Boys Track Shows Off in the Early Season
Junior Seichi Shinozaki leans at the line to ensure his win in the 400m. The team came out strong in their first meet of the season.
May 5, 2021
On April 30, Loyola Academy Boys track and field had their second meet. It was the Wanner Invite hosted by Prospect High School. Loyola took fourth overall in the outing, but a team win was not the goal.
The Wanner invite holds one of the most prestigious 4x800m in the state and juniors Aidan Simon, Casey Gibbons, Spencer Werner, and senior Cameron Matejka took third in a time of 8:06. This time is currently 4th in the state for this event.
Casey Gibbons said, “That race absolutely killed me, there was no time to settle in, it was a sprint the entire time.”
In races with other fast runners races tend to feel like there is no time to find their rhythms, but nine times out of ten, it leads to a new PR In that event.
Junior Seichi Shinozaki trains with the distance team every day and has for the past three years. Yet these past two meets he has been treated like a sprinter. Seichi raced a fresh 400m which for a distance guy is really odd. Seichi held his own though, running a time of 54 seconds and winning his heat.
Seichi also came back and ran the 4x400m at the end of the meet and still ran the same time. Seichi did not have an easy time in that 4x400m saying, “Everything hurt. That first race took everything out of me, but I’m still really happy to have been able to run the same time despite that.”
Coach Seeberg is looking to make Seichi one of Loyola’s top 400m runners and as of right now it looks as if that dream may come to life.
Senior Jack Garrigus always used to say he’s better at track than cross country. With a shortened junior season and an injury for the entirety of senior cross country it seemed as if Jack would never reach his desired goals on the track. However, Jack has managed to push through all of this and become one of the best milers in the state.
Jack ran the mile fresh giving him ample time to rest and get locked in. With this race being the most competitive at the meet Jack was seeded last in the top heat. Jack was nervous about his race saying, “I’ve never been this nervous for a race before, I just want to get this over with.”
He managed to get it over with in exactly 4:28s. Jack took 4th in the race but due to the fact that the guy who ran in 3rd didn’t belong to any team, Jack technically got 3rd place right behind Spencer Werner.
Spencer led the entire race up until the last 200m when New Trier’s Nick Falk sprinted past him for the lead. Werner ran a PR of 4:23.
Loyola had many great races today and things are looking good for the Chicago Catholic League Championship.