Lake Park has Block party at LZ

After setting a state record in the discus on Wednesday, it wasn't hard to tell that Lake Park thrower Dan Block was the big story.

Block, fresh off an IHSA record-breaking discus throw of 199-feet-8, was bound to follow up with another big performance. Discus wasn't his big event this time, but he didn't do so bad in the shot put.

The Lake Park junior chucked the ball 63-5, good for ninth all-time in IHSA history. His throw was so powerful that it even landed outside of he shot put pit .

Thanks in part to Block's power, his Lancers easily won the Lake Zurich Bears Invitational on Friday. Lake Park bested Barrington 185-146, while the host Bears rounded out the top three with a score of 122.

Benet Academy finished fourth with 91 points and Waukegan finished last with 33.

Block's nearest competitor, Waukegan Bulldog Cornelius Watkins, would've had an easy time taking top honors at any other meet. In the shot put, he threw a personal-best 55-1 and in the discus, he set another PR at 168-8. But going against Block, this was far from any other meet.

"I was getting frustrated. I mean, I just threw 55 feet," Watkins said. "But I guess I've got more work to do."

Despite easily beating the rest of the field in both the shot and discus, Block wasn't exactly happy with the results.

"It's a horrible day," Block said. "My throws felt off, there was bad wind, everything was going against me."

But Block wasn't the only one winning for Lake Park. Other event winners included Craig Watson in the 1,600-meter run and Greg Haugh in the pole vault. Lake Park's 6,400-meter relay of Mike Della Penna, Alex Rummelhart, Austin Grealish and Watson were also victorious. Overall, Lake Park scored top-three finishes in 12 events.

"I thought, overall, team balance was the key tonight," Lake Park coach Jay Ivory said. "We scored very well in all events. Obviously, that's what you want in a big track meet."

Meanwhile, the host Bears found their strength in the relay events. Lake Zurich took home medals in both the 800 and 3,200 relays. LZ's 3,200 team of Mickey Stott, Jordan Pavlovich, Cisco Soto and Jake Paulus provided one of the most thrilling races of the night, beating out Barrington by just 0.09 seconds.

"Our 4x800 team looked really good tonight," Lake Zurich coach Chad Beaver said. "That was definitely a really close race with Barrington, but our guys were able to pull out a nice win."

Barrington event winners included Sam Ojiri (high jump), Kevin Crowley (long jump), Steve Munoz (100), Derek Shelton (400), Jason Taylor (110 hurdles) and the 400 relay.

Lake Park winners were Block (shot, discus), Craig Watson (1,600), Greg Haugh (pole vault) and the 6,400 relay.

Lake Zurich won the 800 and 3,200 relays, while Christian Williams took the 200.

Benet winners were Matt Clifford (800) and David Gorenz (300 hurdles).