The scene at the 85th Annual Palatine Relays looked like a winter wonderland
Palatine, IL-
A great track meet taken by the weather. Snow showers in LATE APRIL doomed the Palatine Relays from the start. Teams didn't even show up for the meet such as Portage, Algonquin Jacobs, De La Salle, and Grayslake North. Not to mention teams like Barrington, Kenwood, Fremd, and others who just packed up their stuff and leave throughout the meet. It was a meet that is unheard of happening. Palatine seemed to make the best of it by playing "Let it snow" during one point of the meet.
The meet started actually decent with no snow and rain in sight for the first few events. Erin Oleksak of Palatine started her day off firing away. Running 45.36 to win the 300H and 15.05 to win the 100H. Justin King was also a two-hurdle event champion winning the 300H with a 40.23 and the 110H with a 15.40 as he emerges as Fremd's next big hurdler after Jaden Jackson and Ben Konopka graduated last year.
Kathleen Baker of Barrington opened the day of girls sprints with a huge win in the 400m going 58.79 to win over her teammate, Gabby Cossio, who went 59.23. Barrington has three girls that have already gone sub 60 in the open 400m, they will look to be a threat in the 4x400m this year.
The boy's side, a distance runner came out on top in Carter Schorr who went 51.89 and showed he has some impressive footspeed for a guy that uses a two-point stance. Then the snow started to roll in shortly after. The 100m was really affected as shown by 12.74 being the winning time from Elena DeVito of Palatine Fremd. She took down an excellent field as well.
Field events were almost none existent with all the top competitors scratching out of the competition. The one real bright side of all the field events was Mark DiIorio of Barrington going 166-6 in the discus throw to win on the boy's side.
The distance was great at the start of the meet. Barrington's Molly Fitzpatrick had a light day on tap as she had to leave the meet early as she had her confirmation later that day. She only ran the 3200m and SMR, winning both. She went out hard in the 3200m with a 76 first lap but settled into a better pace quickly as she came through mile one at 5:25. She closed in a very good 5:23 to win the event by almost a minute. Mundelein's Dillon Blake seemed to chill in the boys 3200m winning with a 9:37.22. Much slower than his 9:15 personal best.
In the 800m everything was still great with Barrington junior Alyssa Norris chasing down Evanston's Gabrielle Horton for a comeback win in the 800m with a 2:17.72. On the boy's side, Michael Parduhn of Mundelein took it from the gun winning with a 1:58.85. Then the snow started up and the performances went downhill. A very good Barrington girls team that was very capable of going sub 10:00 only ran a 10:18.57 to win the girls 4x800m.
The same story on the boys side with a very good Mundelein team being capable of breaking 8:00 only going 8:23.39. The one bright side during the 1600m was honestly the announcer coming on over the loudspeakers to tell the competitors after the 1600m that all the other events have been canceled.