Girls track and field: Grayslake Central's Reglewski shines at Lake County meet

This time, food was the topic of the day.

Grayslake Central senior Julia Reglewski always finds something to talk about while she's waiting in line for her chance to throw the shot put or the discus. She'll talk about anything ... except shot put and discus.

On Thursday at the Lake County Girls Invite hosted by Antioch, Reglewski was sharing her thoughts about pizza and White Castle with her throwing coach.

"Well, I'm really hungry right now, so it's like, 'Let's talk about food,' " Reglewski said. "That helps me. I need to take my focus off of (performing).

"Some people, it's different. They really need to zone in. For myself, I need to get in and get out and have fun and walk away happy no matter what happens. I've always been my worst enemy. I would beat myself up. So I've been working on that. I've been preparing mentally more than physically and it's been showing."

It certainly did at the Lake County Invite.

A cool, calm, pizza-and-White Castle-fantasizing Reglewski did what she has done all season. She won, and won big. Both shot put and discus.

Reglewski, the No. 1-ranked shot putter and discus thrower in the state, took first place in the Lake County Invite in the shot put with a 44 feet, 10.58 inches and a first place in the discus with a 146 feet, 3.9 inches.

Reglewski's two first places helped Grayslake Central place second as a team with 85 points. Barrington won the meet with 134 points.

All season long, Reglewski, who is also ranked in the top 20 in the nation in both shot put and discus, set and reset Grayslake Central's school records in both of her signature events. She is now targeting a pair of state championships.

Reglewski qualified for state as both a freshman and a sophomore, but, like every track athlete, was denied the opportunity to do so last year with the shutdown of high school sports due to COVID-19.

"A lot of girls were nervous coming back from COVID because they missed an entire year," Grayslake Central throws coach Kari Juszczyk said. "But what Julia did was just train the whole year. She would throw from a parking lot and lift in a garage. She wanted to make sure she didn't fall behind and she ended up putting on a good amount of muscle. She didn't take COVID as a setback. She pushed her way through and worked even harder to get to her ultimate goal, which is state. She wants it."

Reglewski, who will be competing next year at Dartmouth where she will be premed in order to be a dermatologist someday, turned her Dad's auto mechanic shop into an indoor throwing area and training center.

She also built her own discus ring out of plywood. And turned her basement into a gym.

"Where we lift up cars to work on them in the shop, I threw in there," Reglewski said. "And my coach gave me plans for the ring so that I could built it correctly. I had to get crafty.

"It wasn't so much that I was doing all of that so that I could be a state champion when we came back. I did it because it just truly made me happy and kept me going during quarantine because that whole thing was really tough."

Reglewski wasn't the only multiple winner for Grayslake Central.

Mia Morello won the 100 hurdles with a personal record of 15.69 while also taking first in pole vault with a 12 feet, 10 inches, also a personal best.

Bella Domier won the 800 meters for the Rams with a personal best of 2:13.79 and two Grayslake Central relay teams took first places: 4X400 (4:09.470 and 4X800 (9:36.64).

For Barrington, Breanne Dunn won the 300 hurdles with a personal record of 46.47, Kathleen Baker won the 400 meters with a personal record of 58.47, Gabby Quaranta won the long jump with personal record of 16 feet, 9.96 inches, and Sofia Rosenzweig won the triple jump with a personal record of 36 feet, 3.8 inches.

Barrington also won the 4X100 meter relay (49.89), a personal record for a group that had been trying all season to finish under 50 seconds.

"The team has done an awesome job," Barrington coach Jody Gitelis said. "It's been a crazy year. And the fact that it's a shortened season and trying to get everyone enough looks, we've just been trying our best.

"We didn't even do much during the off-season. We did a couple Zoom calls but I think we met only four times during our contact days. A lot of our kids worked out on their own and it's been so wonderful for these kids to compete. I'm so pleased with them pulling together and working so hard through all the trials and tribulations."

Lake Zurich finished third in the team standings.

For Lakes, which finished fourth, Brooke Stromsland won both the 1600 meters (5:04.67) and the 3200 meters (11:02.71).

Annika Bynum of Warren, which finished sixth, won the high jump (5-foot-4).