4 x 800 Meter Relay 5-26-2012 State Meet Finals
4th Place 7:49.65 Kevin O'Flaherty, Nick Prajka, Derek Hevel, Pat McMahon
Kevin "KO" O'Flaherty 56.4 - 60.3 --- 1:56.9 Nick Prajka 58.5 - 62.6 --- 2:00.9 Derek "DH" Hevel 56.5 - 59.7 --- 1.56.2 Pat "Doc" McMahon 57.0 - 57.9 --- 1:54.9 4 x 800 Finals Results 4 x 800 Prelims Results Coach O'Malley's State Meet race splits |
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FINALS & PRELIMS VIDEOS
STATE MEET 4 x 800 METER FINALS STATE MEET 4 X 800 METER PRELIM #3
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Coach Novak
(2012) 4-3-2-1-1-2-1-9-3-1 (2022)
This is the fifth edition of the Sandburg “Great Races” series and you might be wondering why we’d be picking a 4 x 800 relay race where we finished in 4th place. I mean, Sandburg has won the race 4 times and holds the State Meet record in the event and I haven’t even written about any of those races yet.
But the numbers at the top tell the story. This was the one that really started to get things rolling. Yes, the Eagles had finished 5th in 2007 and had qualified for State in 2011 (finishing 7th in the Prelims). But this one was the beginning of the streak. Since then we’ve had 10 consecutive All-State finishes (there was no State Meet in 2020) including 4 firsts, 2 seconds and 2 third place finishes. We’ve run under 7:50 seventeen different times thru 2022.
When I joined the coaching staff in 2010 (as a volunteer), Coach O’Malley and I had already been discussing the merits of the 4 x 800 meter relay (we like to talk track a lot!). He had already had some success in the event, but the 1600 meter run had been more of a focus in his early years of coaching. My kids had run for Mike Kuharic at Lyons Township and his emphasis on the 4x8 was total and complete - and that kinda rubbed off on me. We all loved the fact that this was more of a “team” event and also that it would carry over to cross country. Of course, Coach O’Malley just took that and ran with it - becoming the best 4 x 800 meter high school coach in the country!
At the Lyons Township sectional in 2011, we had qualified for the State Meet in just one event - the 4 x 800 meter relay. We had been struggling to find our fourth man all year long, but senior Danny DeWolf came thru in the end and we ended up in 4th place at the Sectional in 7:58.95 - just under the State qualifying time. The team went on to run just slightly faster at the State Prelims, but finished 7th and didn’t move on to the finals. Three of those runners - Kevin O’Flaherty, Derek Hevel and Mitch Rees - were juniors and would be back in 2012.
With three runners returning in 2012, we knew we’d have a pretty good team again. We also added two juniors - Pat McMahon and Nick Prajka - who had run cross country for us but were playing volleyball in the spring. At the Lockport Sectional, we won the race easily in 7:52 - although 10 teams from other sectionals ran faster. For the State Prelims on Friday, we went with a lineup of O’Flaherty-Rees-Hevel-McMahon. That quartet came thru with a second place finish in 7:46.57 to move on to the finals. Their time set a new Sandburg school record for the 4x8 (it’s now the 12th fastest in school history thru 2022 - here's our top performance list).
Friday night at the hotel, there were long discussions about what lineup to run in the finals. Ultimately, we made the very difficult decision to sub in Nick Prajka for Mitch Rees. In the Finals on Saturday, Kevin O’Flaherty ran his usual excellent opening leg and handed off in second place. Prajka probably showed a little bit of his inexperience on the second leg, but kept us in the hunt and handed off in 4th. Senior Derek Hevel then ran a wonderful 3rd leg and powered into the lead for the final exchange. Pat “Doc” McMahon took the baton and battled on the last lap against some great anchor leg runners. Ultimately, he brought the Eagles home in 4th place in 7:49.65 - the first in a long string of All-State finishes.
McMahon and Prajka would return in 2013 to finish in 3rd place and in 2015 we finally got over the hump and won the whole thing. But this is the one that paved the way for all that success!
(2012) 4-3-2-1-1-2-1-9-3-1 (2022)
This is the fifth edition of the Sandburg “Great Races” series and you might be wondering why we’d be picking a 4 x 800 relay race where we finished in 4th place. I mean, Sandburg has won the race 4 times and holds the State Meet record in the event and I haven’t even written about any of those races yet.
But the numbers at the top tell the story. This was the one that really started to get things rolling. Yes, the Eagles had finished 5th in 2007 and had qualified for State in 2011 (finishing 7th in the Prelims). But this one was the beginning of the streak. Since then we’ve had 10 consecutive All-State finishes (there was no State Meet in 2020) including 4 firsts, 2 seconds and 2 third place finishes. We’ve run under 7:50 seventeen different times thru 2022.
When I joined the coaching staff in 2010 (as a volunteer), Coach O’Malley and I had already been discussing the merits of the 4 x 800 meter relay (we like to talk track a lot!). He had already had some success in the event, but the 1600 meter run had been more of a focus in his early years of coaching. My kids had run for Mike Kuharic at Lyons Township and his emphasis on the 4x8 was total and complete - and that kinda rubbed off on me. We all loved the fact that this was more of a “team” event and also that it would carry over to cross country. Of course, Coach O’Malley just took that and ran with it - becoming the best 4 x 800 meter high school coach in the country!
At the Lyons Township sectional in 2011, we had qualified for the State Meet in just one event - the 4 x 800 meter relay. We had been struggling to find our fourth man all year long, but senior Danny DeWolf came thru in the end and we ended up in 4th place at the Sectional in 7:58.95 - just under the State qualifying time. The team went on to run just slightly faster at the State Prelims, but finished 7th and didn’t move on to the finals. Three of those runners - Kevin O’Flaherty, Derek Hevel and Mitch Rees - were juniors and would be back in 2012.
With three runners returning in 2012, we knew we’d have a pretty good team again. We also added two juniors - Pat McMahon and Nick Prajka - who had run cross country for us but were playing volleyball in the spring. At the Lockport Sectional, we won the race easily in 7:52 - although 10 teams from other sectionals ran faster. For the State Prelims on Friday, we went with a lineup of O’Flaherty-Rees-Hevel-McMahon. That quartet came thru with a second place finish in 7:46.57 to move on to the finals. Their time set a new Sandburg school record for the 4x8 (it’s now the 12th fastest in school history thru 2022 - here's our top performance list).
Friday night at the hotel, there were long discussions about what lineup to run in the finals. Ultimately, we made the very difficult decision to sub in Nick Prajka for Mitch Rees. In the Finals on Saturday, Kevin O’Flaherty ran his usual excellent opening leg and handed off in second place. Prajka probably showed a little bit of his inexperience on the second leg, but kept us in the hunt and handed off in 4th. Senior Derek Hevel then ran a wonderful 3rd leg and powered into the lead for the final exchange. Pat “Doc” McMahon took the baton and battled on the last lap against some great anchor leg runners. Ultimately, he brought the Eagles home in 4th place in 7:49.65 - the first in a long string of All-State finishes.
McMahon and Prajka would return in 2013 to finish in 3rd place and in 2015 we finally got over the hump and won the whole thing. But this is the one that paved the way for all that success!
Kevin "KO" O'Flaherty opening leg 1:56.9 ALL STATE
It is difficult to explain the meaning behind such a culminating, capstone experience as my senior year track state meet. It has been nearly a decade since that race and the leadup to it; while I’ve experienced other pivotal moments in my life, that year still brings me pride, and I am reminded how much of my character was developed during that time. My reflections make one thing clear to me: running with my teammates and training with the coaches has been one of the best experiences of my life, both for the great times shared and relationships developed, as well as the personal growth and understanding gained. If there is one thing that racing in particular has taught me, it is that achieving any appreciable level of greatness can only come with overcoming difficulties.
Whenever the gun would go off and the charge off the starting line began, my state of mind would abruptly simplify, in such a jarring fashion that I would almost fail to recognize how profoundly my headspace transformed from the instant I started running. As the pack of runners would whip around the opening turn like a human-roller coaster, outward acceleration pulling us away from the center of the track, I would sometimes recognize the stark contrast between the worry, nervous excitement, and sick feeling in my stomach, to the elated, energy-exuding mania of racing, and a grin would stretch across my face. Another roller coaster, this time of the emotional variety, had just completed the agonizingly slow haul of nerves and doubt to the top, and now it was time for the giddy energy of a drop- and time for the race to really begin.
Somehow, before many of my races, I would forget about that blissful “drop” moment, and just worry about the slow, ascending growth of nerves and doubt. I had raced in the 4x800m my freshman year with the upperclassmen, including my own older brother who was a senior, which cemented the importance of this race to me. I knew one day I would be in my brother’s shoes, and hoped that the next three years would see me transition into his state of cool competency. I felt sure that by the time I was a senior, there would be no room for doubt; how could there be, when I had no absolutely no doubt in my upperclassmen teammates that day as a freshman? What I failed to realize is that when we endeavour for something we care about, there are always going to be tense nerves and doubts, regardless of how fast we are or how composed we seem to others, but more importantly, that this discomfort is required for us to achieve our personal greatness. If we don’t have to climb, we don’t get to enjoy the ride down.
My path to the state meet included other more tangible difficulties, namely injuries and illness. But my personal difficulty in overcoming these burdens was not what I expected. Adjusted training programs and nagging thoughts that I’ve had a setback while my opponents may be fresh were present, but what was much more difficult to overcome was something insidious: a feeling of estrangement from the common goals of the team, that I was no longer really a part of the shared camaraderie. It challenged my identity as a runner, competitor, and teammate. Of course, this was all in my head, but it was difficult to recognize, and even more so to put to rest. My senior year thankfully included a healthy track season leading up to the state meet, allowing me to immerse myself again with the shared emotion, passion, and dedication of the team. In neatly symbolic fashion, it would end with a relay race, a beautifully explicit team effort between myself, “Doc”, Derek, and Prajka (my teammates' denominations running the full gambit of nickname, first name, and last name).
The memory of the day of the race is somewhat of a blur for me, mostly engraved in my mind from pictures of friends and family taken from the bleachers. The race itself was over so quickly, (we try to convince ourselves of this during any race, anyway) and was so emblematic and meaningful for me, that it is difficult not to refer to it from this spectator vantage point. Especially now, with years intervening, the memory of the race itself seems more a story to be told than a place I was, and a thing I did. That being said, here is how the race unfolded in my eyes.
The order was to be myself, then Prajka, then Derek, then Doc. Derek and Doc made a fearsome 1-2 (or rather 3-4) punch that would be hard to beat, with Prajka and I tasked to keep us as near the front as possible to keep the other teams in striking range of the duo. Doc and Derek were consistently top runners, Prajka had more recently that season impressed everyone and jumped into being a higher caliber racer. Just before the race, I specifically recall Prajka asking me to hand it off to him in first place. I remember feeling privileged that, with such a talented team, that I would be able to go against the first leg of the other teams, who were generally a high caliber runner. I felt that to do my part here would be a real challenge I could be proud of, and I was grateful for the opportunity to prove myself here, one final time for the team.
As for the moments before the gun fired, I recall my nerves being on fire as usual, albeit tempered by the resolution and hopes of my teammates behind me. I remember the first lap not being exceedingly remarkable. I felt, somewhat unfamiliarly, the urgency to put myself in position that would get my teammates feeling excited, that this thing wasn’t going down the tubes from the moment it began. If I recall correctly, I took the lead earlier than I would have normally thought prudent, maybe around the backstretch with 300m to go, where so many of my kicks were started just to just die around the 100m to go mark. But the moment I did, I knew I made the right decision. Feeling the roar of the crowd, the garbled sounds coming off the speaker system that I could almost make out saying “And there’s O’Flaherty from Carl Sandburg!”(I have no idea what they were actually saying) as I’d imagined so many times before, perfectly acting out a dream four years in the making, momentarily took away any thought about the feasibility of sustaining the pace and put me purely in the moment. And I think that was probably the best way I could have ran the race, with everything on the line, knowing that I am where I need to be and all that’s left is to give everything I have. I remember coming down the last 100m feeling a runner on my shoulder, and battling it out the last straightaway, giving us essentially a tie for first.
If my own leg was blur, the remainder of the race is even more a wash covered by the emotion of watching my teammates gut it out. I remember the pool of runners in the infield who had finished their legs getting larger, with Prajka joining me first. For perhaps obvious reasons, his race was the one I missed the most detail of while I was recovering, but he ran a solid race and gave Derek a shot to keep us in it. Derek reliably and resolutely ate up the track and reeled in runners. I remember when Derek had finished, he almost immediately got up to cheer on Doc and was running up and down to cheer him on. Doc was up against other extremely talented runners but still looked like he was chasing down his prey, with his long stride taking up huge swathes of track. I remember thinking we might finish anywhere from 1st to the back of the pack on the backstretch. We ended up in 4th, improving by one Carl Sandburg’s best 4x800m result at that time. I remember the sense of accomplishment that I had reached the state I hoped for in my freshman year, being a part of the team that competed as fiercely as my brother and his fellow classmen, and even the upper-classmen of his early years, the fabled 2007 4x800m team. I felt proud to be a part of the Carl Sandburg legacy, that we had kept the team’s reputation on the right track, and I knew that each year would only see the team improving.
The lasting impact on my life of running for Carl Sandburg really cannot be understated for me. In a practical sense, it has of course ingrained the habit of staying healthy, placing value in physical fitness, and yes, running. The friendships I created there continue to this day, and the memories I have of runs at the Palos Forest Preserve, discussions in the parking lot of Forty Acre woods while stretching, and spring workouts on the track with the scent of a fresh rain and the track rubber bring back a sweet nostalgia. The night meets under the stadium lights, the energy of the crowd and the team, the rise and fall of energy during races, these are all unforgettable, and I am thankful to the coaches and my teammates to have had the opportunity to experience them.
Kevin O'Flaherty
Class of 2012
It is difficult to explain the meaning behind such a culminating, capstone experience as my senior year track state meet. It has been nearly a decade since that race and the leadup to it; while I’ve experienced other pivotal moments in my life, that year still brings me pride, and I am reminded how much of my character was developed during that time. My reflections make one thing clear to me: running with my teammates and training with the coaches has been one of the best experiences of my life, both for the great times shared and relationships developed, as well as the personal growth and understanding gained. If there is one thing that racing in particular has taught me, it is that achieving any appreciable level of greatness can only come with overcoming difficulties.
Whenever the gun would go off and the charge off the starting line began, my state of mind would abruptly simplify, in such a jarring fashion that I would almost fail to recognize how profoundly my headspace transformed from the instant I started running. As the pack of runners would whip around the opening turn like a human-roller coaster, outward acceleration pulling us away from the center of the track, I would sometimes recognize the stark contrast between the worry, nervous excitement, and sick feeling in my stomach, to the elated, energy-exuding mania of racing, and a grin would stretch across my face. Another roller coaster, this time of the emotional variety, had just completed the agonizingly slow haul of nerves and doubt to the top, and now it was time for the giddy energy of a drop- and time for the race to really begin.
Somehow, before many of my races, I would forget about that blissful “drop” moment, and just worry about the slow, ascending growth of nerves and doubt. I had raced in the 4x800m my freshman year with the upperclassmen, including my own older brother who was a senior, which cemented the importance of this race to me. I knew one day I would be in my brother’s shoes, and hoped that the next three years would see me transition into his state of cool competency. I felt sure that by the time I was a senior, there would be no room for doubt; how could there be, when I had no absolutely no doubt in my upperclassmen teammates that day as a freshman? What I failed to realize is that when we endeavour for something we care about, there are always going to be tense nerves and doubts, regardless of how fast we are or how composed we seem to others, but more importantly, that this discomfort is required for us to achieve our personal greatness. If we don’t have to climb, we don’t get to enjoy the ride down.
My path to the state meet included other more tangible difficulties, namely injuries and illness. But my personal difficulty in overcoming these burdens was not what I expected. Adjusted training programs and nagging thoughts that I’ve had a setback while my opponents may be fresh were present, but what was much more difficult to overcome was something insidious: a feeling of estrangement from the common goals of the team, that I was no longer really a part of the shared camaraderie. It challenged my identity as a runner, competitor, and teammate. Of course, this was all in my head, but it was difficult to recognize, and even more so to put to rest. My senior year thankfully included a healthy track season leading up to the state meet, allowing me to immerse myself again with the shared emotion, passion, and dedication of the team. In neatly symbolic fashion, it would end with a relay race, a beautifully explicit team effort between myself, “Doc”, Derek, and Prajka (my teammates' denominations running the full gambit of nickname, first name, and last name).
The memory of the day of the race is somewhat of a blur for me, mostly engraved in my mind from pictures of friends and family taken from the bleachers. The race itself was over so quickly, (we try to convince ourselves of this during any race, anyway) and was so emblematic and meaningful for me, that it is difficult not to refer to it from this spectator vantage point. Especially now, with years intervening, the memory of the race itself seems more a story to be told than a place I was, and a thing I did. That being said, here is how the race unfolded in my eyes.
The order was to be myself, then Prajka, then Derek, then Doc. Derek and Doc made a fearsome 1-2 (or rather 3-4) punch that would be hard to beat, with Prajka and I tasked to keep us as near the front as possible to keep the other teams in striking range of the duo. Doc and Derek were consistently top runners, Prajka had more recently that season impressed everyone and jumped into being a higher caliber racer. Just before the race, I specifically recall Prajka asking me to hand it off to him in first place. I remember feeling privileged that, with such a talented team, that I would be able to go against the first leg of the other teams, who were generally a high caliber runner. I felt that to do my part here would be a real challenge I could be proud of, and I was grateful for the opportunity to prove myself here, one final time for the team.
As for the moments before the gun fired, I recall my nerves being on fire as usual, albeit tempered by the resolution and hopes of my teammates behind me. I remember the first lap not being exceedingly remarkable. I felt, somewhat unfamiliarly, the urgency to put myself in position that would get my teammates feeling excited, that this thing wasn’t going down the tubes from the moment it began. If I recall correctly, I took the lead earlier than I would have normally thought prudent, maybe around the backstretch with 300m to go, where so many of my kicks were started just to just die around the 100m to go mark. But the moment I did, I knew I made the right decision. Feeling the roar of the crowd, the garbled sounds coming off the speaker system that I could almost make out saying “And there’s O’Flaherty from Carl Sandburg!”(I have no idea what they were actually saying) as I’d imagined so many times before, perfectly acting out a dream four years in the making, momentarily took away any thought about the feasibility of sustaining the pace and put me purely in the moment. And I think that was probably the best way I could have ran the race, with everything on the line, knowing that I am where I need to be and all that’s left is to give everything I have. I remember coming down the last 100m feeling a runner on my shoulder, and battling it out the last straightaway, giving us essentially a tie for first.
If my own leg was blur, the remainder of the race is even more a wash covered by the emotion of watching my teammates gut it out. I remember the pool of runners in the infield who had finished their legs getting larger, with Prajka joining me first. For perhaps obvious reasons, his race was the one I missed the most detail of while I was recovering, but he ran a solid race and gave Derek a shot to keep us in it. Derek reliably and resolutely ate up the track and reeled in runners. I remember when Derek had finished, he almost immediately got up to cheer on Doc and was running up and down to cheer him on. Doc was up against other extremely talented runners but still looked like he was chasing down his prey, with his long stride taking up huge swathes of track. I remember thinking we might finish anywhere from 1st to the back of the pack on the backstretch. We ended up in 4th, improving by one Carl Sandburg’s best 4x800m result at that time. I remember the sense of accomplishment that I had reached the state I hoped for in my freshman year, being a part of the team that competed as fiercely as my brother and his fellow classmen, and even the upper-classmen of his early years, the fabled 2007 4x800m team. I felt proud to be a part of the Carl Sandburg legacy, that we had kept the team’s reputation on the right track, and I knew that each year would only see the team improving.
The lasting impact on my life of running for Carl Sandburg really cannot be understated for me. In a practical sense, it has of course ingrained the habit of staying healthy, placing value in physical fitness, and yes, running. The friendships I created there continue to this day, and the memories I have of runs at the Palos Forest Preserve, discussions in the parking lot of Forty Acre woods while stretching, and spring workouts on the track with the scent of a fresh rain and the track rubber bring back a sweet nostalgia. The night meets under the stadium lights, the energy of the crowd and the team, the rise and fall of energy during races, these are all unforgettable, and I am thankful to the coaches and my teammates to have had the opportunity to experience them.
Kevin O'Flaherty
Class of 2012
Nick Prajka leg #2 2:00.9 ALL STATE
I’m sure Coach O’Malley tells you regularly that races are won in the months leading up to it. Looking back at my career, I couldn’t agree more with this. Races are won by buying into the mission, paying attention to the small details, and controlling the controllables. So before I recap the 2012 State 4x800, I want to first go over the season leading up to that race.
The 2012 track season was actually my first, as I played volleyball in the spring my first two years. After running 17:30 my junior year cross country season, I decided to go all-in on year-round training and switched to track. Starting off my first indoor season, we thought the 3200 would be my best event given my cross country background. After a few attempts and no luck, we took a shot at my first 800 at the Hillcrest Invitational. Going in with no expectations, but desperate for success, I gave it my best shot and threw down a 2:01.7 on my first try. Shortly after, I found myself lining up at sectionals and qualifying individually with a 1:58.7 for a 2nd place finish (in addition to our first 4x400 qualifier in a long time).
In the weeks leading up to State 2012, we knew our best shot at success was to go all-in on the 4x800. With that I was scratched from my individual event, but it didn’t bother me too much knowing we had more than a legitimate shot at winning the relay event. As the race drew closer, the anticipation and excitement built among all of us as we stayed consistent in our training, held one another accountable, and enjoyed our time together, knowing the season was coming to an end.
On the first day (preliminaries), I had the luxury of resting and mentally preparing for the finals, knowing we were likely to advance to the finals. Not many teams have the ability to rest their runners for the preliminaries, which is why the depth of Sandburg year-after-year is one of the many things that sets it apart from other schools. After watching my teammates qualify easily to the next round, the real countdown began.
The day of the finals was unlike any other, but not for the reasons you would expect. Coach O’Malley had warned us about the heat that usually comes every year at State, but stepping out on the track it was like nothing I’d ever felt before. Combine that with my inexperience and tons of undeserved confidence, I was in for a rude awakening. Watching KO come down the home stretch fighting to hand off in a top-2 spot, I tried to keep focused on the task at hand knowing that, if I ran my race correctly, I could easily move us up to the top position for Derek and McMahon to close it out.
Unfortunately that wasn’t the case. The race was pretty tactical through the first 600m, as no one was willing to take it out. Not wanting to be pinned in on the rail, I filed in at the 2nd position off the leader’s shoulder, but made the mistake of running wide into lane 2 around each curve. As a rookie, tactics and race strategies hadn’t yet resonated with me, so it didn’t register to me that I was running extra distance and, even at this slower pace, I had been wasting energy running in lane 2. The effects of this were seen in the final 150m when I dropped from a top position and wound up handing off to Derek in 4th place.
Splitting a 2:01 was tough to swallow, especially after knowing the rest of my teammates each split sub-2. However, I am grateful that I made these errors early on, as they served as learning moments that stuck with me through the rest of my track career. Some of these included learning how to run on a big stage, running your own race when in a crowd of runners and how to come back stronger after a poor showing. This last one is something that Sandburg is best known for, which is why every year following the 2012 4x800, our relay improved by one place with each season that passed, finishing 3rd the next year, 2nd the following year and finally winning our first state title the year after that. Having played a major role in this team’s success over the last decade is something I’m still very proud of to this day.
It’s hard to believe that this race was now ten years ago, and that it’s been nine since I last wore a Sandburg jersey. Whether you continue running through college or stop after high school, your cross country and track careers are going to fly by, so enjoy every moment!
Nick Prajka
Class of 2013
I’m sure Coach O’Malley tells you regularly that races are won in the months leading up to it. Looking back at my career, I couldn’t agree more with this. Races are won by buying into the mission, paying attention to the small details, and controlling the controllables. So before I recap the 2012 State 4x800, I want to first go over the season leading up to that race.
The 2012 track season was actually my first, as I played volleyball in the spring my first two years. After running 17:30 my junior year cross country season, I decided to go all-in on year-round training and switched to track. Starting off my first indoor season, we thought the 3200 would be my best event given my cross country background. After a few attempts and no luck, we took a shot at my first 800 at the Hillcrest Invitational. Going in with no expectations, but desperate for success, I gave it my best shot and threw down a 2:01.7 on my first try. Shortly after, I found myself lining up at sectionals and qualifying individually with a 1:58.7 for a 2nd place finish (in addition to our first 4x400 qualifier in a long time).
In the weeks leading up to State 2012, we knew our best shot at success was to go all-in on the 4x800. With that I was scratched from my individual event, but it didn’t bother me too much knowing we had more than a legitimate shot at winning the relay event. As the race drew closer, the anticipation and excitement built among all of us as we stayed consistent in our training, held one another accountable, and enjoyed our time together, knowing the season was coming to an end.
On the first day (preliminaries), I had the luxury of resting and mentally preparing for the finals, knowing we were likely to advance to the finals. Not many teams have the ability to rest their runners for the preliminaries, which is why the depth of Sandburg year-after-year is one of the many things that sets it apart from other schools. After watching my teammates qualify easily to the next round, the real countdown began.
The day of the finals was unlike any other, but not for the reasons you would expect. Coach O’Malley had warned us about the heat that usually comes every year at State, but stepping out on the track it was like nothing I’d ever felt before. Combine that with my inexperience and tons of undeserved confidence, I was in for a rude awakening. Watching KO come down the home stretch fighting to hand off in a top-2 spot, I tried to keep focused on the task at hand knowing that, if I ran my race correctly, I could easily move us up to the top position for Derek and McMahon to close it out.
Unfortunately that wasn’t the case. The race was pretty tactical through the first 600m, as no one was willing to take it out. Not wanting to be pinned in on the rail, I filed in at the 2nd position off the leader’s shoulder, but made the mistake of running wide into lane 2 around each curve. As a rookie, tactics and race strategies hadn’t yet resonated with me, so it didn’t register to me that I was running extra distance and, even at this slower pace, I had been wasting energy running in lane 2. The effects of this were seen in the final 150m when I dropped from a top position and wound up handing off to Derek in 4th place.
Splitting a 2:01 was tough to swallow, especially after knowing the rest of my teammates each split sub-2. However, I am grateful that I made these errors early on, as they served as learning moments that stuck with me through the rest of my track career. Some of these included learning how to run on a big stage, running your own race when in a crowd of runners and how to come back stronger after a poor showing. This last one is something that Sandburg is best known for, which is why every year following the 2012 4x800, our relay improved by one place with each season that passed, finishing 3rd the next year, 2nd the following year and finally winning our first state title the year after that. Having played a major role in this team’s success over the last decade is something I’m still very proud of to this day.
It’s hard to believe that this race was now ten years ago, and that it’s been nine since I last wore a Sandburg jersey. Whether you continue running through college or stop after high school, your cross country and track careers are going to fly by, so enjoy every moment!
Nick Prajka
Class of 2013