Bear Invite- 4/19/24
Cormick Buti
4/20/2024
On a cold and windy Friday, April 19th 2024, the Glenbrook North Spartans competed at Lake Zurich High School for the Bear Invite. The first event of the meet was the Frosh/Soph 4x800 meter relay. Unfortunately the splits for this relay were lost but everyone ran decent times, with no PR’s, mainly due to the wind. The Spartans were led off by Ray Zenimoto (Fr) who went out strong with the leaders of the race. Zenimoto handed off to Naoto Majoros (Fr) still up at the front, with two teams having pulled ahead a little bit. Majoros ran a tough leg, reeling in the leaders ahead and finishing strong. With the baton next was Evan Bueno (So) who managed to hold third place and keep the leaders from getting too far away. Sam Epstein (Fr) was on the anchor leg for this relay and he got the baton, still in third with two guys ahead to chase. Epstein did his best to close the gap on the leaders but in the end he only managed to keep their 3rd place, finishing with a time of 9:11.6.
For the Varsity 4x800 meter relay, the Spartans were led off by Ben Gricius (Jr). As the race split into two different packs, Gricius did his best to get out with good positioning and ended up right in the middle of the second pack with a split of 2:21. Joseph Considine (Sr) got the baton next and he pushed himself, going strong into the wind. Considine kept their positioning with a split of 2:17 and handed off to Matteo Gatchalian (Jr). Continuing to battle the wind, Gatchalian moved up as much as he could while tucking behind his competitors on the back curve to block the wind as much as possible. Gatchalian roughly split a 2:20 before handing off to the anchor leg, Ryan Quinlan (Jr). Quinlan brought home the relay for another 2:20 split for himself and a finishing time of 9:23.6 which got them an 8th place finish.
Following that was the Varsity 3200 meter in which Matthew Rubin (Sr) was competing in the fast heat. Rubin went out strong, battling the wind, with the leaders of the race and kept with them for most of the race. Towards the end they started to pull away a bit but Rubin still managed to run a strong race and finish in 7th with a time of 10:09.9. Maxim Djits (So) was the other competitor for Glenbrook North and he was racing in the slow heat. Djits also had a strong race considering the wind and managed to stay with the leaders of his racing placing well in his heat and he got 19th overall with a time not too far off his PR, 11:07.2.
Following that was the Varsity 800 meter. Up first in the slower heat was Tucker Roth (Jr). Roth got out strong, battling the wind to the best of his ability right up with the leaders. Roth pushed hard on the second lap still fighting for positioning with the leaders and he finished with a time of 2:14.4 and a 14th place finish out of both heats. After Roth, Hayato Majoros (Jr) was up next in the fast heat due to a mess up with his seed time. But Majoros really stepped up given his circumstance and managed to race extremely well coming in with a PR at 2:06.0 and an 8th place finish overall.
Next up was the Varsity 1600 meter. In the first heat, representing Glenbrook North, was Cormick Buti (Jr). Buti went out at a solid pace right with the leaders of his pack. Throughout the first three laps Buti stayed up in 3rd to 5th place with movement here and there as guys tried to make moves. Going into the final lap Buti was in 5th passed two people to finish in 3rd for the heat, and 11th overall, with a new PR of 4:47.3. The next heat had Tucker Roth (Jr), competing for the Spartans, who had previously run the 800 not too long ago. Already being drained, Roth went out there and did his best to compete. He held on to the main pack for a lap or two before falling back with the guys tailing and had to fight to stay in the race. Roth finished with a time of 4:59.3 and placed 19th overall.
Exhibition 1600
Nico Grady (Fr) 5:21.5
Jackson Hirsch (So) 5:25.9
Mark TenEick (So) 5:59.0
Adrian Elliot (Jr) 6:16.0
The team performed very well considering the wind with multiple PRs and lots of good placement. The Frosh/Soph team won the invite at their level and Varsity placed 10th out of 13 teams.
Spartan Of The Meet- Brody Maslouski (Fr)