.jpg)
A New Era
By Drew Beck
Never has a footrace captivated an audience like the mile. Filled with tension, speed, guts, and endurance, some believe the mile is more poetry than distance running. Sebastian Coe, Olympic gold-medalist and one of the event’s all-time greats, sums it up like this: “Blink and you miss a sprint. The 10,000 meters is lap after lap of waiting. Theatrically, the mile is just the right length – beginning, middle, and end: a story unfolding.”
For the boys’ side of things, the “story” of the mile will finally have a significant plot-twist. After all, the event’s been dominated by two individuals since 2008. These superstars, John Bleday and Byron Jones, have taken their talents to the Ivy League after wreaking havoc on the Massachusetts high school scene. Both carry away impressive resumes’: four All-State mile championships between them (6 if you include all track events), PR’s of 4:11 and 4:13 respectively, Class meet records, indoor All-American statuses, qualifiers for the prestigious Penn Relays Mile, and undefeated senior seasons in track against Massachusetts’ best. In other words, they took all the guessing out of anyone’s predications by being clear-cut favorites.
This season, 2010-2011, gets a little interesting. As it is every year, the real question lies in who decides to run the mile rather than the thousand or deuce. Like mentioned above, it’s an art of balancing both speed and endurance and, depending on where runners are in their training, some might neglect the event for different events. A personal example: last year, after confirming with my coach before the winter season that I’d run the two-mile in outdoor, I decided to focus on my speed in the shorter events so that, when I moved up to the two-mile, the pace would feel more relaxed. Your form improves from the adaption to a more upbeat tempo, and you gain confidence in your finishing kick. Many athletes chose to run the 1000 indoors in preparation for a quick outdoor mile time.
The school of thought is to run the two-mile indoors since the athlete’s focus is more on mileage and base-building for the outdoor season. Oftentimes, a miler feels his/her strength in late February is indeed…their strength. The hundreds of miles they’ve run coupled with hill sessions and aerobically challenging workouts gives a sense of fitness, but not necessarily freshness. These types of athletes will go into the big meets tired from intense training. It doesn’t mean PR’s in February, but this line of thinking pays huge dividends in May and June for the heavily scrutinized outdoor meets. So, athletes will bank of their heavy training to carry them through the two-mile, since their legs simply aren’t ready for a short, intense effort.
With this in mind, it would take a great deal of extensive research to discover which athletes decide on the mile as their marquee event this winter. However, research alone wouldn’t guarantee a start-list. Competitive runners in high school don’t like to show their “cards” until the 11th hour of sign-ups for the Class meets.
Nevertheless, I take a shot in the dark and predict not only who’s on the starting line but also how they finish. Here’s how the podium looks for both the guys and the ladies.
Boy’s Rankings:
1) Steve Sollowin, Sr. Weymouth
2) Simon Voorhees, Sr. Andover
3) Dana Dourdeville, Sr. Old Rochester
4) Ryan Kelly, Sr. Pembroke
5) Andrew Hood, Jr. Franklin
6) Brendan Robertson, Jr. Westborough
Other notables: Ian Lutz, Sr. Northampton; Dan Zawalich, Sr. St John’s Prep; Romey Sklar, Sr. Brookline; Mike McConville, Jr. Hingham; Jonathan McKinley, Sr. Duxbury
Sollowin takes the second best XC resume (behind John Murray) into the winter season. He’s got great tenacity and a knack for coming up huge in the big meets. Though his PR is several seconds slower than Dourdeville, Sollowin has improved greatly over the last year. Dourdeville comes into this season with a 4:17 under his belt, faster than anyone by three seconds. However, he remains one of those guys that runs fast times but struggles to win close races. Don’t be surprised if he lines up the number one seed, but doesn’t have the finish to overtake Sollowin or hold off Voorhees. Like the senior from Old Rochester, Pembroke’s Kelly possses tremendous strength (he’s a two-time Division 2 XC Boston Globe Runner of the Year), but he’s not going to outkick anybody with a lap to go. Unfortunately, he’s not going to run away from any of the top three guys either. He does have a lot of big-meet experience (running Nationals in XC this past year with his nationally ranked Pembroke squad), and that plays to his advantage. He’s waited for this moment since his 4:25 outburst as a sophomore, and, while he won’t take the top spot, he’ll get the satisfaction of a sub-4:20. I believe Andrew Hood will charge to a finish just behind this talented foursome. No matter how disappointing his XC season was, Hood gets in shape quickly during the winter months and possesses great sprinting ability. He’s a hit or miss type athlete, meaning he’ll either reach the podium here, at All-States, or miss qualifying for this meet like he did last year. Truly one of the wild-cards, Hood could catch a lot of people by surprise. Robertson rounds out the scoring with an impressive 4:26 PR, set last year as a sophomore. A former teammate of Byron Jones, he knows what it takes to be successful at this event.
Girls’ Rankings:
1) Kathy O’Keefe, Sr. Newton South
2) Viviana Hanley, Sr. Bishop Feehan
3) Jillian Corcoran, Sr. Weymouth
4) Catarina Rocha, So. Peabody
5) Alison Lanois, Sr. Hamilton-Wenham
6) Sierra Zambarano, Jr. Acton-Boxboro
Other Notables: Erica Gagnon, Sr. Archbishop Williams; Katie Powers, Sr. Cardinal Spellman; Jennifer Markham, Jr. Lunenburg; Maggie Mullens, Jr. Andover; Alex Giese, Jr. Franklin
Kathy O’Keefe returns as the defending indoor champion, running an impressive sub-5:00 mile at the All-State Championships last year. She will be the runner to beat, but in girls’ track and field, things are prone to change drastically from year to year. It’s very hard for a runner to consistently stay at the top, so expect any one of these fine runners to give her a run for her money. Viviana Hanley from Bishop Feehan will ride the momentum of an amazing fall season into this winter, and I expect her to get into the low five minute range, which is exceptional for any girl. Rocha will benefit from the exponential improvement one experiences from freshman to sophomore year. Zambarano may not appear on others’ top lists, but she deserves to be there. Being in Division 1, she campaign against the likes of O’Keefe, Rocha, and Corcoran on a regular basis, building up confidence with her exposure to the state’s best.
And so, the mile’s story takes on a new chapter; one filled with anticipation and uncertainty. The stage has been set, and we excitedly wait to witness the show.