Lake boys win fourth straight NCL crown

For all the concern about a deluge of rain hampering the North Coast League meet May 4 at Padua, it was uneventful.

That is, except for the deluge of gold-medal performances for which the Lake Catholic boys are known on this stage. That tradition continued in earnest when the Cougars needed it most.

Lake won nine events to capture its fourth straight NCL Blue Division title with 181 points, staving off Walsh Jesuit (163).

Program figureheads Jacob Keating and Connor Duricky did their utmost to ensure the Cougars went 4-for-4 during their respective careers in NCL team hardware, each winning three individual events.

Lake punctuated the team title with a gutsy last 75 on the anchor from freshman Christian DeMitro to win the 4x400.

“The team part is huge for me,” Keating said. “On 4x4, we were running back and forth, back and forth. It means everything to have it four times in a row — NCL champions.

“I couldn’t ask for a better day. It’s awesome.”

Not only from a team standpoint, but Keating probably couldn’t have tackled one of track and field’s toughest tests any better.

The Michigan recruit went for the distance triple — the 800-, 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs — and mastered all three with efficiency. Keating won 1,600 with a time of 4 minutes, 28.23 seconds, 800 in 1:59.18 and 3,200 in 9:43.87.

The 2016 second-team News-Herald all-star

turned in three smart races. The 1,600, as he repeated at NCL, featured a hammering of the 400 turn to take the lead for good, while 800 was a textbook backstretch attack and 3,200 was smooth in the second half to win going away.

“Definitely pleasing — it’s exactly what I wanted to do going into today,” Keating said. “We knew it was going to be close pointswise. We wanted to go all three distance events and go for MVP at the same time — can’t complain.

“The goal today was to run efficiently and not expend too much energy because I had more events coming up. Definitely, I think I executed it well today.”

Duricky did his usual strong work in hurdles, taking 110s in 15.03 and 300s in 39.11 on a day when, in truth, faster than

that was unnecessary with 4x2 and 200 also on the docket. The Cincinnati recruit anchored the winning 4x2 and pulled off a homestretch reel-in in 200 for a 22.42 — the area’s best time in 2017 and Duricky’s fifth career NCL individual crown.

“(The team title) is very special,” Duricky said. “We definitely wanted to fourpeat, and it just felt really good.

“(The 200) was crazy. I was breaking down my fourth race, but I just stayed strong and finished through.”

Since 2005, the Lake boys have won 45 events at NCL. Duricky and Keating join Tom McKrill (2007), Je’Rica Sanders (2011) and Matt Ludwig (2015) as Cougars athletes who have captured three individual events in one meet during that time span at NCL.