Conference Meet Recap

Conference Meet Recap.

Thursday night was a great night for the Phoenix.  The team knew going in that they would be in the mix for a conference title, if they performed to the level that was expected of them we could come away victorious.  And across the board the guys did just that.  It was a night that resulted in 5 school records, and many season best results.

The meet started strong with the fresh/soph 3200 runners setting the tone.  Both David Nino and Shivam Patel separated early from the field and finished with two new PRs and a 1, 2 finish.  Nino’s time puts him in pretty good company for sophomores in the history of North, his time is within 10 seconds of both Ian Mayster and Luke Buhe’s sophomore PRS. The next victory on the track came from the varsity 4x800.  The guys were in a tight battle with LWC through 3 legs but Demetri Panici was able to open up a gap on the anchor leg for the victory.  The varsity 4x100 rode the early moment from the team to a season best and a 3^rd place finish, despite coming into the race as the 6^th seed.  John Chomiak and Mike Trost both picked up points in the 3200.  The race turned out to be a pretty tactical affair with Chom just getting out kicked by West’s Evan Mitchell for the title, but still an all-conference finish for Chomiak.  In the 800, Demetri led from wire to wire to claim the title, as he just out leaned West’s Jake Vanderwell, this is the second year in a row that Panici has been all-conference in the 800.  James Sullivan ran his life-time best 800 to finish a close 4^th in 2:01.8.  The varsity 4x200 followed the lead of the 4x100 and despite being ranked 7^th coming into the race, they ran to a 3^rd place finish and a season best time to secure some unexpected points for the team.  Ted Trost was next with a victory on the track in the frosh/soph 400, along with Chris Wilder who finished 4^th in the same race.  Kyle Goodwin is the only freshman in North history to run faster than Chris Wilder did at conference, very good company to be in.  Just like in the varsity 800, the 400 was a 1^st, 4^th finish for the Phoenix, with Nick Miranda lowering his own school record for the victory in 49.07.  Next up for Nick will be a sub 49.  Kyle Goodwin finished a strong 4^th in 50.56.  The frosh/soph team kept the momentum going in the 1600, Joe Schuetz made a strong statement heading straight to the front in the first lap, running the first circuit of the track in 66.3, and never looking back for the victory in a new PR, and a sub 4:50 time of 4:49.6.  There are only 4^th athletes in North history with faster sophomore PRs than Joe (Wallace, Healy, Bechtold, and Harris).  Not to be out done by his teammate, Anthony “The Profit” Iozzo became the 13^th runner this year to crack the 5 minute barrier, closing his last lap in 73.2 to run 4:59.5.  Anthony is also only the 5th freshman in North history to run sub 5 (Wallace, Chomiak, Healy, and Trost). 

The running action ended with three straight varsity races that came down to the final meters.  In the 1600, Noah Healy came out victorious in an epic battle with Central’s Tommy Kolacki, just edging him at the line 4:25.83 to 4:25.90.  Noah comes away from the race with not only a new PR but a new school record as well.  Kyle Bechtold finished a gutsy effort in 4^th, Kyle was with the leaders through 1K but really had to fight the last lap to hang onto 4^th.  Following the epic finish in the 1600 was a photo finish in the 200.  Nick Miranda was just out leaned by Camron Harrell from BBCHS, they were both recorded with the same time, 21.57.  A new school record for Miranda.  And then the showstopper the 4x400.  Nem slipped slightly coming out of the blocks in the rain but ran a good leg handing off to Tidwell who closed the gap on the back stretch and it was a three team race with 2 legs to go.  Nick Elizarraras ran a great leg to open up a slight lead on LWC before handing off to Jamir Hunt to close it out.  Jamir ran a season best split of 52.0 but was just out ran by LWC’s anchor leg.  A strong 2^nd place finish from the 4x400, in our second best time of the season.

The field events were littered with great performances as well.  Jimmy Moustis made finals in the triple jump in finishing 7^th place.  Zak Peterka threw 46’ to finish 3^rd in shot put, he also finished 5^th in discus.  Cole Paraday bettered his own school record in the discus to come away as the conference champ with a throw of 151’10.5”.  Chris Curtin had his best series ever in pole vault to finish 3^rd in a new school record of 11’6”, break the longest standing school record in the program.  Mac Juskee also finished 3^rd at the frosh/soph level in the pole vault.

When it was all said and done the Phoenix came away victorious on both levels, overall a great night for the Phoenix and very encouraging start to the post season.  See you at Sectionals.