The boys’ track and field team made it in five different events for the state meet. In two of the events, the 4 by 800 meter relay and the 4 by 400 meter relay, they came out of the state meet both placing top 9 in their respective events. The 4 by 400 ran by seniors Charlie Connolly, Jon Numani and Ben Riedel along with junior Declan Lawlor, placed 7th overall in their race. The always reliable 4 by 800 group with junior Boris Dimitrov, senior John Peterson, senior Michael Piagari, and senior Owen Smith snuck into the finals and made the most of their opportunity by placing 8th overall. Coach Jay Renaud was certain that the 4 by 800 would perform well at the meet.
“In life nothing is guaranteed except death, taxes, and prospect 4 by 800,” said Renaud.
The 4 by 800 ran a season best time of 7:49.01 [in the finals] after they made it out of the prelims by beating Normal community by .11 seconds. The 4 by 800 ran the 8th fastest time in school history. This is now the second year in a row that the prospect 4 by 800 runners have placed at the state meet and Dimitrov wants to continue this success in the years to come.
The 4 by 800 relay all had season best times for their splits. Dimitrov, 1:58.229, Peterson, 1:55.538, Piagari 2:00.053, and Smith 1:55.189. Smith had a clutch kick in this race as he passed Hersey and Normal (Community West) with 100 meters to go to get prospect into 8th place. Dimitrov saw this and wasn’t surprised.
“I knew it was going to happen,” Dimitrov said, “I knew no one was going to take his chance at a state medal in his final race.”
Not only did the 4 by 800 do well, the 4 by 400 did arguably better. They ran a school record time highlighted by Riedel’s 48.9 split, which is a season best for him. The 4 by 400 was the last team to make it into finals after a 3 hour rain delay in prelims. They placed two places better than expected making this also two years in a row that the prospect 4 by 400 has medaled at state.
The prospect 4 by 800 and prospect 4 by 400 are both consistent medals. They hope to continue this streak in the years to come.
“Doing it with [the] younger guys would be a great end to my high school track career.” Dimitrov said.
