Boys track: Huntley has the answer at Stevenson Relays
Huntley boys track coach Jim Rolando likely knew the answer to the oft-ask question - just who are these Red Raiders? - before they even took the track at Stevenson for the Patriot Relays on Thursday night.
But the confirmation notice was nice anyway.
"I think we found out that we are who we thought we were," Rolando said with a smile after Huntley raced to nine relay event wins and 134 team points to earn the team title. "This is a great meet to run relays, because you get to see a lot of guys run a lot of races."
Barrington ran second (96), followed by the host Patriots (80) and Grant (79).
Huntley made a statement early on, winning the 3,200 relay in an impressive early season time of 7:58.3. Keagan Smith, Seth Conroy, Mike Grocholski and Zach Hollman made up the impressive foursome that finished more than 11 seconds ahead of second-place Cary-Grove (8:11.3).
"Most of the relays we ran tonight were pretty legit," Rolando said. "The four guys that ran here tonight, when we get to the end of the year, will be the four guys that will be on these relays."
Momentum from the 2-mile relay carried over into another impressive performance in the 800 relay. Ben Marsh, Brendan O'Donnell, Trevor DellaQuila and Jeremie Allen ran 1:28.8, narrowly missing the meet record but plenty good enough for first place.
In the field was another area where the Red Raiders found big successes. Senior Tim McGloyn helped Huntley to event wins in the discus (431-3) and the shot put (149-1). McGloyn had the best discus toss of 159-7 and the top effort in the shot put (52-6).
Huntley also captured field event relay wins in the long jump (56-1.5) and the high jump (17-0). Alex Moran of Grayslake North had the top individual performance, clearing 6-2.
Runner-up Barrington benefitted from tremendous performances in the frosh/soph relays. The Broncos' relay wins came in the F-S 1,600 relay (3:34.3) and the F-S 3,200 relay (8:32.2).
The lone event win for the host Patriots came in the 1,600, where senior Jared Borowsky held off a hard-charging field to win in 4:29.4. Last weekend at the prestigious Arcadia Invite in California, Borowsky ran one of the fastest times in the area in the 1,600, 4:19.99.
Grant put together a record-setting night, with meet records in the 440 high hurdle and 440 intermediate hurdle relays at 1:04.2 and 1:02.4, respectively. Timmy Brundidge, Chris Hatton, Josh Polark and Bobby Cayet made up the winning foursomes for both relays.
Brundidge closed his night by contributing to the Bulldogs' 1,600 meter relay. That foursome, which included Octavian Wells, Ben Schram and Kemar Miller, ran 3:22.3 to break the meet record set by Cary-Grove in 2012.
"We have never come out this strong before, as strong as we did tonight," Brundidge said. "We were talking before the hurdles races that the weather was perfect to race tonight, so we just went after it."
Other relay event wins for the Bulldogs included the triple jump relay (127-1), where Miller (42-9.5), Schram (41-2), and Tyler Schaefer (43-1) teamed up for the win.
Grant also took the varsity 400 relay with the team of Wells, Miller, Brundidge and Schram.