ARCADIA, CA -- At the 34th annual Arcadia Invitational in Arcadia, California, there was an assembly of some of the top prep distance in the entire nation. Runners from the Northeast, South, Midwest, and West were all in attendance.
The two male distance runners that stood out the most among the elite field were Virginia's finest in South Lakes senior Alan Webb and John Handley junior Bobby Lockhart.
Webb ran in the boys elite mile race as there was a huge media buildup leading up to race as Webb and 4:03 (1500 converted) miler Ryan Hall were expected to run. It a lot of track fans it paled in comparison to how the Super Bowl is to football fans as in Dyestat.com chatroom there were over 100 people listening into to Derek Dye's live report of the race.
Webb gave all the fans a scare as leading up to the race, there was some doubt if he would run because of severe stomach cramps. A "dream mile" race was now in jeopardy of taking place. As passionate track nuts, we were all distraught in the chatroom when we learned the news. Then as we found out that Webb was toeing the line in lane 5 for the boys mile race, we were jumping for joy as a little boy does on Christmas morning. The gun went off and the race was underway. Silence.
An unidentified rabbit lead for the first lap with Webb right behind at 59. Hall followed right behind Webb. Next lap Webb took over putting down a 61 second lap as Webb and Hall were still 1-2 at 2:00 at the 800m mark. The pace dropped off just a bit on the third lap as Webb ran a 63 and fell off sub 4 mile pace at 3:03 at the 1200m mark. Hall was no beginning to show signs of vulnerability. Webb hammered out a 58 last lap to come in at a great early season time of 4:01 and Hall was not able to handle Webb's surge and faded all the way back to 4th at 4:08. The Jefferson twins of Flordia, John and Sean, took advantage of the situation and claimed the 2nd and 3rd spots, running smart races and coming in at PR times of 4:05 and 4:07.
While some were expecting Webb to go under 4 in the mile. A 4:01 is very impressive for this early in the year and lets all hope he can continue doing well with his training and try and make a run at Ryun's high school record of 3:55.
Unnoticed in all of the hoopla surrounding the elite mile race with Alan Webb and Ryan Hall was Bobby Lockhart trying to break 9 for the first time in the 3200. Young Song Lee, a sophomore from California was a surprise leader for the first mile as the leaders went through the first mile in 4:28 as Lockhart then started to take over. Lockhart then after lap 6 proceeded to throw in two 66's and a 67 last lap to break away from the field with a new personal best of 8:57.08. Lockhart shows the form and proper training to possibly make a run at going at 8:50 or better by season's end.
Also representing South Lakes was Richard Smith who ran a strong race to place 3rd in the invitational boys 800m run with a time of 1:53.
South Lakes' Webb and Smith were also part of South Lakes DMR squad that faced off against the Jefferson twins' Atlantic Delray Beach who beat the South Lakes squad at the Nike Indoor Classic last month in Maryland. Atlantic Delray Beach got the upperhand again as their time of 9:57.88 is the third fastest all time in the U.S. South Lakes ran a very respectful time of 10:04.55 as Webb's 4:04 1600 anchor (57-61-62-64) was not enough as John Jefferson ran negative 800 splits (2:05-2:02) to run a 4:07 anchor leg and seal the win for his squad. Both great anchor legs for guys that had ran 4:01 and 4:05 miles just a few hours earlier.
Probably the least publicized of the Virginia athletes participating at the Arcadia Invitational was Thomas Jefferson senior Kelley Otstott but I've saved the best for last. Otstott ran a remarkable race as she placed 4th with a time of 4:51.32. Now I know many of you guys out there that don't have a 1600 PR better than 4:51 must be feeling very ashamed but don't be because Otstott is the real deal. Last weekend at the Seahawk Invitational, she won the 800 in a blazing time of 2:13. This weekend she went up against some of the best female prep distance stars in the nation such as Alicia Craig, Ale Barrientos, and Laura Ziegle who all have so many great honors that its too time consuming even to just list them. Nonetheless, look for great things from Otstott this year, as she will give many awe-inspiring, Webb-like performances which is great since the girls side have lacked that big name star caliber as the boys have with the Webbs and Lockharts of the world.
ARCADIA, CA -- At the 34th annual Arcadia Invitational in Arcadia, California, there was an assembly of some of the top prep distance in the entire nation. Runners from the Northeast, South, Midwest, and West were all in attendance.
The two male distance runners that stood out the most among the elite field were Virginia's finest in South Lakes senior Alan Webb and John Handley junior Bobby Lockhart.
Webb ran in the boys elite mile race as there was a huge media buildup leading up to race as Webb and 4:03 (1500 converted) miler Ryan Hall were expected to run. It a lot of track fans it paled in comparison to how the Super Bowl is to football fans as in Dyestat.com chatroom there were over 100 people listening into to Derek Dye's live report of the race.
Webb gave all the fans a scare as leading up to the race, there was some doubt if he would run because of severe stomach cramps. A "dream mile" race was now in jeopardy of taking place. As passionate track nuts, we were all distraught in the chatroom when we learned the news. Then as we found out that Webb was toeing the line in lane 5 for the boys mile race, we were jumping for joy as a little boy does on Christmas morning. The gun went off and the race was underway. Silence.