Photo by: Lisa McArthur
Boys Invitational Mile Field
Event 36 Men 1 Mile Run
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Name Year School Finals
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1 Cox-Philyaw, Tyler 11 Millbrook
2 Girma, Anteneh 12 T.C. William
3 Hahn, Colin 12 Midlothian H
4 Kern, Gaige 12 Alleghany
5 Leon, Jordan 12 Milford Mill
6 Novak*, Matthew 12 Deep Run
7 Pehr, Henry 11 Green Hope
8 Seufer, Peter 12 E.C. Glass
9 Swiney, Brad 12 John S. Batt
10 Ward, Timothy 12 West Springf
11 Willcutts, Gannon 11 Western Albe
12 Zarkowski, Ryan 12 Kellam If we are going by what is on paper, which I advice never to 100% do, then this race is one person's to take and that is Matthew Novak. Novak comes into this race with a 4:09 personal best and a season best of 4:18 for the full Mile. He has started the season slow but there is no doubt he will be bringing his 'A' game to Virginia Tech to show the entire country that he is the guy to beat at the Mile this year.
Also in this field we have basically a who's who in the 4A classification. We have Tyler Cox-Philyaw, Colin Hahn, and Peter Seufer who were 1-2-3 at XC States only two months ago and yes it was all three of those guys leading the race at the 1 Mile mark too!
We will also get to see some stud athletes from the northern parts of our state with Anteneh Girma and Timothy Ward coming down for some fast races. We have not seen a ton of races from them this season so far so that means we can expect big pr's and some fresh legs. This race will also have Gannon Willcutts who was a Foot Locker Finalist this year and runner-up in the 3A classification XC race and Brad Swiney who is a two-time state XC champion and also one of the hometown favorites.
With all these guys and the rest of the field we are going to be in for a show. With Novak in it though we can expect to see a quick pace as he has seemed recently to start to push the pace early and make the file adjust. If this strategy holds true, do not be too surprised if we have a 2:03 split halfway if the start is clean and Novak has the freedom to move. Regardless though, it will take 4:13 or better to win this race.