Klines, Lake Park impress at Lake Zurich
When it comes time to throw the shot put or spin the discus, a large crowd usually gathers around twins Jermaine and Jeremy Kline of Lake Park.
The crowds ooh and ahh as the South Carolina-bound twins put on another show to help the defending Class 3A state champions to another team title.
On Thursday night at the fourth annual Bears Invitational at Lake Zurich, the Kline brothers put on an early show and the Lancers domination of the field events led to another team title.
Lake Park won the long jump, pole vault, high jump, discus and shot put and didn’t have a runner finish higher than third on the track. Still, with all of the points earned in the field events, the Lancers amassed 189 points to edge the host Bears (183).
Hoffman Estates (130.5), Barrington (121.5) and Lakes (118) rounded out the top five teams in the 12-team event.
Jermaine Kline started the meet with a winning toss of 187 feet, 5 inches, just ahead of Lakes senior John Pfeiffer. Pfeiffer’s second throw in the finals netted a school record of 162-6.
In the shot, Jeremy Kline put on quite a show launching the lead ball a state-best 65-4½ to win the event. Jermaine was second with a “modest” effort of 63-10½.
“I think it makes things a lot of fun when you know so many of these people here are watching you throw,” Jeremy Kline said. “I haven’t been throwing as well lately, but I worked on a few things in practice to get myself right and I felt good today.”
Zach Ziemek and Kevin Spejcher captured the long jump and high jump respectively. Ziemek later became the first pole vaulter in the state to clear 15 feet this season.
On the track, the host Bears put on a show of their own. Lake Zurich dominated the sprinting events and took down a school record in the 1,600 meters.
Purdue-bound senior Alex Brend blitzed the field in the 1,600 in 4:18.8, breaking the mark set two years ago by Gerrardo Perez of 4:20.
“This was the first time I have run the mile this year outdoors since we ran our spring decathlon,” Brend said. “I wanted to be consistent and run 62’s all throughout the race, but when I went out too fast I had to slow down and it made it hard to get my momentum back.”
Fellow senior Jacob Brinlee also shined brightly under the lights at Mel Eide Field as he helped the hosts capture three event wins.
Teaming with Mike Rantis, Connor Schrader and Ben Papke, the Bears’ 400 relay ran a season-best 43.5 for the event win. Brinlee earned wins in the 100 (10.8) and the 400 (50.5).
“I felt pretty good tonight,” said a tired Brinlee afterward. “I just went out and did what I needed to do for us to score points.”
Teammate Ryan Moncrieff hooked up in another duel with Barrington junior Erik Peterson and this time Peterson finally caught, who is turning into, his nemesis.
With 1,000 meters still to go in the 3,200, Peters passed Moncrieff and took control of the race. He crossed the line in a season-best 9:24.0 just ahead of Moncrieff (9:26.0).
“When (Ryan) took the lead, it was similar to races we have had before,” Peterson said. “I just waited for the right time to go and gave it all I had.”
Other event winners included Mundelein’s team of Nitesh Kumar, Robbie Munnings, Martin Mena and Gian Carlo Vassalo in the 3,200 relay (8:09.4) and the Mustangs’ cross-town rival Carmel in the 1,600 relay.
For the 30th straight year, Carmel went under the 3:30 mark in the event. AJ Gawin, Ryan Ruddell, Tommy Miller and Jack Schoen ran a season-best 3:26.7 to win the event.
Fremd captured the 800 relay with Erik Wolski, AJ McGhee, David Ferguson and Justin Wallace running 1:31.80. The Vikings also dominated the hurdles with Dave Mellado winning the 110 high hurdles in 15.4 and Jarrell Lewis taking the 300 hurdles in 40.3.