Brooklyn, NY is the city's most populous borough (Tony Jones photo)
We opened up Saturday with a trip into Brooklyn. I figured the key action wasn't going to happen until after noon and with track and field action stretching late into the evening, the best chance of seeing the city's best and most notorious borough would be today. We hit the Brooklyn Bridge and its massive span in which one can see the Manhattan Bridge, Williamsburg Bridge, and massive amounts of housing projects to the left. On the right it is the Statue of Liberty, Jersey City, New Jersey, and Staten Island for the eyes to see. We stayed on Flatbush Avenue and drove past the new Barclay's Center where the Brooklyn Nets played. The awesome facility happens to be on the site of the old Albee Square Mall. Back in the day two things happened in that part of downtown Brooklyn: you either got a nice pair of shoes and gear or you got robbed for it.
The end of the Brooklyn visit was Coney Island. It was a long ride out to one of Brooklyn's far away neighborhoods. Coney Island has a rich history amusement games and rides, the corn dog, chili dog, and Nathan's Famous Hotdogs where Joey Chestnut won numerous world hot dog eating contests. We hit the Riegelmann Boardwalk to see retired citizens sun bathing in 45F climes. It was sunny but definitely not hot enough to suntan in my opinion.
Alas, we headed back to Manhattan and parked the car to take the train to the Armory for day two. It was a mixed day for Illinois kids. Lincoln-Way East girls won their preliminary 4x200 heat in a smoking 1:39.92. It was the first heat of seven and the possibility of not making the final was real. The Griffins did their best to hold on but finished 10th overall and missed the Sunday final. Only one other team in Illinois has broken 1:40 indoors in Illinois history, it is LWE. Kathleen "KD" Young (Jr., Williamsburg-Latham) stayed consistent with a 5th place finish in shot put 49-2.25.
In between Gabby Desroisiers (Sr., Chicago Lawndale), Kayla Hylton (Sr., Lincoln-Way East) and a few other solid efforts was the tremendous production from the Sandburg boys 4xmile team. Coming into the meet, Coach John O'Malley had a plan to win a national title in an event that many people who are not very fond of. This event is the longest event on the high school national docket. Admittedly I tried to bait Coach O'Malley into running another 4x8 relay to keep his US #1 ranking or the Distance Medley Relay. He rightfully would not bite. There will be a time and place for those events later in the outdoor season. The Eagles ran terrific! It was a great battle holding off St. Anthony's of New York 17:16.36-17:16.45. Dylan Jacobs 4:26.74, Brandon Lukas 4:21, Chris Torpy 4:16, Sean Torpy 4:13.9
Winning transcription-
1 Carl Sandburg Tc-Il 17:16.36 2
1) Dylan Jacobs 18 2) Brandon Lukas 16
3) Chris Torpy 16 4) Sean Torpy 16
40.194 (40.194) 1:14.994 (34.800) 1:47.624 (32.630)
2:20.324 (32.700) 2:52.674 (32.350) 3:24.874 (32.200)
3:56.694 (31.820) 4:26.744 (30.050) 4:56.774 (30.030)
5:29.144 (32.370) 6:02.524 (33.380) 6:35.384 (32.860)
7:07.424 (32.040) 7:40.384 (32.960) 8:14.634 (34.250)
8:47.694 (33.060) 9:16.324 (28.630) 9:48.824 (32.500)
10:20.404 (31.580) 10:53.044 (32.640) 11:25.984 (32.940)
11:59.074 (33.090) 12:31.944 (32.870) 13:03.354 (31.410)
13:33.124 (29.770) 14:04.884 (31.760) 14:36.374 (31.490)
15:09.294 (32.920) 15:41.574 (32.280) 16:14.744 (33.170)
16:47.004 (32.260) 17:16.359 (29.356)