North Shore Roundup: Both Track Teams Win Conference Titles

Boys Tennis: A bundle of close losses can either help or hinder a team. They can serve as useful lessons or place further doubt in the mind of an athlete.

As North Shore approaches the postseason, tennis coach Nazlie Ghazal hopes it’s the former.

“While we have had a bit of a tough season, most of our matches are lost very close, 2-3,” Ghazal said.

One of the bright spots has been the varsity doubles pair of Riley Hall and Nick McCall. The sophomore duo are 7-0 at the No 2 and No. 3 doubles spots and have only lost one set.

The Raiders have three more regular season matches before the Independent School League (ISL) tournament and the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) sectionals.

Baseball: North Shore’s four-win week clinched at least a share of the ISL championship for the Raiders. With one game left against Morgan Park and a suspended game to finish against Latin, a win in either game will give North Shore (10-3, 8-1 ISL) the coveted league championship.

North Shore blasted Northridge Prep 10-0 with numerous players coming up with clutch hits.

“Northridge Prep was a big win for us,” North Shore coach Martin Freeman said. “Jake Kann got the shutout win. Jake Gordon homered and Zach March had a couple of big hits.”

Gordon was the winning pitcher in North Shore’s 8-4 win against University High, and the Raiders wept a doubleheader versus Francis Parker last weekend.

The team's strong play was rewarded with the No. 1 seed in the IHSA Class 1A Chicago Regional.

“I think we have a really good opportunity to make some noise in the state tournament this year,” Freeman said. “It’s very rare that we get [No. 1 seed].”

Track and Field: The boys and girls track teams both won the Indian Trails Conference meet last week, the first time North Shore has captured both titles in three years.

The Raiders got eight first-place finishes on the boys side and six individual event wins.

Wilson Taylor won the high jump (5-4) and triple jump (36-0), Sam Akainyah took first in the shot put (41-0), Carlos Hunter won the discus (128-0) and 100-meter dash (11.8 second), Michael Creatura took first in the 110-meter hurdles (17.0), Adam Griffin won the 800-meter (2 minutes, 9 seconds) and North Shore’s 4x400 relay team also won.

The meet helped coach Pat McHugh with some decisions regarding lineup moves.

“I think we got a clearer idea,” McHugh said. “There’s still a few areas where we’re trying to squeeze out a few more points on the boys side.”

Griffin’s 2:09 time in the 800 is below the IHSA qualifying time of 2:01, but Griffin ran the 1,600-meter earlier in the meet so he was a little tired going into the 800.

Annie Roge continued her domination of the long-distance events, winning the 800 and 1,600 while placing third in the 3,200-meter. His time of 12:05 in the two-mile broke North Shore’s school record.

McHugh was also pleased with Heather Mabie, who won the long and triple jump as a freshman.

“That could be a strength,” McHugh said. “You never know with freshman what they’re going to do in the conference meets. They’re kind of just learning their events.”

Heather’s sister, Rachel, easily won the high jump for North Shore.