Boys track and field: Lake Zurich earns top billing at County invite
Twenty teams coverged on Vernon Hills High School Thursday afternoon to join the host school for the annual Lake County boys track and field invite at Rust-Oleum Field.
However, due to a display of late-day showers, the competitors, meet officials, and spectators would need to endure a 90-minute delay before the sun broke through to get the evening's activities going.
And when it all wrapped up it would be Lake Zurich taking top team honors with 90 points that put them over 25 points ahead of runner-up Barrington (64.5).
Grayslake Central (57), Lakes (55) and Antioch (54) rounded out the top five.
En route to the team title, the Bears captured the 4x100 meter relay (42.23) plus individual wins by seniors Cameron Libby (4:18.96) in the 1,600 and wins by teammate Nicholas Gast in both the 100 (10.75) and 200 meter (21.70) races with the later being a personal best for the Miami (Ohio) signee.
"Coming off the curve I was really flying," Gast said. "It was my best race of the season. I'm really confident going into the (North Suburban) Conference meet next week."
In Barrington's runner-up finish, the Broncos had 10 top five placements led by its silver medal effort in the 4x200 meter relay (1:29.67).
Senior Daniel Sachuk paced Grayslake Central's third-place effort with wins in both the 110 (15.19) and the 300 (39.95) meter hurdles.
A pair of wins in the field paced fourth place Lakes as seniors Jordan Phelan (shot put, 63-04.25) and William Mercure (pole vault, 14-11.00) triumphed.
Fifth-place Antioch was led by senior Carson Lanners' 800 win with a time of 1:57.75.
"It just feels kind of inspiring especially those last 50 meters when you feel like you got a leg on the others," Lanners, a North Central recruit, said.
Warren was led by senior field athlete Eli Hagstrom's wins in both the triple jump (43-03.00) and his co-title with Carmel sophomore Jameer Miles (6-01.50) in the high jump.
Hagstrom admitted to having to adjust through running through puddles in his triple jump victory.
"You just got to block it out and focus (on) what's in front," Hagstrom said. "(It) takes more strength to do after the high jump."
Valparaiso signee Jack Gutowski gave the home crowd something to cheer about with a personal best winning time of 49.40 in the 400 meter race. The Cougars senior credited a much improved weather condition at the start of his race.
"All the conditions were perfect for my race,“ Gutowski said. ”With this performance, I can shoot for both a school record and state finals berth."