East and West split SMRs

Indian Hills NJ shocks everyone - including themselves

By Tim Fulton, DyeStat Northeast Region Editor

The 800m sprint medley, sometimes known as the Texas Sprint Medley, went to a West coast team with an East coast name. Pittsburgh HS from California won the event in 1:34.37 after being a 5 th seed coming in.

Saint Augustine led early on but Pittsburgh’s Andre Gaston closed with a 49.8 carry to pass a slew of runners down the home stretch. Gaston said Pittsburgh will bounce back in the 4x100m tomorrow.

While the 800m SMR was a great race, you had to see the 1600m SMR to believe. It was a true East vs. West affair as LB Poly (CA), James Logan (CA), and Colonie, NY battled it out up front. Many people were predicting east coasters Colonie to pull this one out as they ran both a 1:29 4x200 and 7:58 4x800 this winter.

After the first 3 legs (200-200-400), it was all California as James Logan had the lead with LB Poly in 2 nd, and Lodi running 3 rd, but there were at least six schools in the race with 500m to go. Colonie did look good and it appeared we were in for bi-coastal battle.

And then it happened. Out of nowhere came a streaking blue uniform down the back stretch. A team that was in no better than 7 th at the bell came up and not only closed on the leaders but actually took the lead with 200m left. It was Indian Hills, NJ, a rather unheralded squad from Bergen County, NJ, a great running county back east.

And the kid that made that move? It was none other than sophomore Max Bruno. Quietly his squad kept him in the race. Billy LeDuc led off with a 23.3 split and Ryan Reilly followed with a 23.8 clocking. Senior Garrett Kromner, who was 2 nd at the NJ State Champs this winter, turned in a solid 48.9 carry to set up his teammates heroics.

Back to the last 200m. Bruno took the lead and gapped everyone instantly. Let’s remember he wasn’t racing some group of rookies. There were some legendary California teams in this race. The group came back on Bruno a bit down the home stretch but they couldn’t quite get him as the sophomore split 1:53.7, a three second personal best.

The team that won the race didn’t even know the order they were going to run in. Back east most SMR’s are run 400-200-200-800, but not out here. They found out on the line. So much for pre meet stick work. They also had never even seen a track with nine lanes. And guess where they ran? Lane 9.

After the race Indian Hills were literally jumping for joy. They couldn’t stop moving. When told of their team time of 3:29.98, they started hugging each other and perfect strangers.

When asked if he thought he was going to able to move like that on the final lap, Bruno said, “No, it just kind of happened. The last lap is normally when I slow down but I had more, and I’ve never had that before.” The best career highlight the kid could come up with was a County title indoors. Well, the entire squad has something to call home about tonight.