But in spite of all those obstacles, the Eagles nailed some very impressive indoor performances.
The first eye-opening performance came at the Joliet West Invite on February 28th. Danny Laskero showed that he's ready to build on a very nice cross country season. Showing no fear, he stalked the Hoffert twins from Yorkville throughout the 3200 meter race. His gutsy effort resulted in a third place time of 9:35.16 and was the 12th fastest 3200 in Sandburg history - and probably the fastest ever indoors up to that point! That race set the tone and inspired his teammates for the rest of the meet. Here's the video of that race. Sean Torpy followed that up with a very solid 4:29 effort in winning the 1600 meter race, while sophomore Martin Skucas (4:40.02) and freshman Dylan Jacobs (4:49.86) went one-two in the F/S 1600.
Next up was the highly-anticipated DGS Mustang Relays at North Central College. After taking a little time off after a long cross country season (ending in December at the Nike NXN Nationals), the boys were back training hard for the track season. This event seems to bring out the best in teams and each year it gets better and better. The men's 4 x8 relay always seems to be the highlight of the night and Lane Tech set the tone last year with a sizzling 7:54.21 to edge out Downers Grove North. Both of those teams were back in 2015, in addition to perennial powers Neuqua Valley, Lyons Township, Hinsdale Central, as well as strong squads from Glenbard West, Whitney Young and Yorkville. Leading off for the Eagles, Tommy Brennan had to fight his way thru traffic - lots of pushing & shoving & elbows. Holding his own and running a very solid 1:59.7 opening leg, Brennan handed off in 7th place. Taking the baton for the 2nd leg, Max Lehnhardt battled to keep the Eagles in the hunt. Running in his first "big time" 4x8 relay, Max stayed within shouting distance of the leaders and ran a fine 2:02.2 leg and handed off to Sean Torpy still in 7th place. At this point, the exchange zone got a little crazy, with Sean weaving and dodging runners, only to get hit right in the face with a spiked shoe that flew off the foot of a runner in front of him. Not to be deterred, Sean simply lowered his head and went to work. On the fourth lap, he unleashed his kick and brought the stick all the way up to 3rd place - trailing only Lane Tech and Glenbard West. His split was 1:56.2 and the race was on! Twin brother Chris Torpy handled the anchor duties and had some open track to work with. After sliding past Glenbard on the first lap, Chris used the 2nd lap to cut into the big lead that Lane Tech had built. With 250 to go and with Neuqua's superstar Ty Moss closing in rapidly, Chris simply exploded - grabbing the lead before the bell and powering away to a 1:55.4 split and the win. The overall time of 7:53.49 broke the meet record and is the Sandburg indoor school record (10th fastest ever outdoor or indoor). In all, six teams went sub-8:00. A great race - you can watch it here (it follows the Sandburg "B-team's" 8:17 from an earlier heat.
You can see all the action from Frosh-Soph conference here.
At the Varsity Conference meet, held at the beautiful Olivet Nazarene College indoor facility on March 21, we had a number of outstanding performances. Sophomore Ayo Abiona placed 2nd in the long jump with a leap of 21 ft. 6 in. He also placed 7th in a stacked field in the 60 meter dash with time of 7.17 (good for 2nd on the all-time Sandburg list). Junior Jordon Woods placed 5th in the triple jump with a personal best of 42 ft. 1/2 in. (an improvement of more than 2 feet over last year). In the shot put, junior Chase Woolery placed 7th with a throw of 44 ft. 1.5 in. (an increase of more that 4 feet from last year). Coming back from a complete ACL tear in football, junior Jibreel Brown ran a determined & gutsy 400 meter race in 53.97 in his first indoor race of the year. His dedication to fight his way back to help the team was inspiring to both the coaches and his teammates.
In the distance events, the Eagles produced three conference champions - and all three broke the SWSC indoor meet record. First up was the 4 x 800 meter relay team. Brandon Lukas (2:03), David Gleisner (2:04), Anthony Lifonti (2:03) and Martin Skucas (2:01) teamed up to win in a time of 8:13.03. Next up in the 3200 meter run was Sean Torpy who wowed the crowd with an amazing 9:19.33. Sean's time was the fastest indoor 3200 time in Sandburg history and the third fastest Sandburg time overall (trailing only Tom Graves and Andy Homoly). In the 1600 meter run, Chris Torpy, blitzed the field with a time of 4:21.25.
Check out all the excitement from Varsity conference here.
All in all, an excellent wrap up to the indoor season. Let's go get 'em outdoors!