Boys track and field: Palatine has a 'Ball' at MSL meet; Barrington wins team title
Palatine's Dominik Ball had just that at the Mid-Suburban League boys track and field track meet Wednesday at Conant in Hoffman Estates.
Ball, who is a freshman, came away a big winner, with the top times in the premier sprint races, the 100 and 200 meters. He also won the long jump and helped his team to a third-place finish in the 4x100 relay.
"I came from eighth grade," said Ball, who has been running competitive track since he was eight. "With the time off, I have been ready to run again."
Ball, who was an honorable mention all-area running back for Palatine this year, showed how ready he was, running the 100 in a sizzling 10.96. He then followed by winning the long jump with a jump of 22 feet, 6.5 inches. Ball closed out his superb night by winning the 200 in 22.62.
Barrington's Jack Fitzpatrick won the mile and was part of the winning 4x800 team along with Carter Hart, Kris Marino and Jack Ziebarth that won in 7:59.13. Fitzpatrick's mile time was 4:23.08 to hold off Rolling Meadows' Stephen Barretto, who finished in 4:23.77.
"At about 250 to 200 I knew I needed to go," said Fitzpatrick, who will run at Boston College next year. "I have been mostly focused on the 3,200 so this is the first time I have got after it.
With those two wins, and a plethora of top finishes in the remaining races, Barrington won the conference championship with 170 points.
"I think we placed in every event," Barrington coach Todd Kuklinski said. "And I think we had multiple people place in other events. This is a true testament to the depth of our team and this is a team sport. They were tremendous tonight."
Prospect came away with a trio of relay wins to finish second with 124 points
The Knights' Tommy Park, Aiden Orlando, Matt Raitano and Reece Greenwald captured the 4x100 relay in a time of 43.32 to beat Hoffman Estates by a tenth of a second.
Park, Orlando, Raitano and Beihoffer combined to win the 4x200 in a time of 1:31.22 to again edge Hoffman, which finished in 1:31.69.
Jake Winski, Johnny Warmanen, Jack DeChoudens and Dominick Balenda won the 4x400 in 3:28.59.
Palatine, which finished third with 113 points, also got a win from Jacob Bostick. The junior, who was the favorite in the triple jump, didn't disappoint and won the event with a 44-6 jump.
Rolling Meadows, which was fourth with 74.5 points, picked up a couple of nice individual wins.
Barretto won the 3,200 in 9:20.91 He finished just seconds ahead of Barrington's Joey Furlong, who was second with a 9:24.40.
Michael Campbell won the 110 hurdles in a time of 15.22 to finish just ahead of Prospect's Bryce Turner, who was second in 15.57. Wheeling's Daylan Berger won the 300 hurdles in 39.94.
Hersey's Remy Jankusky edged Buffalo Grove's Mario Torres in the 800. Jankusky ran a sub two-minute race, finishing in 1:59.58 to Torres' 2:00.56.
Conant's Matt Schmidt won the 400 in 51.88. He was just under a second better than Hoffman's Tai Badejo, who finished in 52.80.
Hoffman Estates' Kenny Badejo won the high jump with a 6-2.75 jump. Palatine's Damian Zych won the pole vault with a 12-8 successful attempt.
Elk Grove's Luna Ademovski had a career-best throw to win the shot put with a throw of 51-8.5. Prospect's Eric Malinowski, who was top seeded in the discus, held form with a throw of 147-8 to win the event.