Boys track and field: Barrington shows its mettle at Prospect relays
Finally a nice spring day, and Barrington's boys track and field team took advantage at the 28th Annual Mike Stokes "Stogie" Relays at Prospect.
The Broncos put up a total of 207 points to stun the host Knights (193, 2nd place) and take the team title.
Barrington finished first or second in 12 of the events.
"The kids really competed today," said Broncos coach Todd Kuklinski. "This was perfect weather. In years past here it's either been warm and windy or cold and snowy. We got some great performances from our kids and this really says a lot about our team.
"Our jumpers did a great job. Our runners and throwers did a great job as well, and today shows just how much work they've put in at practice. To come in and beat Prospect at this meet that they really gear up for shows where we're at."
The Broncos won both the discus and shot put, with senior Mark Di Iorio leading the way in the discus with a throw of 164 feet, 7 inches, a toss that teammate Kevin Meckert called "10 feet farther than the state qualifying mark."
"The relays are a lot of fun," added Meckert. "We're a team no matter what, but in relays the team atmosphere is amplified and we're all relying on each other."
Meckert posted a 136-08 in discus, while Di Iorio and teammate Luke Goodwin were 1-2 in the shot put.
"I come to every meet with the same mentality," said Di Iorio. "Just do the best I can, and I still have ways to improve."
Prospect senior Nathan Kowalski won the two individual hurdles events, the 110 (15.89) and the 300 (42.67).
"Just a lot of grinding it out," said Kowalski of his success. "We haven't had a lot of time outside this year so all the hard work we put in the offseason is really paying off."
Lakes won the pole vault relay, as sophomore Collin Kao put up a 12-08.
"I enjoy the relays (more than individual competitions)" said Kao. "It's better when you have your teammates to fall back on. We're not really a team that's recognized in the running events, so we kind of sneak up on people in the field events."
Barrington was also victorious in the 4x1,600 behind Aayush Agarwal, Greg Van Hollen, James Lyon and Michael Hendrickson in a time of 18:25.09. The Broncos won the 1,600 sprint medley (Mason Kelly, Blaz D'Admo, Michael DuBois, Patrick Furlong, the 800 sprint medley (Nick Barron, Kyle Rivas, Brian Hur, Aaron Sarkar) and the 4x800 (Sarkar, Sean Cleary, Van Hollen, Furlong).
Prospect took home the top medal in the 4x100 in 43.50 with John Moellenkamp, Will Horvath, Noah Marx and Tim Zalinski.
In field events, the Broncos won the long jump (Ryan Dykes of Barrington top mark of 21-02.25), Prospect won the triple jump (Moellenkamp 43-04.25) while the high jump also went to the Knights, although Damon Street of Maine West had the top leap with a 6-05.
The 4x200 went to the Knights in 1:31.96 as Moellenkamp, Horvath, Michael Shafis and Zalinski excelled.
Prospect (Ben Garnmeister, Logan Mertes, Thomas Walter, Erik Snell) won points in one of the distance medleys, as did Barrington (Dykes, Cleary, Ryan Kenny, Reese Palm) in the outstanding time of 8:35.69.
"Not much of a breeze today at all," said Dykes, continuing with the faultless weather theme, "which is perfect for a long-distance runner. I got out of the blocks in good shape (in the distance medley). Sean and Kenny both ran strong, and Reese finished it off.
"Prospect beat us in indoor conference, so we were pointing to this one today. Our team has tremendous depth. We had a few guys out today but there's always someone strong to step in and replace them."