Rich's Recap

By Richard Gonzalez, DyeStat/DyeStatCal

Coombs prevails in a thriller!
Devries rallies, but gets nipped at the line;
Zagorski, Hallinan deliver solid statements

Only 24 days in, will this prove to be the race of the year? If you ask any of the main combatants from Saturday's New Balance Games Invitational High School Mile, they'll tell you this one will be hard to top!

"It was crazy and it was awesome," said red-hot John Jay HS (NY) senior Hakon Devries, who had already gained a berth to the Millrose Games prep mile coming in. "I usually have pretty good faith in my kick, thinking I'm good for a 60 or 61 last quarter. I made the turn with two laps to go at 3:10 and all of a sudden, a pack engulfs me. I mean, I come across at 3:10 and I am boxed!?! I'm thinking like, 'What's going on here???' "

Miler's Madness, that's what.

With Gavin Coombs eager to erase memories of a tough-luck mishap from the week before, and rising supertalents Jeremy Zagorski and Steve Hallinan hitting a new groove to put the heat on Devries, East Coast milers are out of the gates quickly in 2004!

Coombs was the victor here, making amends for a 1/10th-of-a-second loss here a year ago. Although trailing a tightly bunched six pack of runners entering the stages of the race, it was the Griswold HS (Connecticut) star that swung wide off the final turn and found the space he needed to chase down Devries and prevail right at the tape, 4:11.35 to 4:11.38.

"I knew Hakon was going to set a fast pace because he'd already made Millrose Games field (based on his victory at the Hispanic Games) and he was mainly going for time here," explained Coombs.

Even so, Devries, unbeaten in three previous calendar outings on the Armory oval, admitted the early pace was overkill.
"I planned on 30-61-2:04 (for 200/400/800m splits), but seeing Josh and Galen run great in front of a good crowd, that got me a bit too hyped up," the Stanford-bound senior conceded. "I came out in 28/58/2:04... I got the 2:04 alright, but not in the way I wanted."

"Hakon took it out extremely fast - he was movin'!" said New Jersey talent Zagorski (Parsippany Hills HS). "With that pace, I was just sticking to my plan, staying in the back of that lead pack and kick hard with 300 (meters) to go."

Devries ably led the pack through the halfway point, with promising talent Steve Hallinan of Cardinal O'Hara HS (PA) then seizing the reins over the next two revolutions, doing the work to bring the pack across in just under 3:11. Devries , obviously not too taxed from his aggressive opening charge, then regained the lead but found an army of challengers in tow.

"It was crazy!" said Devries. "I fought back as much as I could on that last lap. As I was coming up on the finish, I heard the announcer say, 'and here comes Coombs!' That made me give an extra push. Had he not said that, Gavin would have caught me sooner."

Both runners had to wait a few minutes while the phototiming system was reviewed to declare the winner, with Devries then showing a mix of class and sportsmanship in raising Coombs' arm in acknowledgement as soon as the official results were announced.

Coombs' kick corraled the entire lead pack to earn the victory, but there were several winners here. For Coombs, it was his biggest win to date. For Devries, the ability to rebound late after such a strong pace early was a positive sign heading into Millrose. For Zagorski, a 2 1/2-second improvement over his outdoor best (to 4:11.87) and a fraction-of-second-from-victory in a solid field was a nice confidence builder ("I felt great at the end of the race, ended though I slowed the last 50. I was surprised at how good I felt at the halfway and through most of the race."). New Yorker's Kevin Tschirhart (pronounced 'shear-heart') and Andre Silva, 4:12.69 and 4:12.86, respectively, also picked up big results here. For Hallinan (4:12.72 for fifth), his brash racing stye clearly tabs him as a contender in the races to come.

But for now, all attention turns to Millrose.

"It should be great, with three guys already at 4:11 and a few more at 4:12," said Devries. "I don't think I'll PR at that track... everyone tells me it's a slow track. If it goes out slow, I might pick (the pace) up. It'll probably come down to a kick - like always."