Boys track and field: Prospect edges Barrington at unique relays event
Prospect grabbed a stogie Saturday.
Prospect opened up the 2025 outdoor boys track and field season with a full effort at the 34th annual Mike Stokes “ Stogie” relays in Mt. Prospect.
The Knights won 7 of the 19 special relay events to win the title with a score of 161. Prospect finished just in front of Barrington, which was second with a 152, Hersey was third with a 124, followed by Huntley’s 64 in the 9-team event.
All 17 events had individual winners. But each event was scored as a relay with the combined finish of a 4-person group used for scoring.
“Our kids really performed well,” Prospect coach Jeff Collier said. “We are very team centric and have a large team of 160 kids. In a meet like this, you have to have a big team because everything is a relay. The depth of our team really helps.”
Nathan Cichy led the way for the Knights with his performance in the 110 high hurdles. The junior ran a 14.65 split, which would be the third fastest in the state.
“Our practice plan has really helped me,” said Cichy, who committed this past week to play football at Harvard.
“The last three weeks we have been really locked in as a team. Especially in hurdles practice. I have felt really strong recently. This is my first 110 in awhile and I felt really good.”
Caden Moran had the top long jump with a jump of 6.47 meters. The Knights also won the 800 meter sprint relay, the distance relay, the 1,600 sprint relay along with the traditional 4x400 relay (3:28.7).
Barrington used a pair of traditional relays to power the Broncos into a second-place finish. Barrington had Hayden Dahlin, Lucas Martin, David Marian and Lamar Osterhues to run a pair of state-best races. They ran a 41.80 in the 4x100 and a 1:28. 84 in the 4x200.
“Our goal here was to do a couple of things,” Barrington coach Todd Kuklinski said. “And we did those things. We loaded up the 4x100 and the 4x200 to see where we were at and we ran some outstanding times.”
Hersey was led by Ike Ikeechi, who ran a 40.17 in the 300 hurdles. Logan Farrell won both the discuss with a 52.68 meter throw, which is second in the state, and the shot put with a throw of 17.27 meters.
“Today was an excellent day and an excellent first outdoor meet,” said Farrell, who is a senior and will play football at Illinois next year.
“It felt amazing to get out here and compete in such beautiful weather. I was thrilled to set a new outdoor personal best in the discuss.”
Huntley got off to great start thanks to Tommy Nitz, who ran a 4:16.02 in the 1,600.
“It actually wasn’t the time I was hoping for,” said Nitz, who ran a 4:12 in the indoor season.
“It is my first meet outdoors and I am OK with it. I went out pretty slow. So I had to take the lead and I just had to go. I am trying to break the school record of 4:10 this year.”
Huntley coach Chris Maxedon said he felt his team performed well in their first multi-team event.
“I was really pleased on how we did today,” Maxedon said. “Thinking about the events that we normally run in a track meet, we were more than competitive.”