CHICAGO MARIST TRACK AND FIELD

On Tuesday, April 17, 2007, the Northside Mens Track & Field Team traveled to Winnetka, Illinois for the New Trier Classic, featuring Maine East and host New Trier High School. The meet featured three schools, and was scored 5-3-2-1 for individual events, and 5-3 for relays. In the Triple Jump, Northside Sophomore Eric Nelson triple Jumped for the first time since the 2006 City Championships, and on his second jump of the day, jumped a personal best jump of 38'8 to place third overall. Nelson is now within 1'4 of the school record! Sophomore Albert Lin triple jumped 35'8 to place fourth overall. In the Long Jump, New Trier's Nynn jumped 20'5 to win it. Maine East's Wilson jumped 18'4.5 to place second. New Trier's Bittman jumped 17'10 to place third. Northside Sophomore Albert Lin completed the scoring with a jump of 17'5 on his final jump to place fourth overall. In the Shot Put, Maine East's Kwiazkowski won it with a throw of 48'0. Maine East's Fernandez placed second with a throw of 45'8. New Trier's Zapt placed third with a throw of 39'8.5 Maine East's Maciek placed fourth with a throw of 39'3. The Mustangs were lead by Sophomore Eric Nelson with a throw of 34'10. Northside Senior Darrel Johnson threw a personal best throw of 32'5.5. Senior Robert Garcia threw a personal best 30'6. Sophomore Gustavo Hernandez threw 24'2. In the Discus, Maine East's Kwiazkowski won it with a throw of 119'0. New Trier's Zapt placed second with a throw of 117'0. Maine East's Fernandez placed third with a throw of 96'2. Northside Sophomore Eric Nelson completed the scoring by placing fourth with a personal best throw of 81'5. Senior Robert Garcia threw a personal best 80'7. Senior Darrel Johnson threw a personal best 71'3. Sophomore Gustavo Hernandez threw a personal best throw of 65'8. Junior Vinh Nguyen threw 54'9. In the High Jump, Captain Eric Nelson won it with a jump of 5'6, which was also the opening height for Pole Vault. Sophomore Wemi Jemine placed second with a jump of 5'2. Sophomore Albet Lin and Freshman Andrew Czyszczon attempted 4'10. In the Pole Vault, the field consisted of 10 athletes with two from Northside, and the remaining eight were from New Trier and Maine East. This season, Northside College Prep and Whitney Young became the first Chicago Public High Schools to Pole Vault since 1982. The Mustangs don't have any Pole Vault equipment of their own, and after the rest of the Northside Track & Field Team goes home for the day, the Mustangs have been training two nights a week at Whitney Young High School from 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm. The Mustangs have also been training with borrowed Poles on the soccer fields in back of Northside College Prep after practice without a Pole Vault pit. The Mustangs hard work paid off on Tuesday night. Northside Junior Vinh Nguyen had three quality attempts at the opening height of 5'6. Northside Sophomore Simon Vecchioni made history on his first attempt at 5'6, by clearing it, and setting the school record. With Maine East and New Trier's experienced vaulters, including Grant, Myers, Colby, Parks, Christian, Connor, Maximus remaining in the competition there was little chance that Vecchioni would place in the meet. But Simon Vecchioni shocked everyone but himself. The height was moved up to 6'0, and Simon Vecchioni cleared it on his first attempt. New Trier's Connor cleared it on his third attempt. The height was then moved up to 6'6. Colby was eliminated, and Simon Vecchioni cleared it on his second attempt! The height was then moved up to 7'0. Simon Vecchioni cleared it on his first attempt! New Trier's Connor cleared it on his third attempt. The height was then moved up to 7'6. Only Grant, Parks, Christian, Connor, and Vecchioni remained in the competition. On his third attempt, Northside Sophomore Simon Vecchioni BROKE THE SCHOOL RECORD for the fifth time in a row with a personal best Vault of 7'6 to put him in Third Place! New Trier's Christian and Connor put themselves in a first place tie by clearing 8'0, and waited nervously for the Northside athlete to attempt 8'0. Between vault attempts, athletes generally put their sweats back on and relax, or double check their steps, or decide to switch to a bigger pole. What did Simon Vecchioni do? He is one of Northside's top middle distance runners, so inbetween vault attempts, he went to the starting line on the Track for the 800m run, and got off to a slow start (69) for the first 400m, but came back strong in the final 300m, to come within one second of his PR with an outstanding time of 2:19. Vecchioni then made three quality attempts at 8'0. New Trier's Christian and Connor made three attempts at 8'6, but failed to clear it. The tie for first place was broken by adding the total misses during the competition, and Christian was awarded first place with a vault of 8'0. Simon Vecchioni set the school record at 7'6 and also became the first Northside athlete to score points in Pole Vault by placing third overall. In the Varsity 4x800m Relay, Junior Erik Flores ran a 800m split of 2:23 (67/76) on the first leg of the relay. Junior Santino Merino ran a 800m split of 2:27 (73/74) on the second leg of the relay, and made a nice exchange to Jonathan Kittaka. When Kittaka received the baton, the Mustangs were in fourth place, and had not one, but three 4x800m relay teams to overcome. Jonathan Kittaka ran a 65 for the first 400m, and a 2:15 800m split (65/70) to put the Mustangs in second place, and made a nice exchange to Captain Preston Buehrer. Preston Buehrer ran negative splits for a 2:16 800m split (70/66), and anchored the Mustangs to first place, for a total time of 9:21. In the 4x100m Relay, Hunter Speese ran a 11.52 100m split, Nathan Michaelson ran a 14.33 100m split, Neal Capapas ran a 12.57 100m split, and Peter Wilk anchored the relay with a 13.10 100m split, for a combined time of 51.52. In the 3200m Run, New Trier's Harvall won it with an outstanding time of 10:37. New Trier's Hansen placed second with a time of 10:37.4 New Trier's Neetherie placed third with a time of 10:43.4. New Trier's Karprzek completed the scoring by placing fourth with a time of 10:46.4. Northside Freshman Cuitlahuac Pineda was sixth overall with an outstanding time of 11:13 (5:32/5:41). Northside Freshman Jaisong Yang ran a personal best time of 11:36 (5:37/5:59) to place eighth overall. Northside Junior Harold Jaffe ran an outstanding time of 11:51 (5:35/6:16). Northside Freshman James Rey ran a personal best time of 12:44 (6:12/6:32). In the 110m Hurdles, Northside Sophomore Albert Lin placed fifth overall with an outstanding time of 20.24. Freshman Andrew Czyzczon placed seventh overall with a personal best time of 21.63. In the 100m Dash, Northside Freshman Hunter Speese placed fourth overall with a personal best time of 12.40. Sophomore Wemi Jemine ran a personal best time of 12.73. Junior Erik Flores ran a time of 12.80. Freshman Sam Olver ran a personal best time of 13.35. Freshman Prasanth Bijjam ran a time of 16.21. In the 800m run, New Trier's Nelson won it with a time of 2:13.50. Northside Sophomore Simon Vecchioni placed sixth overall with an outstanding time of 2:19. Junior Adam Swiatlowski ran a time of 2:35. Junior Joey Paquette ran a time of 2:37. Sophomore Gustavo Hernandez ran a time of 2:38. In the Varsity 4x200m Relay, Preston Buehrer ran a 25.87 200m split on the first leg of the Relay. Santino Merino ran a 26.07 200m split on the second leg of the Relay. Neal Capapas ran a 27.33 200m split on the third leg of the relay. Junior Erik Flores ran a 25.23 200m split, and anchored the Mustangs to third place, for a total time of 1:44.70. In the Sophomore-Freshman 4x200m Relay, Sam Olver ran a 28.00 200m split on the first leg of the Relay. Nathan Michaelson ran a 31.00 200m split on the second leg of the Relay. Freshman Thomas Nguyen ran a 28.00 200m split on the third leg of the Relay. Freshman Peter Wilk anchored the Relay with 29.50 200m split, for second place, with a total time 1:56.50. In the Varsity 400m run, David Velasco ran a time of 71.69. In the Varsity 300m Hurdles, Northside Junior Santino Merino placed seventh overall with a personal best time of 50.92. Freshman Andrew Czyszczon ran a personal best time of 54.02. Junior Vinh Nguyen ran a personal best time of 61.58. In the Varsity 1600m run, New Trier's Quirke won it with an outstanding time of 4:50.90. Northside Sophomore Jonathan Kittaka placed second overall with an outstanding time of 4:59 (69/2:25/3:45/4:59). Maine East's Zielinkski placed third overall with a time of 5:03.4. New Trier's Welch placed fourth overall to complete the scoring with a time of 5:04. Northside Junior Preston Buehrer placed seventh overall with a time of 5:13 (73/2:33/3:56/5:13). Northside Junior Harold Jaffe tied his PR with a time of 5:36 (75/2:38/4:09/5:36). Junior Brad Eben had his best race of the season with a personal best time of 5:58 (77/2:46/4:23/5:58). In the Sophomore-Freshman 1600m run, Jaisong Yang ran an outstanding time of 5:35 (83/2:38/4:08/5:35). Freshman James Rey ran a personal best time of 6:04 (85/2:55/4:31/6:04). In the Varsity 200m Dash, Zdanowski won it with a time of 24.20. New Trier's Masuda placed second with a time of 24.8. Wilson placed third with a time of 25.00. Northside Freshman Hunter Speese completed the scoring by placing fourth overall with a personal best time of 25.20. Sophomore Gustavo Hernandez ran a time of 34.09. Freshman Prasanth Bijjam ran a time of 35.79. In the Varsity 4x400m Relay, Sophomore Simon Vecchioni ran a 60.80 400m split, and made a nice exchange to Santino Merino. Junior Santino Merino ran a 61.58 400m split on the second leg of the 4x400m Relay. Freshman Neal Capapas ran a 61.12 400m split on the third leg of the 4x400m Relay. Junior Erik Flores anchored the Mustangs to second place with a 59.73 400m split, for a total time of 4:03.27. In the Sophomore-Freshman 4x400m Relay, Sam Olver ran a 67.77 400m split. Sophomore Nathan Michaelson ran a 68.72 400m split on the second leg of the relay. Freshman Peter Wilk ran a 65.51 400m split on the third leg of the relay, and made a nice exchange to Andrew Czyszczon. Freshman Andrew Czyszczon ran a 63.04 400m split, and anchored the Mustangs to second place, for a total time of 4:25.04. VARSITY POINTS SCORED AT NEW TRIER CLASSIC 1. Eric Nelson 8.00 2. Jonathan Kittaka 4.25 3. Wemi Jemine 3.00 4. Simon Vecchioni 2.75 5. Erik Flores 2.00 5. Hunter Speese 2.00 5. Albert Lin 2.00 5. Santino Merino 2.00 6. Preston Buehrer 1.25 7. Neal Capapas 0.75 VARSITY POINTS SEASON LEADERS (11 Meets) 1. Jonathan Kittaka 47.25 2. Geoff Edwards 46.00 3. Preston Buehrer 34.25 4. Eric Nelson 34.00 5. Albert Lin 21.00 6. Patrick O'Connor 19.75 7. Jose Choto 14.75 8. Santino Merino 12.75 9. John Holler 11.25 9. Simon Vecchioni 11.25 10.Benjamin Garcia 11.00 11.Cuitlahuac Pineda 10.25 12.Erik Flores 10.00 12.Wemi Jemine 10.00 13.Martin Melto 7.75 14.Hunter Speese 7.50 15.Brian Chhun 5.25 16.Neal Capapas 5.00 17.Harold Jaffe 4.25 18.Vinh Nguyen 2.50 19.Darrel Johnson 1.50 19.Robert Garcia 1.50 20.Nick Ruff 1.00 20.Faraz Khan 1.00 20.Adam Swiatlowski 1.00 21.Peter Wilk 0.75 22.Omer Aba-Omer 0.50 The above athletes have earned a Varsity letter this season by scoring at the Varsity level.