Just a week after their US #1 mark in the DMR, the boys from Loudoun Valley were at it again setting national leading marks. This time it was a 7:45.70 mark in the 4x800m relay to take over the US #1 spot and ranks them fifth all-time in the state of Virginia.
The quartet of Connor Wells (1:58.09), Jacob Hunter (1:59.17), Colton Bogucki (1:54.33), and Sam Affolder (1:54.13) simply dominated the competition up in New York and won by a staggering 10+ seconds.
This display of speed puts the Hunters (LV Coaches) in quite the tough spot. They now lead the nation in both distance relays and will likely enter New Balance Nationals as favorites to win both titles. The difficult part though will be balancing that with individual events for some of the seniors (Colton Bogucki and Peter Morris) while also trying to win national titles and set records. The big question though will be which relay(s) will they try and win: DMR, 4x8, or 4xMile?
That quick relay was on Saturday at the Armory but on Friday things were just as fast for the Virginia contingent.
In the invitational 1K it was the duo of Bogucki and Affolder from Valley joining the duo from Lake Braddock (Edward Cerne and Andrew Delvecchio). In that race it was a historic finish for the NOVA four as all of them dipped under the 2:30 barrier and made it onto the top 25 All-Time list for VA.
It was Sean Dolan of NJ taking the win in 2:28 but behind him was Bogucki, Cerne, Delvecchio, and Affolder in that order. All four guys finished between 2:29.10 and 2:29.48. That finish marked the first time in VA history four guys have gone under 2:30 in a single year, let alone a single race.