Boys track and field: Rolling Meadows' Barretto has memorable run at Huntley
Stephen Barretto participated in one event at Friday's Huntley boys track invite.
But the Rolling Meadows senior made his lone race a memorable experience.
Seizing the lead early in the 1,600-meter run, Barretto cruised to a personal best time of 4 minutes, 23.53 seconds to win the event.
After crushing the competition, Barretto was mobbed by teammates and received congratulations from several opponents from different teams following his eye-opening race.
Barretto, of course, credited his new Nike spikes for helping him to such a stunning race. Barrington's Blake Garrels finished in second place with a time of 4:41.96.
"I beat my personal record by three seconds," Barretto said. "Both of my mile races this season have been solo, so it was fun to see how far I could push that last 800 to try and get a personal record. I was testing out my new spikes, and they felt great starting off. The (shoes) were more bouncy and felt flexible.
"I didn't feel like I was slowing down at the 800 mark, so after that, I just pushed the pace to see how far I could go. I still feel fresh because this was my only race."
Minooka rode several strong performances to win the team title with 157 points, defeating Barrington (102). Huntley (85), Rolling Meadows (61), Lake Zurich (43), Jacobs (41), Palatine (40) and Fremd (29) rounded out the invite. In the girls' meet, Barrington (139) dominated the field. Minooka (91), New Trier (82) and Huntley (73) rounded out the top four.
The Broncos had a number of solid showings, led by Nate Goodman winning the triple jump (12.49 meters) and notching second in the high jump (1.83 meters). In the 800, Barrington claimed the top two spots, with Kris Marino (2:04) winning the event and teammate Anthony Torres (2:06) right behind him.
"Minooka is a strong team," Barrington coach Todd Kuklinski said. "We had a great meet. We're taking this one step at a time. We have a lot kids in the program, and want as many to get big meet experience. We want to get kids as much meet exposure as they can. This is an outstanding meet. Every meet we're getting better and better. The field events came out and set the tone. From there, we did a good job in several events. It was a complete team well-rounded event."
Rolling Meadows junior hurdler Michael Campbell had a pair of eye-catching races - to go along with his long hair which nearly covered his eyes. Campbell posted a winning and personal record time of 15.87 in the 110 hurdles and added a first-place time of 41.17 in the 300 hurdles.
The 6-foot Campbell joked that "I need a haircut" after finishing his final race. Thus far, Campbell has won three of his four hurdle events this season.
"It felt good to be back out running," Campbell said. "I only ran the 300 in my freshman year, so it's nice to run both now. This feels good to get first to start the season. I'm pushing to get to state."