We returned to the State course with a bit of a chip on our shoulders, it appeared. Pairing up and racing to terrific times on a dusty and warm day, our team demonstrated why we might be one of the elite teams in 2A this fall. Our pair of aces up front used friendly competition with a rival to stay in contact with the top 5. Austin Adams ran a career PR on the day with a 15:05 finish in third place. Occhipinti held down a finish in the top 5 as well, running fifth with a:06 meet PR under far warmer conditions than 2018.
Our 3-5 runners helped us secure the first of two times we hit our milestone when they finished :14 apart. Dallal ran a career PR of 15:53 to net 15th overall, and 1:24 faster than 2018 in this race. Walker started a bit faster this time, and the results were equivalent of his career PR from State last fall. Ethan ran 15:57, and finished 20th overall as our #4. Durbala, in just his second race of his career, ran 1:39 faster than last week for a new PR of 16:06 when he crossed the finish line in 28th overall. Pushers were Neal (:03 meet PR) at 73rd/16:41 and Nolan Allen, who ran a :50 career PR on the State course.
The varsity race included ten runners, and those who ran in the diamonds were equally awesome. Seth Nosek gave us a program best 8 runners in the Sub 17 Club when he crossed in the top 100 at 16:57. He also happens to have some good jokes to keep it light in the huddle. Phillips ran a 1:04 meet PR, and :41 career best time of 17:01 (114th). Lodwig also had a career best day when he capped our day with a 17:06 effort, finishing 127th out of more than 500.
Our open runners put up some great stats of their own, with many racing the regular 3.0 mile distance for the first time. Mile paces looked great, and we will get to focus on those particular stats later this week in interval training. Our results were kicked off by Parker Malone, who ran a 1:04 meet PR, and career best split at 136th overall. Fountain was next to the finish line, a gritty run coming back from injury to be just :07 off his best at 18:32. Trevor Neal notched a new PR at 19:34, and starting another 3-5 split near :20. He was then followed by Smith to the chute at 19:51. Brady Johnson took major time off his previous race to finish in 19:57. That split was :23 from 3-5, which is still exceptional. Bruhl was right on Brady’s heels, at 19:59, at 475th overall in a race that included more than 1200 runners.
Lechocki was next to complete the course in record time, running 20:17, and about six seconds ahead of Jack Holder. Huber was next to cross, just under 21 minutes (20:59). Fiedler knocked :14 off his previous Detweiller Park best, and tied his career PR (21:01). Scherden took a modified race plan, simply to get a good run in on the State course and cranked out a 21:16. Evan was next to cross the finish with a big PR, running nearly 4:00 faster than last week, at 21:30. Farmer’s first three-mile effort was a great one, when he broke 22, to run 21:49.
Nick Allen led a new string of PR races, using the big crowd of races to help himself to a new 3-mile best of 24:02. He was chased to the finish by Finn Gannon at 24:11. Andy Conley led a pack of Knights to the line next, running 24:57, and followed by senior teammate Andrew Lindow at 25:00. Matt Conley used his GPS watch to his advantage and had it beeping ahead of pace the whole way, en route to a new best of 25:07. Casey Walters put up another career PR, racing a full 1:32 better than his previous career PR.
Since the start of the season, with all the rankings and positive projections for our team, we have carried the mantle well. What is critical for this team to see is that our work is not even close to complete. We have a lot of work left to do. Our best isn’t yet good enough to be worthy of November hardware. We must keep our focus on being tough in our workouts, relentless in pursuing our teammates in races, taking advantage of opportunities to recover in the right ways, while maintaining a highly-positive mindset in the process. It’s a long season, and we need to be doing the little things that make the big differences: better diet, more hydration, championship sleep with screens out of the bedroom, and icing all that aches. Every bit is critical.
Be prepared to continue that excellence which is required to sustain this day's efforts.
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