by Larry Eder
adidas Golden Spikes HS Boys’ Mile
This may go down as one of the true highlights of the meet. The pack hit 57.68 seconds for the 440, 2:01.71 for the 880 and 3:01.38 for the 1320-could Verzbicas make it? Doesn’t everyone go under three minutes at 1320 so they can break four minutes?
Lukas Verzbicas is not an ordinary runner. His best part of his race is everyone else’s worst-he can maintain a pace in even the most difficult of positions. Indoors, Verzbicas ran 4:03 for the mile, then 8:43 for two miles and then won the mile, two mile and 5,000m at the New Balance Indoor!
He also had Austin Mudd chasing him over the last lap! Mudd ran a 4:01., and twelve runners were under 4:10.1. One long time observer of the sport texted me and noted that this should be the best high school boys mile EVER! Well, we will let the statisticians figure that out, for now, this mile had everyone engaged in the stands!
With just about 300 meters to go, Lukas Verzbicas made history, as only the second high school boy miler after Jim Ryun, to break four minutes in a high school only race. Lukas is the fifth U.S. high school boy to break four minutes for the mile (the last was Alan Webb, a decade ago!).
What superlatives does one give to Lukas Verzbicas? His two mile record, set last weekend at the Nike Pre Classic (8:29.43), was a tremendous performance, but this mile, with the cream of the crop of high school boy distance runners in the field, was tremendous!
In speaking to Lukas after the race, he told me no more racing this year, as he prepares to go to the University of Oregon for college.
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