Boys 4x800 - Girls 4x800.
Friday Relays
by Stephen (steveu) Underwood
Boys 4x800 Meter Relay: Auburn’s
Record Shocker
A loaded boys 4x800 meter relay at the AOC Friday night was expected
to produce a blizzard of sub-7:50 clockings and possibly a sub-7:40
or two. In fact, acting in nothing less than the most covert fashion,
a certain Internet reporter and a pair of intrepid meet-director
types even traded predictions that ranged from 7:38.4 to 7:40.5.
But no one in their wildest imagination – except maybe the
winners themselves – could have predicted what transpired
Friday night.
Thanks to Chris Lukezic and his Auburn, Washington teammates, the
seemingly impossible became reality. Mike Dickson (1:57.9) and Tyler
Campbell (1:54.1) opened things with solid carries, but Auburn was
just third. Still, fans were enjoying a tight race and the potential
of a winning 7:40 or better.
Lukezic changed everything. Less than 51 seconds later, jaws were
being scraped off the ground as he completed his first circuit,
blowing the field away like a rocket leaving a launch pad. The Golden
West mile champ held on for an eye-popping 1:49.4, then handed off
to Washington state champ Adam Vogt as record dreams danced in everyone’s
minds.
Vogt, too, screamed the first 400, then gritted his teeth through
a final lap that saw the proverbial bear (and a few cubs) jump on
his back. But the courageous anchor (1:51.5) had enough to make
scoreboard clock flash history – 7:32.86!
The official 7:32.89 was truly magical, breaking not only the listed
4x800 HSR, but finally topping the equivalent (7:33.0) of the legendary
36-year-old 7:35.6y that was recorded by both Boys High and Andrew
Jackson High (both of Brooklyn, N.Y.) three years before man walked
on the moon. North Penn may have been a distant second, but their
fine 7:41.32 led three more schools under 7:42. Ten schools ran
under 7:49 in all heats combined, with 22 breaking 8:00.
“It was a pretty magical night,” said Lukezic, recreating
the excitement of the final laps. “Adam was over there and
I was looking at the board after I was finished. I knew he got to
the line (with 400 left) in 6:34; that was the goal. Then he just
had to run 60 or better. And he just got out there and went after
it. I knew we had a good shot, so I went over there and screamed
my lungs out. It’s the most exciting race I’ve ever
been a part of.”
All this from a school that came to Raleigh with ZERO 4x800s under
its belt!
“They don’t run it anywhere in our state,” said
Lukezic. “We didn’t know where we could go … so
we’ve just focused on individual events until after our state
meet (except for the 10:08 DMR in a small invite). But we ran a
2x800 at practice three weeks ago. It me and Mike against Tyler
and Adam. Our times combined were 7:38, so we came here knowing
we had a good chance at the national record.”
Dickson may not have run his best in the first leg, but he infused
his squad with energy and got them in position. “1:55 is my
best, but I’m excited anyway, of course,” he said. “To
come to North Carolina all the way from Washington … and we
hadn’t even run the 4x8 officially before.”
Said No. 2 man Campbell: “It was the fastest time I’ve
run so far. We were hoping we could (do something big). The first
thing was to win; then hopefully to set a national record.”
As far as his own split, Lukezic (with a PR of just 1:53 this year)
admitted he didn’t even know how fast he went out. “I
felt OK,” he laughed. “I knew I was probably going too
fast, but I didn’t really know where I was. I ran one 400
this year and I was 51.1, but I knew I could run a lot faster. It
got a little tough when I hit 100 meters to go, but I just pushed
through and got to the line and handed it off. And they told me
1:49 and I was like, ‘I didn’t even know I was running
that fast.’”
Struggling to recover after his stirring effort, Vogt added, “I
wanted to run a really strong leg; I just had to hold it. The guys
put me in the position to have the lead.”
While the effort was truly a “team” one (how could
it not be?), if there’s any vindication to be had, Lukezic
gets a hearty helping of it after being panned as an underachiever
this year by much of the track community. Now the senior seems to
be on top of the world.
“I definitely got a little ridicule from people in our state
– and everywhere – about not running fast at the end
of the (regular) season or that maybe I’m not in as good a
shape as last year,” he admitted. “My coach really calmed
me down after Nike Indoor and said, ‘Chris, just have some
patience and things will come together.’ And I did; I put
total confidence in him and things worked out great.”
Finally, proving prophetic, Lukezic concluded the following regarding
the next night’s DMR: “9:49 might be out of reach, but
we’re at least going for second on the all-time list. Maybe
we can get first if we all have good races.”
Girls 4x800 Meters: After the Fall: Voorhees
Slashes PR
One could say that when New York and national standout A.P. Randolph’s
third leg fell to the track in the AOC girls 4x800 relay, that it
opened a door wide and clear for Voorhees (N.J.) HS.
But the eventual winners had already created their own opportunity.
Coming into the meet seeded fourth with three teams ranked 5 to
13 seconds ahead of them, Voorhees knocked 17 seconds of their best
time to win decisively in 8:59.16. The effort was capped by the
meet-best 2:11.9 anchor of Lindsay Owen.
Distance assistant coach Justina Cassavell was understandably ecstatic
after the effort. “I can’t believe we won,” she
squealed after the race, delivering a big group hug to her runners.
“But we knew we could do it (break 9) because we’ve
been running really strong.”
Voorhees was just behind A.P. Randolph after the first leg, thanks
to a 2:14.9 from Elizabeth Wort. “We haven’t run the
4x8 in a really long time and when we ran the 9:16 (previous team
best), we weren’t pushed at all,” she said. “I
usually run the 2-mile.”
Then Sara Best zoomed into the lead with a 2:12.9, but the race
remained close. “I was going and then suddenly I was passing
her, and I was like, ‘I’m doing it!’”
With a 2:18.1, Lauren Rugge was maintaining her small margin when
the A.P. Randolph runner went down. “I didn’t know she
fell,” she said. “I was wondering why … I heard
her 400 time then I didn’t hear anything else. I thought I
saw her shadow, but then nobody came. I totally thought she was
going to pass me.”
Then Owen put it away, blazing a 61-second first lap and holding
on. Does she normally go out so fast? “Yeah, I do,”
she said. “At 400, I was like, ‘Oh, another whole lap
to go,’ but at 200 to go I felt better.”
Beaumont (Ohio) was a solitary second in 9:07.65, while Selena
Sappleton brought A.P. Randolph back up to third in 9:12.30.
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