Grayslake Central Track Takes Fourth In State

Grayslake Central High School came up big at the State Track Meet at O'Brien Stadium in Charleston, Illinois. The team finished fourth in the state with 44 points, one point away from winning a third place trophy.

"This is the first ever state championship team from Grayslake in any sport," said Head Coach Brent Pitt.

Luke Zygmunt took first place in the 800 with 1:55.24. He also placed third in the mile with 4:21.87. 

Will Brewster took second place in both the 2-mile with 9:19:45 and the mile with 4:20.40.

Joey Valdivia took third place in the shot put, throwing 56' 1.5" to break the school record, his personal best.

And the 4x200 relay of Jourdan Swopes, Matt Weatherhead, Kacey Adams and Davonte Jennings placed seventh with a time of 1:30.93.

This was supposed to have been a rebuilding year for Pitt, in his ninth season coaching track at Grayslake Central.

"Last year, we won the first sectional championship in school history," Pitt said. "We had a speed based team last year that finished 19th out of 153 eams. That had been the highest place that GCHS had ever finished."

Until this year, when the Rams finished fourth out of 181 teams.

"Going into this year, we had lost our speed guys," Pitt said. "We still placed second in the division, and third overall in the conference. Then we won our sectional by 35 points."

There were seven team members who qualfied for the state track and field competition in Charleston, Illinois last weekend.

"The truth of the matter is, I was speechless," Pitt said. "They all went into the sectionals and did better than I ever expected them to."

He said the success didn't surprise the boys.

"When we sat down with our captains at the beginning of the year, they believed they could do it," Pitt said. "What they did was incredible. It was sad we didn't win the trophy, but to place one point out of third, I'd say we accomplished our goals."

His team captains are moving on to various sports at college: Luke Zymunt will be running at Butler; Will Brewster will be running at the University of Illinois; Joey Valdivia will play football at Lake Forest College; and Ray Beckman will play football at Whitewater.

"We're losing some very talented individuals but we'll have to build," Pitt said. 

That is what he has done since he took over. Nine years ago, there were only 20 kids in the program. This year, they had 110.

Jerry Zygmunt said he was proud of his son Luke's performance.

"I was pretty confident. i knew this would be his year," he said. "In the 800, he owned it. On that last lap, he came around and we were all cheering for him. He threw his arms up in the air at the finish. He was really happy."