Flashback Friday: Bulkeley Blasts to 1K Win at 2017 States

With five guys seeded within a second of each other going into the boys' 1K race at the 2017 indoor States meet at Ocean Breeze, it was difficult to project a winner. Indeed, the preview here considered it a toss-up between the top two seeds and noted, "It will be interesting to see how the race plays out."

At the top of the seeds was Fairport junior Ben Bulkeley at 2:29.54 off of a race from a month before. He had been 5th in the race in 2016. Second seed was Joe Morrison, a senior from Arlington, with a 2:29.61 at Armory Track Invite, also from a month before. They were the only two guys under 2:30.

A little ways back from the top duo were three seniors, Sweet Home's Chris Nowak who had run 2:30.10 in late February at the Section 6 State Qualifier, Nanuet's Brian Camillieri who'd gone 2:30.23 at the Armory Track Invite, and Chris Tibbetts of Sachem North who had run 2:30.45 in mid February at the Section 11 State Qualifier. Tibbetts with a 4th place in in 2016 was the top returner for a race that had been won in a relatively slow 2:29.48. The 2014 winner Liam Purdy of North Rockland held the indoor States meet record of 2:27.63 then, and it is now owned by 2019 winner Matt Rizzo of Bronxville at 2:24.06.

Nowak had finished 23rd in the States 1K in 2016 but was coming in with a seed time that was more than 6 seconds better than his 2016 seed time and 9 seconds better than the 2:39.21 he'd run in his second section at Cornell. In 2017 he hammered from the start throwing down splits of 28.6, 28.3, 28.9, and 29.7 on the first four laps to open a huge lead on the rest of the field.

Bulkeley separated from the chase pack midway and closed the lead down to just under two seconds with 200m to go. Trailing still by ten meters on the back stretch, Bulkeley got close coming around the final turn and just flew down the home stretch to lay down a 29.6 last lap and a meet record at 2:26.78. Nowak faded back a bit with a 31.7 on the last lap but was still well under the previous meet record.