Boys track and field: Barrington handles 13-team field, weather to win Lake Zurich invite
As a 13-team contingent converged on the campus of Lake Zurich High School for Friday's Bears boys track and field invite, they along with the meet's host would have to successfully work through difficult weather conditions.
They saw temperatures go from the low 60s with a nearly 20 mile per hour westerly wind to an almost 20 degree temperature drop by evening's end into the mid-forties.
Lake Zurich coach and meet director Todd Anderson stressed the importance of proper warmup techniques as a way to deal with those changes.
"As long as they properly stretch before (competing), they'll be OK," Anderson said.
While all the competitors took that message to heart, it was Barrington who ran with it better than the others to take the team title with 131 points finishing 57 points higher than second place Fremd (79.5).
The host Bears (74) took the bronze while Vernon Hills and Huntley (71) shared fourth place.
For Barrington it marked the second team title it had earned this week after having won the Mid-Suburban West meet on Tuesday.
"I've got to give a lot of credit to my kids," Broncos coach Todd Kuklinski said. "They're a little tired. (It was) cold, windy. You never know what's going to happen. (I'm) really proud of our kids. They're awesome and they did a great job."
Barrington was led by a quintet of first-pace finishes highlighted by wins in both the 400 (43.46 seconds) and 1,600 relays (3:31.89).
Plus, it earned wins by seniors Luke Hall (51.00) in the 400 meter dash and Andre Van Vuren (1:59.51) in the 800 meters. Sophomore Justin Hurtado (10:08.30) brought home the final win for the Broncos in the 3,200.
Van Vuren credited the wind for giving him the extra added boost.
"All my competitors and I were in the same boat," Van Vuren said. "Using that wind to my advantage with the other side of the track with 300 (meters) to go, I knew it was at my back so that I used it then and felt pretty powerful in the home stretch."
Perhaps the one athlete who displayed the most power on the evening was Carmel junior Dev'ion Reynolds. He lost out on a tiebreaker to Huntley senior McHale Hood in the high jump due to more missed attempts after each cleared 6-6, then went on to capture the long jump (21'08.75) and the 200 (23.12).
That impressed his coach Ryan Hornung of Reynolds' evening considering it was only his second week in the high jump and first spring in the 200.
"To see him come out this year in the 200, he's doing an awesome job," Hornung said. "We have one more year with him so we're really excited. He's only going up."
Reynolds also received plaudits from his high jump top competitor, Ross.
"You want it to be fun (and) friendly," Ross said. "I love to see people win and do as best as they can even if it's competing against me. Competition brings the best out of me."