Boys track and field: Prospect’s depth shines at MSL meet

For some at Wednesday’s Mid-Suburban League boys track and field meet at Barrington, it wasn’t a question of whether Prospect would win. Rather, it was by how much.

Ironically, it took awhile for the Knights to come in first in any event. But they still did more than enough to win the conference championship with a 158.5, far ahead of Hersey at 106.

“We've known that we've had a pretty good team coming into the season,” said Prospect coach Jeff Collier. “We've got a very strong group of seniors, some really good juniors that fill in the lineups. We got talented kids all over the track and in the field.”

It wasn’t until the halfway point when Landon Samp won the 800 meters in 1 minute, 55.95 seconds that the Knights could boast an event victory. By then however, they were well on their way to the title.

“(We're) probably one of the No. 1 distance teams in the state of Illinois,” Samp said. “So I gotta think that helps a lot — having a dominant distance squad and then a really dominant sprint squad.”

Immediately after Samp’s win, the Knights’ 4x200 relay team won in 1:28.77. Later, Shea Lewis dominated the shot put with at 17.65.

Gabriel Gronski of Hersey won the 3,200 in 9:23.04, and despite tying with Prospect’s Caden Moren in the high jump at 1.93, Peter Franczyk was awarded the victory by not having any misses at that height in the meet’s first event.

The Huskies stole second from host Barrington by winning the 4x400 relay — the evening’s final event — in 3:27.05.

Barrington (third, 105.5) got a victory from Hayden Dahlin in the pole vault at 4.67 meters, Lamar Osterhues in the long jump at 7.16 meters, as well as its 4x100 relay team in 41.87.

“We've been competing pretty good all year,” said Dahlin, who had recovered from a pulled hamstring from earlier in the season. “And I'm really excited to see what we can do at sectionals and state.”

Fremd (fourth, 64) earned a victory from Jack Jennings in the 1,600 in 4:14.87 and also from its 4x800 relay team in 8:02.94.

Micah Pickett of Hoffman Estates (fifth, 57.5) barely beat out Osterhues in the 100 by four hundredths of a second, doing so in 10.78. He then claimed the 200 in 22.01, squeaking by Prospect’s Nathan Cichy by two hundredths of a second.

Ray Black of Schaumburg (sixth, 49.5) was victorious in both hurdles events, taking the 110 in 14.40 and the 300 in 39.86.

Auren Whiting got a victory for Rolling Meadows (seventh, 49) in the triple jump at 13.62.

Eliaz Egbe claimed a win for Palatine (eighth, 39) in the discus with a distance of 50.40.

Justin Czepiel of Conant (ninth, 32) finished first in the 400 in 49.04.

Wheeling, Buffalo Grove and Elk Grove Village rounded out the team rankings with respective scores of 25, 14 and 2.