The journey really started in 2007 with Tom Sideras, Zach Dahleen, Mike Marbach and Kevin Adamowski. After running 7:49.16 to qualify for the finals of the 4 x 800 meter relay at the 2007 IHSA State Meet, this Sandburg quartet raced to fifth place in the finals with a time of 7:50.20. Although I hadn't yet started my Sandburg "coaching career", I remember being at the meet and cheering for the Eagles. Here is the video of the 2007 finals.
I had already become a huge 4 x 800 fan. My kids ran at Lyons Township HS which had a long history of success in the event. I had watched a lot of Sectional & State meet 4x8's and just loved the drama of the race. You have the back and forth nature - the lead off man setting the tone for each team, the battle between the second leg and third leg runners and then finally handing off to the stud anchor man. You also have the round numbers. Running sub 2:00 minutes for the 800 and sub 8:00 for the 4x8 are magic times. And going back to the legendary first State Meet 2-mile relay in 1976, it has always been one of the premier events in the State of Illinois. Finally, to top it off, it's the race that kicks off the excitement of the State Meet every year!
The first year that I came on board as a volunteer coach was 2011. Our 4 x 8 team of Derek Hevel, Mitch Rees, Danny DeWolf and Kevin O'Flaherty qualified for the State Meet, but couldn't make it out of the prelims, running 7:58.66 and finishing 7th in their heat. But we had 3 guys returning and we set our sights on getting better at this race.
Four
In 2012, we returned again with a strong team - one we thought had a shot at the title. Carryover runners Kevin O'Flaherty, Mitch Rees and Derek Hevel were joined by new anchorman Pat "Doc" McMahon. In the prelims, this foursome ran the second fastest qualifying time - 7:46.57 - setting a new school record in the process. For the finals, we made the decision to sub in Nicholas Prajka for Mitch Rees, but the new lineup only managed 7:49.65 and finished in fourth place, as Chicago Lane Tech captured first. This setback only made us more determined to chase that elusive State title! Here is the video of the 2012 finals.
And 2013 saw the Eagles bring another title contender to the State Meet. For the prelims, Denis O'Callaghan, Sean Torpy, Nicholas Prajka and Pat McMahon won their heat easily with the second fastest overall time of 7:50.89. For the finals, we replaced freshman Sean Torpy with senior Joe Licata. Although we held the lead on the last lap, Barrington sophomore Konrad Eiring fought his way past "Doc" McMahon for the win. The Eagles ended up in third place with a time of 7:46.81. Another close finish, but still not where we wanted to be. Here is the video of the 2013 finals.
Two
Ok, so this was starting to get a bit frustrating. But Sandburg Eagles are not quitters, they are blue collar fighters. So in 2014, we re-doubled our determination to get this thing done. We studied video of previous State 4 x 8 races, calculated split times, analyzed every leg of the race and formulated our strategy.
In the prelims, our quartet of Chris Torpy, Tom Brennan, Sean Torpy and Matt Hetzler set a new school record of 7:46.53 and posted the fastest time overall. Here is the video of the prelim race.
For the finals, we knew Neuqua Valley had one more card to play - substituting Connor Horn into their 4 x 800 lineup. We countered by adding our top miler, Denis O'Callaghan to our finals squad. The race went very much according to plan, with each of our 4 guys executing perfectly. Sophomore Chris Torpy put us in great position with his opening leg. Senior Matt Hetzler opened up a nice lead in the home stretch of the second leg. Sophomore Sean Torpy nailed the 3rd leg and handed off to senior Denis O'Callaghan in first place. Neuqua Valley had their superstar Ty Moss on the anchor and at this point, it was clear that it would be a two team race to the finish. In the end, Moss was able to edge past Denis at the finish. Falling just short and running a near-state record time of 7:40.77 - and shattering the school record that was set the day before - was tough to swallow. Close, but not quite there. Here is the video of the 2014 finals.
Heading in to the 2015 track season, we really weren't sure whether we wanted to re-visit the 4 x 800 relay again. For one, we had some guys who were definitely capable of scoring well in the finals of the 800/1600/3200 meter races. Maybe it was time to let them see what they could do in those open races. For another, we knew it would take another supreme effort again this year. Neuqua Valley would be back with Ty Moss. Barrington would be back with Konrad Eiring. Lyons Township, York, Lane Tech, Prospect and others would be formidable again. Although we had three runners returning that ran the 4 x 800 at State in 2014, we weren't sure that we could handle another disappointment.
As the season unfolded, we had many runners vying for the 4 x 8 lineup. Lots of guys approaching sub-2:00. Entering Sectionals, we had two runners that had really shown they had moved up to that elite level. So we knew that Sean Torpy and Chris Torpy would be focused on qualifying for the 1600 and 800 meter runs respectively. In addition, we would make sure our 4 x 8 relay would head downstate again. The relay and both Sean and Chris easily qualified for the State Meet. We also had two sprinters headed down - Ayo Abiona in the 100 & 200 and Jibreel Brown in the 400. Although we had hoped for a couple other qualifiers and had 2 or 3 other close calls, this would be our State team.
I'm sure many assumed that we would be "all in" on the 4 x 8. However, our number one goal was to get Sean and Chris safely thru to the finals of the 1600 and 800. In order to assure this, we decided to let them run the prelims fresh. For the 4 x 8, we would roll the dice with a freshman and sophomore in the prelim lineup. If they made it, great! If not, we would focus on the open races.
Fortunately, these guys came thru with some big time races! Sophomore Martin Skucas fought thru the traffic of the opening leg and put us in the thick of the race. Freshman Dylan Jacobs nailed down the second leg like a veteran and handed off to junior Brandon Lukas, who battled the whole way and moved us into great position before handing off to junior Tom Brennan for the anchor leg. Brennan used his experience to throw down a great split to wrap things up. Finishing third in the first heat, with a time of 7:52.22, we had to sweat it out thru two more prelim heats. In the end, we made it as the 10th qualifier out of 12. Following that, both Sean Torpy and Chris Torpy ran well in the open events, with Sean winning his heat of the 1600 and Chris making it thru in the 800. Both Ayo and Jibreel ran really well, but barely missed making the finals. Fortunately, both will be back next year! Overall, mission accomplish for Day One!
Friday night was a tough one for the coaching staff. Three hours of discussion on what we were going to do on Saturday. Both Chris and Sean deserved the chance to show what they could do in the open events. Sean had the second fastest qualifying time in the 1600 and Chris was ready to battle a strong group of 800 runners. But we also knew that if we subbed them in to the 4 x 8 lineup, we had a realistic shot at winning the whole thing. On the other hand, if we sacrificed the open events and fell short again in the 4 x 8, we would all be very disappointed. In the end, after lots of back and forth, we made the decision to try once more to slay the dragon and capture the 4 x 8 State Championship.
With the threat of nasty weather on Saturday, the whole meet was on alert. With the starting time pushed up, our guys got themselves ready to race. The opening leg was tougher than we had hoped. Tommy Brennan got boxed in a couple of times and had to battle heavy traffic the whole way. Handing off to Brandon Lukas in a chaotic exchange zone, the 2nd leg was nearly as tough as the first. Brandon had to fight his way thru for two laps. Sean Torpy took the baton in sixth place and gradually worked his way up thru the pack. On the backstretch he surged to the lead and closed with a 1:53 leg and handed off in first. On the anchor, Chris Torpy hoped to close things out for the Eagles. Lurking just behind him were as the 2013 champ Konrad Eiring of Barrington and Alex Lima of Lyons Township, as well as 2014 champ Ty Moss and Neuqua Valley. I was sitting in the stands with last year's anchorman Denis O'Callaghan and as things tightened up down the backstretch, I was hoping we weren't looking at a deja vu situation. Eiring had been stalking Chris and made a couple of moves to try to pass. But Chris held strong and with 200 to go he made a decisive move and broke away. Entering the home stretch, Chris had a solid lead and just needed to finish the deal. That last 70 meters seemed to take forever, but when he finally crossed the line in 7:42.03 to win the State Championship, there was a huge outpouring of elation and relief from the entire Sandburg nation! A nine year quest had finally come to an incredible conclusion. These boys were now State Champs!
Here is the video of the 2015 finals. And another video here.
Chris Torpy came back in the open 800 ran another brilliant race to grab 4th place for his second All-State performance of the day. Sean had left it all out there during the relay and ran out of gas in the 1600, finishing 12th.
Fantastic finish Eagles!!!