Friday Night Lights: 3200m Invitational at FSU Relays

If you were going to watch one event on Friday evening, 26 March 2010, at the Florida State University Relays in Tallahassee, that event would had to have been the high school 3200-meter run invitational. Well, maybe not, but I only got to watch one event, and the 3200 was the one that I chose.

In the girls' race, Courtney Filliben of Lourdes led the field to a swift 75-second opening 400m. By 800m Filliben had faded, relinquishing the lead to Maclay's Jana Stolting, closely followed by Shelby Hayes, the 2009 state cross-country champion from Winter Park. Over the next two laps Stolting and Hayes ran away from the rest of the athletes. But early in the second half of the race Hayes could no longer keep pace with Stolting and fell back. By the end of the fifth lap Hayes had lost contact, and Stolting just continued to add to her lead for the rest of the race, ultimately winning by almost 60 meters with a time of 10:41.54.

High School Girls' 3200m Results Plc Name Year School Time =============================================================== 1. Stolting, Jana 12 Maclay 10:41.54 2. Hayes, Shelby 12 Winter Park 10:53.53 3. Davis, Sarah 12 Bishop Kenny 11:07.67 4. Soderstrom, Kira 11 Winter Park 11:09.77 5. Thomas, Carly 10 Chiles 11:12.23 6. Stanton, Holly 12 Fort Walton Beach 11:23.16 7. Rodriguez, Kaitlin 10 Creekside 11:30.62 8. Filliben, Courtney 9 Lourdes 11:31.34 9. Andrews, Kendall 12 Chiles 11:32.49 10. Valentine, Vanessa 10 Melbourne 11:32.59 11. Smith, Kacy 9 Estero 11:32.88 12. McGuff, Jodie 11 Chiles 11:34.81 13. Thyfault, Mary Katherine 9 Bishop Kenny 11:37.03 14. Prendergast, Jessica 12 Lake Highland Prep 11:41.40 15. Villarnovo, Victoria 10 Lourdes 11:43.67 16. Chastain, Ivy 9 Fort Walton Beach 11:45.23 17. Frank, Maria 9 Estero 11:57.45 18. Rodriguez, Lauren 10 Creekside 11:58.71 19. Mosley, Marsel 9 Niceville 11:59.43 20. Harden, Kassandra 10 Lake Brantley 12:00.26 21. Miller, Rachel 11 Winter Park 12:02.10 22. Spiegel, Allison 12 Bishop Kenny 12:04.57 23. Klusman, Maggie 12 Winter Park 12:06.34 24. Bahn, Kelley 11 Chiles 12:08.31 25. Nelson, Laura 11 Niceville 12:14.28 26. Morris, Shannon 10 Creekside 12:15.24 27. Simms, Antonia 10 Lourdes 12:16.63 28. Ardon, Madeline 12 Fort Lauderdale 12:31.60 29. Hahn, Lindsey 11 Holy Names 12:31.73

All four of the 2009 FHSAA cross-country champions started the high school boys' 3200--Melbourne's Brian Atkinson (4A), Leon's Matt Mizereck (3A), Bishop Kenny's Colin Barker (2A), and Maclay's Patrick Swain (1A). Even more impressive, these four athletes represent nine state cross-country titles, because Atkinson and Mizereck had won the championship three times and Swain twice. If excellence at the five-kilometer cross-country race transferred to the 3200-meter track event, this was going to be some race.

Mizereck had indicated before the race that he was going to be chasing a sub-9:00 3200. He led the pack through the first lap at 69 seconds, a bit slower than the 67.5 seconds per lap required for a 9:00 final time. Mizereck ran the next couple of laps at about 68 seconds. The field was content to follow him. The pace had lagged by the halfway point, and Creekside's Jimmy Clark took over the lead for a pair of laps. Mizereck stayed right behind him, and moved back into the lead for the penultimate lap. Most importantly, though, ten of the runners in the field were still in striking distance. It was going to be a wild last lap.

Bell lap. Everyone accelerated. Barker struck. Going into the final turn Barker had the narrowest of leads with Mizereck breathing on his collar. Barker and Mizereck began to gap the field. The home straight. Mizereck couldn't catch Barker. Barker couldn't lose Mizereck. Half the straight was gone. More. In the final meters Mizereck powered by Barker and crossed the line first in front of his home crowd, 9:02.87 to 9:03.03. For anyone wondering whatever happened to Florida's fast 3200 runners, the answer is that they were in Tallahassee on 26 March 2010. Six athletes broke 9:10. 9:20 wouldn't have even put you in the top ten.

High School Boys' 3200m Results Plc Name Year School Time =============================================================== 1. Mizereck, Matt 12 Leon 9:02.87 2. Barker, Colin 12 Bishop Kenny 9:03.03 3. Wallace, Michael 12 Bishop Kenny 9:06.22 4. Clark, Jimmy 11 Creekside 9:06.26 5. Montoya, Erick 12 Estero 9:08.81 6. Parrish, Mark 12 Chamberlain 9:09.26 7. Duncan, Phil 11 Boone 9:11.31 8. Clemente, Elliot 10 Belen Jesuit Prep 9:11.95 9. Middleton, Novian 12 Dr. Phillips 9:15.56 10. Atkinson, Brian 12 Melbourne 9:17.15 11. Kotick, Jacob 10 Pensacola Washington 9:30.77 12. Stanford, Will 11 Leon 9:31.69 13. Cabrera, Dominick 12 Miami Columbus 9:32.95 14. Arechabala, Eduardo 12 Miami Columbus 9:35.81 15. Doherty, Riley 12 Leon 9:36.93 16. Swain, Patrick 11 Maclay 9:37.60 17. Dechellis, Daniel 12 Lake Brantley 9:41.50 18. Mund, Alex 12 Dr. Phillips 9:42.68 19. Duclos, Dieumy 11 Godby 9:44.06 20. Greathouse, Tyler 12 Berkeley Prep 9:44.47 21. Lindsay, Joe 11 Belen Jesuit Prep 9:45.32 22. Stafford, Ryan 11 Fort Myers 9:45.75 23. Robeson, Brad 12 Douglas 9:49.35 24. Bordelon, Ian 10 Pensacola Washington 9:54.12 25. Dunn, Mathew Unattached 9:54.58 26. Lingerfelt, Branden 12 Chiles 9:58.32 27. Riggs, Jason 11 Niceville 9:58.82 28. Dearmon, Jake 11 Fort Walton Beach 10:07.03 29. Matney, Jalen 12 Lake Brantley 10:24.64 30. Ammons, Sam 11 Fort Walton Beach 10:25.47

Links:

• Photos of the 2010 FSU Relays 3200m run
  http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2823865&l=ceb149f5be&id=5215641
  
  
• Video at RunnerSpace.com
  http://www.runnerspace.com/video.php?do=view&video_id=22813