Knight Invite Boys Recap

Overall as a team we competed very well at the Lincoln Way Central Knight Invite.  We had 7 event winners on the day (Paraday- F/S Shot, Peterka- Var Shot, Win- F/S 55, Wilder- F/S 200, Miranda- Var 200, Trost F/S- 400, and the Varsity 4 x 800.  We set 1 school record (4 x 800), and tied another (Harrington in the high jump).  Here is a run down of the day.  SPRINTS:  Our frosh/soph sprints were the highlight of the day, they won the 55, 200, and 400.  Miranda on the varsity level also won the 200 and was second in the 55.  In what may have been the race of the day, Tyler Win lived up to his name to the tune of 6.7 (6.94 conversion).  That is .2 slower than what Miranda ran last year at this same meet.  To say the future is bright for Tyler may be an understatement.  Miranda ran the same time as last year, the difference this year, he was running on a bad ankle.  You could see it in the start, but once he got moving his speed was there.  That is what helped him to run away from the field in the 200 later in the day.  In the 200 Nick ran 23.7, which is .3 faster than last year.  Nick is in for a great year.  In the frosh/soph 200 Chris Wilder got revenge on Tyler and came away with the victory in 26.5, the second half of the race is when Chris asserted himself to the front.  Jamir Hunt also had a busy day in the sprints with a PR in 55 (6.84 converted), and then a great leg in the 4x200.  Jamir battled tough in the open 200 but was not quite ready for the sprint triple on the day.  In the 400 Ted Trost ran a great last 75 meters to come away with the victory.  In his first 400 Tyjuan Diggs ran tough, on the back stretch on the final lap he hung tough with Ted before Ted's strength separated the two.  Tyjuan has a very bright future in track and field, his time today is 2 seconds fast than our current indoor school record holder ran in his first 400 for the Phoenix.  In the varsity 400 Robbie Tidwell got out hard and lead early, but gave up the pole position on the cut in and wasn't able to fight back for the victory, he still did come away with a PR 54.8, which is over half a second faster than Connor Doherty ran last year at this same meet (Connor went on to run 50.x at the end of the year).  Nick E also ran a strong race (56.3), which is almost the exact same time he ran for his split about 90 minutes later in the 4 x 400.  A great day of racing for Nick and the sprints.  In the DISTANCE:  The distance day started strong with the frosh/soph 3200, both Sam Chomiak and Kenny Belavich came away with PRs.  Sam's form has improved about 100% in the last week, he ran a strong, tough and incredibly consistent race, after his opening 400 (84), every 400 after that was between 92-97.  Kenny Belavich ran a great race as well, just slipping under 13 minutes.  The varsity 3200 was a solid race, both guys racing had longer lay offs this off season than they wanted and so their fitness is still coming around.  Ryan Belavich tied is track PR of 11:11, a time he ran outdoors last year.  Mark Harris ran 7 seconds faster this year than last year at this same meet, and again that with coming off of 6-7 weeks off over the winter as opposed to 2 last year.  A good sign for both.  In the 1600 Nick Niendorf put his name on our list of sub 5s this year, with a very consistent run of 4:58 (went through 800 in 2:28, then ran 2:30).  Kyle Bechtold may have run the toughest race of the day, being sick all week, Kyle gave it a go.  He got out well, but his body just didn’t let him run the race he wanted.  The frosh/soph 1600 was a race that resulted in two disappointed athletes, but the positive from that is that Nino ran within 3 seconds of his PR, and Shivam ran within 9 seconds of his, its that mentality that is going to allow this guys to be big contributors in the coming years.  The 800 resulted in 2 PRs, one for Josh Abramowicz at the f/s level and one for Nem Isioma at the varsity level.  Both guys ran very similar races, they got out aggressive and made hard moves in the middle, they just don't quite have the speed endurance yet.  The mindset they both race with is going to be a big reason for their success this year.  Zach Purcell found himself in no mans land during the race and had to battle to good race.  Noah Healy capped a good day of work with a smart run in 2:10.  In the FIELD:  The newcomers performed well in both the long jump and high jump.  Ryan Burger cleared 2 heights in high jump, and also jumped over 17 feet in the long jump.  Tyjuan got a few good jumps in the long and will continue to improve in that event.  All 4 vaulters cleared at least 3 heights on the day.  Jake Juarez came away with a 1 ft PR.  And Chris Curtin continued his consistent run with a jump of 9'6".  All 4 throws performed very well.  Wilber Milhouse threw a 2 foot PR in competition, 32'5.5".  Well Cole Paraday threw a 1 foot PR in competition 37'9.75".  To give a little perspective Zak Peterka threw 34'8" indoors as a sophomore.  Speaking of Zak, he came away victorious with a nice throw of 45'4.5", Zak is becoming very consistent as a throw, every throw is in the 44-45 foot range.  AJ Schlott also had a competition PR of 39'6.75".  The field event highlight was a great series of jumps from Robbie Harrington, he jumped 5'8" to tie the indoor school record.  In the RELAYS:  The relay highlight was the 4x8 setting a school record by 13 second in running 8:30.  I think this group is just starting to scratch the surface of what they can do, should be a fun year for them.  The f/s group in the 4x8 learned the struggle of trying the understand how to pace yourself when you are racing all alone, something they will learn in time.  Both 4x2s ran competative races, the highlight seemed to be the first hand off of the varsity race between Dante and Jamir, they came into the zone in a close race, they left the zone with a big lead.  Holloway said they were running like Predators.  Our 4x4s battled tough, every leg in the varsity group made hard moves to try to take the lead, but Central was just too much for us in their home building.  Overall is was a great day of track and field for the Phoenix.