Tinley Park Relays Recap

Friday night the Phoenix had a great night at the Tinley Relays.  The throwers got the night going strong.  The team of Wolverine, BHenn, and Paraday came out victorious.  Both Zak, and Brian throw all time PRs.  Cole was within a few feet of his PR (he set last week).  Zak and Cole will continue to push each other in the discus and should be able to secure some big field events points for the team at conference and also put themselves in a good position to make the trip to Eastern at the end of May.

On the track the night started out with a big team highlight.  The 4x1600 team of Chomiak, Healy, Panici, and Bechtold ran away with a huge victory in the relay.  Chom and Noah both opened in sub 4:30.  Before this meet no athlete in North history had run under 4:30, after the first two legs two had done it.  And that wasn’t the end of the fireworks.  Demetri ran a solid 4:34, and then Bechtold was able to run under 4:40 for the first time with his 4:38.5 anchor carry.  One other note about this race that is very encouraging, Noah was able to open in 60.7 and still run nearly a 4 second PR.  Something that would indicate regardless of what the pace goes out at during the sectional race he should feel comfortable.

The next big race was the sprint medley.  Jamir, Korey, Miranda and Goodwin were lights out, both on their carries but also on the exchanges.  Jamir to Korey was a perfect handoff and Korey was able to open a lead that Miranda continued to build for Goodwin to close the race out in 50.4.  Lots of great takeaways from this.  The 4x100 chemistry through the first 3 legs looked great.  And Miranda to Goodwin was a great handout that will bode well for the 4x400 late in the season, with both of those guys running great legs.

The 4x800 was able to set a new school record of 8:16.14.  Every guy in the race ran really smart.  Tidwell and Sullivan both ran all time bests with very consistent splits.  A huge confidence boost for James to finally break through the 2:05 barrier.  Noah also had a great leg running 2:02 after running 4:29 about 60 minutes before.  Chom battled tough on the anchor leg running a 2:06 (not a bad night for a two miler, 4:29, 2:06) only to be taken over in the final steps.

The final relay of the night saw two guys step up big time.  With two guys set to run the 4x400 not able to go, Rob Tidwell and Ted Trost had to step up.  And they both stepped up big time.  Rob ran 52.35 and Ted ran his second PR of the night 54.04.  The stable of 400 runners at North keeps growing every day.  The battle for those 4 coveted spots will be exciting to see how it plays out for the rest of the year.

With two more Friday night invites before the conference meet the Phoenix are in a good spot, but should be hungry for some more.  The next three weeks of practice will decide the legacy that this team will leave on the program, and they have to potential to be the best the school has ever seen.