Girls Mile - Boys Mile - Boys
800 - Girls 800 - Boys
Steeple - Girls Steeple -
Saturday Open Races
Girls’ Mile: Kaltenbach Runs the Table
A lot of track fans groaned when they realized that the much hoped-for
AOC 2-mile showdown between Megan Kaltenbach and Molly Huddle would
be missing the Aurora (Co.) star, who after winning the Golden West
3200 last week, had opted for just the mile here.
But in four minutes and 43.54 quick seconds Saturday night, Kaltenbach
may have altered a lot of perspectives. Some may argue that a fresh
Huddle – not one who’d already run a 10:01 2-mile the
night before – would have challenged or won, but most who
watched Megan power home to the second-fastest time in meet history
have no doubt who this spring’s best miler is.
“When I felt like it, I just went,” Kaltenbach said,
though admitting some soreness from last weekend and, no doubt,
her trips across the country. But whether it’s been California,
Colorado, Maryland, Nebraska, North Carolina or Pennsylvania, she’s
won everywhere she’s gone this year.
Megan followed Huddle and 8th-grade star Nicole Blood through a
69.2 opener as the field quickly strung out. While the Notre Dame
(Elmira, N.Y.) HS senior continued to control the second lap (2:23.8),
Julia Lucas (500 meters) and Elizabeth Malloy (nearly 800 meters)
took turns making bold moves into second. Then, with about 1.5 laps
left, Ari Lambie tried to take the race with a hard surge, but Kaltenbach
and Huddle easily covered it with three quarters passing in 3:36.2.
Finally, Megan made the move that counted, accelerating hard with
300 to go. Huddle tried to go with her, perhaps gaining a little
as they moved into the last curve, then had to let her go. Kaltenbach’s
final lap was a stiff 67, with Huddle finishing 3.70 back in 4:47.24.
Blood rallied nicely for third in 4:50.15, just ahead of Meghan
Owen (4:50.44) and Malloy (4:50.58).
 The
junior admitted her choice of races was a little hard to deal with
the night before. “Molly was just awesome!” she said,
adding with a laugh, “But it hurt so bad watching. I was depressed
for a few hours afterwards. So today, I was like, ‘Dude, I
didn’t waste the 2-mile for nothing.' ”
Assessing her comeback from a disappointing late spring and fall
CC season last year, she added, “Finally, I’m returning
as a runner. I’m more calm … it’s sort of like
soccer when I first started, I had butterflies and was so scared.
But the longer I played it I became much calmer. But I never thought
that would happen in track because you’re by yourself –
it’s on you – but this year I started to think, ‘I’m
out here to have fun.’ If I lose, it’s not the end of
the world … I feel like God gave me this gift of running and
I’m going to go out and have fun with it.”
Regarding her race, Huddle said she wasn’t as fresh as she
wanted to be. “But I still wanted to take it out hard because
I knew I didn’t have a great kick.”
While nine runners broke 5 in the 5th and final section, the 4th
section was nearly as impressive as Julia Cathcart’s 4:54.71
led nine under 5:01. Overall, 27 runners broke 5:07 in the five
races.
Boys Mile: Curtis Masters the “In-Between”
Race
Few distance runners can say, by the end of their junior year,
that they’ve got as much big meet experience as Bobby  Curtis.
(left) The St. Xavier (Louisville, Ky.) HS star has had
his ups and downs, but the ratio has been increasing favorably and
Saturday night at the AOC mile, he displayed the ability to correct
a potential error even in mid-race.
Last week at Golden West, Curtis chased hard-driving Chris Lukezic
from the gun to the tape as the two clocked 4:06 and 4:07 miles.
This week, Curtis went out the first lap (61.5) as if he was being
pulled along again. But he wasn’t and he quickly assumed his
favored strategy. Giving Curtis some grief later, 4th-place finisher
Matt Debole said, “You were backpedaling that second lap!”
Indeed, the pace slowed, the lead changed hands several times and
moves were made. But try as they may, neither Debole, Adam Perkins,
Sam Bair or anyone else could drain Curtis’s most potent weapon.
With a fierce last 200, the big guy won another big race, adding
to titles from two Nike Indoor meets and this year’s Arcadia
Invitational. The time was a still-respectable 4:09.05, with Perkins
(4:09.64), Bair (4:11.60) and Debole (4:11.80) following.
Curtis confirmed that Lukezic “did all the work” at
GWI and “made that a fast race for me,” but it was a
bad experience in Philly earlier this year that played most on his
mind: “I was taking the lead (tonight), but then I was like,
‘No, I don’t want another Penn Relays again,’
so I kind of ran out into lane two and let some of the other guys
do the work,” he said. “Then with 350 left, I was like,
‘I’ve got a chance.’ So I moved up. With 200 left,
I saw Perkins tying up a little bit. Then with 100 to go, I pretty
much knew I had it."
“I was worried about Bair a little bit,” he added.
“I can’t outkick everybody and I didn’t want to
take it out too fast. So I kind of wanted to run an in-between race,
something that was fast enough that it might take out some guys’
kicks, but not hurt my own. So it worked out nicely.”
Things had slowed down to 66.1 in the second lap when Curtis backed
down. The runners bunched up and Brendan Fennell led through the
half in 2:07.6. David Olson took over in the middle of the next
circuit, with Perkins and Bair following close behind, and the pace
sped back up to 62.4 (3:10.0). Perkins then made what looked like
could be the winning surge.
“I was trying to make a move (starting from) 600 out and
– the pace definitely picked up the last two laps, which was
the plan – but it just didn’t work out,” Perkins
said. “I was in perfect position with 100 left, but he just
had it more than I did. These guys are outstanding runners.”
With another year of experiences ahead of them, juniors Curtis
AND the next four finishers (Chris Solinsky was 5th), have a chance
to be even more outstanding.
Boys 800 meters: Patience Pays Again for Smith
Few runners are as good at waiting to make the winning move as
South Lakes (Reston, Va.) HS star Richard Smith. As he did at Nike
Indoor, the senior displayed that patience again Saturday evening
in the AOC boys 800.
Hanging back from Tramelo Smith’s suicidal 51.1 opener, Smith
had plenty left – relatively speaking – in the painful
final circuit to nail down the win in the year’s fastest time,
1:49.04.
Smith had never raced his namesake from Illinois before, so he
was taken aback a little at the stiff pace. “Oh yeah, they
took it out strong,” he said. “I kind of knew (that
the pace could be fast) though, because my coach said (Wil) Fitts
might do the same thing as Nike Indoors and go out crazy, which
he did. So I just chose to hang behind him and take it at the end.”
Actually, Fitts went out hard, too, hanging second at 400, followed
by Richard Smith, Michael McGrath and yearly leader Paul Cross.
But Tramelo Smith ran out of steam in the next 200, which took 28.8
and Richard Smith took over. McGrath and Cross also passed the early
leaders, but Richard’s endurance allowed him a very healthy
1.44-second margin at the end. McGrath (1:50.48) was 2nd, followed
by Cross (1:51.36), Fitts (1:51.40) and Tramelo (1:52.57).
Cross’s reaction to the blazing start was probably typical
of much of the rest of the field. “It threw me off,”
he said. “I tried to slow up at 400, but the damage was already
done.”
Someday, maybe next weekend, Richard Smith will get in an evenly-paced
race where the opportunity for a really fast race will come, but,
as usual, he’s patient. “The most important thing is
to win, you know? I did get the standard out of the way for worlds.
But the (faster) times will come and the times will get down there.
It’s not over yet. I’ve got junior nationals coming
up and, hopefully, worlds. So I’m just waiting and hope I’ll
pop a big race one day.
Meanwhile, the biggest surprise of the day’s 800s came in
the previous heat. Coming in with a PR of 1:54+, Jeremiah Johnson
of Laramie, Wyoming stunned with a 1:49.80, which held up as the
second-fastest overall and won his heat by a whopping 2.37.
“I wasn’t sure what to expect,” he said. “The
competition here is way beyond what I ever ran against. I just wanted
to have a good race and try to stick with some of these guys.”
A savvy reporter’s question regarding the University of Wyoming
runners who were killed in an auto accident last fall revealed that
Johnson – who will be running for that team next year –
was indeed inspired by their memory. “I lost a couple of really
good friends in that accident,” he said. “I think that’s
helped me this year, though, just to focus on my running and see
that there’s more to life than just running. When I was standing
on the starting line, I was thinking of those guys.”
Girls 800 meters: Umberger Surprises Even Herself
Few things are as pleasing as unexpected victories, especially
when they are really unexpected. Such seemed to be the case when
Rachel Umberger produced a 32-second last 200 to claim the AOC girls
800 Saturday evening in 2:09.69.
“The last 100, I was like, ‘I really want this!’”
said the Concord, N.H. junior. “God, I don’t believe
this!”
A.P. Randolph’s Selena Sappleton took the field through a
fast 200 (29.0), before the pace settled down to 64.4 at 400. At
that point, Diane Heiser took over, with Sappleton still right there,
and began what looked like a victory push.
But after 600 meters Heiser’s tank began to run low and Evelyn
Dwyer began a push toward the front. Before she could get there,
however, Umberger blasted off the curve and raced down the straightaway
to the title. Dwyer came on for second (2:10.61), just nipping Trisa
Nickoley (2:10.63) and Heiser (2:10.80).
“I’m usually pretty much by myself,” said Umberger
of her normal races. Her best open time had been 2:10, but she also
had a 2:07 relay leg to her credit.
Heiser was left to mull over her big move with 400 to go, which
she did for several minutes by the water table. “I usually
don’t go out that fast and usually I’m not in the lead,”
she said. “But the first lap felt a little too slow and I
got scared. I tried as hard as I could.”
The previous heat was notable for a fine 2:11.05 from Anchorage,
Alaska’s Kristina Smith, who was also the surprise winner
of the mile at Golden West last weekend. Runner-up was Katya Kostetskaya,
the amazing 9th-grade Russian student from Arkansas who also placed
second in the 400 hurdles just an hour earlier.
Boys 2000 meter steeplechase: A Henk of a
Finish
Mint Henk started the 2k steeple at AOC Saturday night like he
was running for his life, fueled by a disappointing 2-mile the night
before. Joe Thorne patiently stalked him and when he passed the
Braintree, Vt. senior with about 500 meters left, it seemed like
he had done everything needed for victory.
But Henk’s urge to vindicate ran deeper than just about anyone
could have foreseen. With a ferocious final 100, he took back the
lead and won in 5:52.04, leaving a stunned Thorne (5:52.49) in second.
The bronze went to Ryan Wilson (5:58.39).
“Last night, I was so frustrated,” said a triumphant
Henk. “I just wasn’t ‘there’ … and
it didn’t go as planned. Tonight I was not going to let the
race fall in other people’s hands.”
Henk had exploded into the lead from the gun, eventually hitting
800 meters at 2:16, which was national record pace. Thorne, meanwhile,
had extracted himself from the pack and was giving honest chase.
By 1200 (3:25), he was pulling up on Henk and at the water jump
at 1500 meters, the senior had moved ahead to what seemed like certain
victory.
But Henk wasn’t giving up. “I was trying to hang on
and see what I had left at the end,” he said. “It’s
very rare for me to have a good kick, but I dug down deep to drive
out the demons from inside of me.”
Thorne was disappointed, but philosophical. “I guess I needed
more speed work,” he said, the fact that his state meet was
several weeks ago being duly noted. “I ran a PR, though; I
can’t argue with that.
Girls 2000 meter Steeplechase: Desire,
Rival Spur on Sweeney
A burning desire to win, plus the thought of another rival pressuring
her – who was really someone else – was enough to inspire
Jamie Sweeney to victory in the AOC 2k steeple Saturday night.
Sweeney was leading down the backstretch of the final lap when
Erin Demchko made two spirited efforts to pass her. Not only did
the Saratoga Springs, N.Y. senior surge away both times, but then
mounted an eye-popping sprint down the final straightaway to win
by nearly 5 seconds in 6:53.54.
In winning, Sweeney missed the national record in this embryonic
event by just 1.29, but that wasn’t what was foremost on her
mind. “I was thinking of Heather (Iatauro),” she said.
“And I just wanted it so bad. It was my last HS race and I
wanted a ring, so I dug down deep and found it.”
The interesting thing, to Sweeney’s surprise after the race,
is that it wasn’t Iatauro trying to pass her on that backstretch.
The sophomore had dropped to third, where she would eventually finish
in 7:00.73. But Sweeney and Iatauro had battled to the wire at the
New York state meet. “It was much closer,” said Sweeney,
“and I didn’t want it to come down to that again.”
As for Demchko, also from the Empire state and 3rd in that state
meet, she was a bit disappointed at not quite being able to cash
in. Still, she was a great 2nd in 6:58.28 and will be back next
year. “I wanted to kick and get ahead on the backstretch,”
she said. “I knew she’d have a good kick, but then I
stuttered over the last barrier.”
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