Announcement
Northside Varsity upsets Niles West! GRBA second in the 800m! ROSEN second in the 1600m! 4x200m and 4x800m finish THIRD! Frejowski 52.38 400m!
The meet featured TEN schools, including: Fenwick, Northside College Prep, Yorkville (Cross Country State Champions), Plainfield East, Antioch, Huntley, Harlem, Mather, Prosser, and host Niles West High School.
Niles West High school hosts spectacular sporting events throughout the year, and thanks to Niles West Head Track Coach Chris Vivone, Distance Coach Michael Grossman, and staff, the Paul Gans Invitational was an incredible experience for all of the Teams in attendance.
At the same time, Niles West is one of the most difficult Teams to beat at home, because of their incredible depth and experience. Niles West came into the meet as the defending Paul Gans Invitational Champions.
The odds of scoring enough points to post victories over any Team in a Track meet are not very good if you don't compete in all of the events. Especially, in a meet that features ten great Teams.
Northside arrived at Niles West High School without Senior Porter Abbey, Senior Matt Osborne, Senior Gabriel Jiminez-Ekhman, Junior Garret Barch, and Junior Brendan Powers. Osborne was injured in a cycling accident the night before the meet. Barch had not recovered from a hurdling injury from last Saturday. Porter Abbey was training in Europe in preparation for the Mike Vandeever Invitational.
Northside also could not bring up any Sophomores to the Varsity squad as replacements because they were competing in the Fred Zeedyk Invitational on Saturday.
Northside was also on the verge of having to use distance runners from the 4x800m Relay for the sprint relays to replace sprint phemons Garret Barch and Gabriel Jiminez-Ekhman.
Northside had no entries in the Varsity High Jump, Varsity Long Jump, Varsity Triple Jump, Varsity Pole Vault, and Varsity Shot Put. Opposing Teams built up a nice lead over Northside during the Field Events.
Things looked bad, but then everything changed as soon as Captain Malcolm Grba, Captain Tom Frejowski, and Junior Philip Wdowiak walked into the Stadium, as Danny Rosen was warming up for the 4x800m Relay. At that moment, you knew the cavalry had arrived, and a tremendous comeback would take place in the Track Events.
Northside earned MEDALS in the 4x800m Relay, 4x100m Relay, 3200m run, 110m Hurdles, 800m run, 4x200m Relay, 400m Dash, 1600m run, and the 4x400m Relay to stage one of most awesome comebacks in TEAM history.
Northside came from behind to finish in fourth place with 38 points, and posted tremendous upset victories over: 5. Antioch (37 points), 6. Niles West (33 points), 7. Harlem (18 points), 7. Prosser (18 points), 9. Mather (11 points), and 10. Fenwick (9 points). Northside had a record of 6-3 on the day!
Huntley won the Paul Gans Invitational. Plainfield East finished in second place. Yorkville, the Class 2A State Cross Country Champions, finished in third place.
The best is yet to come! Northside will have a full Team, when they take on Glenbrook North, the Central Suburban League Indoor Track and Field Champions, and Deerfield on Wednesday, April 15, 2015.
