First up was the Monday night Downers Grove South Mustang Relays at North Central College. This is a fantastic event on a great indoor track at NCC. There are always some great performances by both the boys and the girls in the 4 x 200, 4 x 400 and 4 x 800 relays.
For the Sandburg Eagles, the 4 x 800 race has been one of the top highlights of the indoor season. In 2013 we won the race and last year we were first again in a close battle and set the meet record at 7:53.49.
In 2016, we decided to load up our squad and see what kind of shape they were in. Like we did last year, we also entered our next four runners as a second 4 x 8 relay team. In this case, for 2016, both teams were running in the fast heat.
The leadoff leg for team 1 was Martin Skucas and he ran a very solid race, opening in a 1:58.6 and handing off to Chris Torpy in third place. Chris very quickly closed up the gap and blew by the leader in the first 300 of his leg. From there, he simply blasted away the field en route to a 1:53.6. He handed off to sophomore Dylan Jacobs with a big lead. Dylan, running solo for four laps, posted a solid 1:58.6 leg and passed the baton to Sean Torpy to close things out. Sean kept the pedal to the metal for all four laps, clipping off a 1:54.7 and bringing the team home in a new meet record and US #1 time of 7:45.8.
According to Mike Newman at DyeStatIL, this time is the 2nd fastest indoor time in Illinois history!
Our second squad ran a very solid 8:10.1 - good for seventh overall - beating some very strong Illinois teams. Brandon Lukas ran the opening leg in 2:00.6, followed by David Gleisner in 2:03.4, Alex Szymanski in 2:04.7 and Tom Brennan anchored in 2:01.3.
Complete Mustang Relays results are here.
Tony Jones interview with the champs is here.
The setting at The Armory indoor track is simply amazing. The stands are packed, the banked track is very fast, the four-sided video board is incredible and you are surrounded by the best high school track and field athletes from around the country.
Following their #1 time in the US in the 4 x 8 at the Mustang Relays, our guys were pumped to see what they could do against the nation's best in the 4 x mile. After checking out the track and watching a couple of races on Friday afternoon and carbo loading at a delicious NY Italian restaurant in the evening, the boys got a great nights sleep to prepare for the race.
After a small breakfast Saturday morning, we took the subway up from Midtown to The Armory at the North end of Manhattan. We passed a little time watching a few races and then the boys went about their warmup routine.
As they checked in for the race, they seemed a little nervous, but confident. They looked like they were ready. We had made the decision to lead off with Dylan Jacobs, our sophomore. He came off the line a little tentative, expecting that the pace would be faster. Consequently, his first two laps were slower than expected and Coach O'Malley yelled some urgent encouragement. Eventually, Dylan got it rolling and, as the field started to string out, he dueled back and forth with the runner from St. Anthony's NY. Ultimately, Dylan closed his mile in 4:22.1 and handed off to Brandon Lukas with a small lead. Brandon battled back and forth with the St. Anthony's runner for 5 laps before falling off the lead. At the 2nd handoff, Brandon's time of 4:22.8 was good for 2nd place - about 4.5 seconds behind the leader. With Chris Torpy on the 3rd leg, we felt pretty confident with our position at this point. Chris smoked his first 200 meters in a remarkable 28.5 seconds! Unfortunately, the St. Anthony runner was not giving an inch and Chris settled in for a battle. Additionally, the defending champion team from LaSalle, RI was now moving up into third and closing the gap on the two leaders.
Chris maintained his composure and kept grinding away. After not making up any ground for the first six laps, he re-doubled his effort and cut the gap in half - finishing in 4:16.4 and handing off to twin brother Sean Torpy. With the deficit under 3 seconds, Sean used the first 3 laps to slowly reel in the leader. Making a move at the start of the 4th lap, he tried to shake the St. Anthony runner. Over the next 4 laps, St. Anthony ran a step our two right behind Sean and as they opened the bell lap, tried to make a pass. Sean battled back and held off his surge. As they entered the final turn, Sean rebuffed a second attempt to pass. Finally, down the final stretch, with his pursuer closing in again, Sean dug deep and surged right at the line to capture the championship! His 4:14.6 was enough to win by less than one second - an amazing finish to a 4 mile relay race.
You can watch this incredible race here.
Mr. Torpy's video of the race here.
Complete 4 x mile results are here.
RunnerSpace interview with the champs is here.
MileSplit interview is here.