weather. "We didn't want to skip a year of the Palatine Relays so we were glad to get this in, and I think they'll have a story to tell for the rest of their lives with the snow here today."
Barrington's winning effort was led by high jump champion Ryan Dykes (5 feet, 11-inches). He also took second place in the long jump competition by going 20-1ΒΌ.
The Broncos also got first-place efforts from Mark Di Iorio (166-6) in the discus throw, and teammate Luke Goodwin (47-6) in the shot put to help carry their squad to the narrow victory over the Pirates.
Palatine's Mossimo Vardomaskos took first place in the 100-meter dash in 11.77 seconds while the Pirates' 4x200 meter relay team of Vardomaskos, Chris Lewiston, Jack Wimer, and Jaden Rasheed won in 1:34.09.
Relays were the name of the game for the Pirates on Saturday as they also won the 4x100 race behind the foursome of Rasheed, Wimer, Jacob Wnuk, and Zach Cherian in 46.53 seconds.
Palatine also got a winning effort from Richie Jacobo as he would close out the day by winning the 1,600-meter run in 4:35.13. The 200-meter run, and the 4x400 meter relay were called off due to the slippery track conditions that were only getting worse. The triple jump competition was also canceled.
"We knew coming into the meet that we would have to stick it out through all of this weather and we would have a chance to take first place," said Palatine junior Jake Gronwick, who was a part of the Pirates' 4x110 meter shuttle hurdle team. "It was a lot of fun, I never thought I would run hurdles in the snow."
Despite the conditions, Fremd's Justin King had no troubles maneuvering over the hurdles as he won both the 110-meter race in 15.40, and the 300-meter race in 40.23.
Mundelein put together a strong performance as the Mustangs got first-place finishes from Dillon Blake (9:37.22) at 3,200 meters, Carter Schorr (51.89) at 400 meters, and Michael Parduhn (1:58.85) at 800 meters.
Mundelein's 4x800 relay team of Parduhn, Schorr, Aidan Afonso, and Dario Carrillo also posted a winning time of 8:23.39.
Sean Finerty was second in the 1,600 run for the Mustangs.
"We swept all of the distance events, the 2-mile we ran great, and both Robert St. Clair and Nathan Clapp had PRs," said Mundelein coach Kurt Rutz. "Dillon Blake ran a 9:37 in the 2-mile, and he just ran to win to be safe in weather like this today."
Palatine's Damian Zych added a second-place finish for the Pirates in the pole vault (12-8) while Fremd's Jonas Sales (42.03) took second place in the 300-meter hurdles race. Barrington's Brian Hur (11.80) barely edged teammate Quinn Ketel (11.81) for second place in the 100-meter dash.