2009 Nike Indoor Nationals
(Illinois highlights)
Illinois sent their largest ever contingent to an indoor national championship and the results were outstanding.
Boys’ representatives: Lukas Verzbicas (New Lenox Lincoln Way Central)- 5000m, 2 mile; Patrick Livengood (Dundee-Crown)- HJ.
Girls’ representatives: Cessily Jones (Plainfield North)- 60m, 200m; Shakeia Pinnick (Aurora Waubonsie Valley)- Pentathlon, 800m; Stephanie Brown (Downs Tri-Valley)- 800m; McKinzie Schulz (Lisle Benet Academy)- 800m, 4x400m relay; Lisle Benet Academy- 4x400m relay; Hinsdale Central- 4x1mile relay; Hoffman Estates- 4x800m relay; Lindsay Flanagan (Roselle Lake Park)- 2M; Amanda Rafidia (Roselle Lake Park)- High Jump; Megan Weller (Frankfort Lincoln Way East)- Pole Vault.
Highlights:
Boys-
 5000m-
Lukas Verzbicas (left- photo by Jeannette Seckinger) has been nothing short of spectacular since coming onto the Illinois scene in the fall of 2008. The Lincoln-Way Central freshman closed out his abbreviated indoor season with two outstanding victories over carefully crafted fields. First, on Friday evening (March 13) Lukas took his place on the starting line already knowing that the previous 5000m record of 14:29.80 set by Brad Hudson back in 1984. His father had told him. Verzbicas stated that he just wanted to run a clean race and a fast one. But little did he know it was going to be much more than that. Not only did the freshman, sophomore, and junior records fall, but so too did the fresh new mark of 14:22.88 set just a few hours prior by the 2008 Footlocker XC champion Solomon Haile (Maryland) at the National Scholastic Nationals in New York. Verzbicas did not waste a moment when the gun went off with swift checkpoint splits of 2:13, 4:29, and 9:05 (3200m). The 3200m time would have nearly won the championship two-mile. Verzbicas went continued on to win in a fine time of 14:18.42. When thinking ahead to the two mile on Sunday, Lukas could only muster, “I’m just going to go out and try to win.”
Two-Mile-
The two-mile efforts were pretty much set in stone before the race even started. Verzbicas stated after his record 5k race that he had no intentions on going all out for big records, but instead a victory. The humble freshman set out his journey by running with the pack in the first few laps. Once he decided to take the lead it was over. Verzbicas took the lead at 1200m and it was over. He continued to master the competition and the laps until all 16 were complete in 8:57.44.
High Jump-
Patrick Livengood- did not clear opening height of 6-2.25.
Pentathlon-
Ikechi Nnamani- 26th place, 2511 points
Ikchi faired well in his first multi, despite a minor injury.
Girls-
Pentathlon-
1st- Shakeia Pinnick
Analysis (as told by NSSF’s Mike Kennedy):
Pinnick led after the 60-meter with a 9.03 worth 904 points, followed by Nefertiti Smith (Norfolk Collegiate, Norfolk, Va.) at 9.14 worth 881 points and Ariel Roberts (Pioneer, Ann Arbor, Mi.) at 9.24 worth 860 points. Roberts moved into first after two events with 1,751 points on the strength of a 5-8 high jump. Pinnick dropped to second with 1,651 points after jumping 5-3 ¼ and Smith, who also jumped 5-3 ¼, dropped to third with 1,628 points. Roberts remained in first with a 32-2 ¼ shot put worth 517 points and a total of 2,268 points and Smith moved to second with a 31-11 ½ effort with 512 points and a total of 2,140. Courtney Woodard (Brentwood, Tn.) had the best shot put of the competition at 35-3 worth 578 that put her in a tie for third with Pinnick with 2,076 points. Roberts and Woodard both jumped 17-9 ¾ worth 680 points with Roberts remaining in the lead at 2,948 and Woodard moving into second with 2,756 points. Pinnick jumped 17-7 worth 660 points to secure third alone with 2,736 points. With just the 800 remaining, Woodard trailed Roberts by 192 points and Pinnick trailed her 212 points. Pinnick then laid down a 2:15.09 worth 891 points and a total of 3,627 to win. Roberts held on to second with a 2:31.89 worth 669 points and a total of 3,617. Smith dropped to third with a 2:39.03 worth 584 points and a total of 3,355. Woodard ran 2:38.39 worth 591 points and a total of 3,347 for fourth.
2 mile-
Lindsay Flanagan (4th- 10:27.79- 5:11.0/5:16.7) went into the championship race looking to gauge her talent level. She came out of the championship in good shape. Of course the all-star field featured several of the best distance runners of the country. Superstars Jordan Hasay (California), Ashley Brasovan (Florida), Shelby Greany (New York) and Emily Jones (Mass) were in the field. Flanagan did an outstanding job in staying with the lead pack. Of course, it was Hasay who took no prisoners with an opening mile of 5:01. She was chasing the national record of 9:55.92. She fell a tab bit short, but still ran an outstanding 10:10.89. Flanagan did beat former Footlocker cross country champion Ashley Brasovan for 4th place overall.
800m-
Stephanie Brown (2:08.89- 64.0/64.8) was a little disappointed in finishing second in the 800m despite running being the front runner throughout the majority of the race. It wasn’t until the last finishing stretch that eventual winner Laura Roesler (North Dakota) caught Brown for the title.
4x400m relay-
19 Benet Academy 4:03.34 [1:00.1,1:01.6,1:01.9,59.5]
Analysis: the Redwings first trip to a national champion was fruitful in that the girls all accomplished their objective. That objective was to run hard and run within their limits. The outcome was a seasonal best and Illinois #1 mark.
60m/200m-
Cessily Jones (60m- 8.03/200m- 25.71)-
Analysis: Jones competed in her first national high school championship despite being just a freshman. The results don’t bear what the newcomer produced and she will be back for many more if she continues to improve. Jones finished third in both of her preliminary heats.
4x800m-
25th Hoffman Estates 9:45.58 [2:19.5,2:26.2,2:28.0,2:32.0]
Coach Kirk Macnider’s comments:
This was an exciting race for us. Hannah [Worman] moved up and handed off battling for the lead. She looked great- looked easy in a personal best time.
Gaby [Duenas] ran off the leader...very strong leg, very patient. It was an indoor personal best for her. She handed off in second place. We were 4:46 through the 1600 and looking strong.
Freshman Haley Goers ran a full second personal best. She ran by herself after the first 200 and handed off in third.
Melissa Schmidt was out of school for 3 days this week with a lung infection/bronchitis! We got her on antibiotics on Wednesday. She was still coughing when I wrote this. :(. She actually was closing on the leader at the 400 and was in 3rd. She was able to gut it out the last 200. We finished 6th in our heat. A healthy Melissa means we run 10 seconds faster. We'll get there!
We are grateful for the opportunity to be here.
5000m-
12 Lauren Zumbach (Hinsdale Central) 18:29.93
4x1 mile relay-
Hinsdale Central 21:41.86
HJ-
10 Amanda Rafidia 5-2.5
PV-
11 Megan Weller 12-2.5 |
