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Brooks PR Invitational - An Illinois View

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ILXCTF - Mike Newman   Jun 9th 2018, 10:00am
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Mendez, Hart lead Illinois runners with third place finishes

 

By Michael Newman

[email protected]

 

Whitney Young’s Clayton Mendez approached the starting line with a little dance demonstrating he was loose and ready for the Brooks PR Invitational Boys 1 Mile Run.

He danced out of Shoreline Stadium with a personal best.

Mendez ran 4:05.57 to finish third in a stacked mile field. It was the fastest mile time ever for a Chicago Public League Student/Athlete for that distance.

“We have been working on that the past three weeks,” Mendez’s Coach Billy Poole-Harris said after the race about his pupil’s finish. “I am so happy for him.” Mendez’s time is currently ranked fifth nationally.

An on and off drizzle did not seem to bother the runners as they stepped to the line. Brodey Hasty of Brentwood TN volunteered to pace the field through the first two laps. Hasty an hour earlier had run a personal best 1:52.98 in the 800 Meter Run. Hasty took the pace out fast plowing through the first 440 yards in 58.2 seconds. The rest of the pack, led by Dustin Horter of Lakota East OH, was one second back. Hasty stepped off the track at 700-meters into the race doing his job taking the race out in a fast pace. Sandburg’s Dylan Jacobs took the lead just before the half way point going through in 2:01.8 for 880 yards.

Jacobs defined this race as he pushed the third lap with Horter and Mendez hanging on. Just as the bell sounded in 3:04.7, Michael Phillips of Lawton Chiles charged to the lead. The pace setting hit Jacobs with 250-meters left as he started to fade from the lead. Horter made the final lead taking the lead for good. He crossed the line winning in 4:04.68 (US #3). Nick Foster of Ann Arbor Pioneer MI passed Mendez in the final 50-meters to finish second (4:05.50, US #4) just seven hundredths of a second ahead of Mendez. Jacobs ended his spectacular high school career placing ninth running a 4:10.49 season’s best.

It was no surprise that Glenbard West’s Katelynne Hart took the lead at the start of the Girls 2 Mile Run. The sophomore pushed the pace going through the first mile in 4:57.7. Hart was not alone with a pack of five other runners close to her. With two laps left in the race, Jacqueline Gaughan of Exeter NH took the lead ever so slightly. With 500-meters left, Hart was on the inside boxed in with Gaughan right in front and Taryn O’Neill of George Elliott BC and Camilla Noe of Bozeman MT on the right passing by.

Hart found her way out of the box taking the lead on the backstretch until 200-meters left. First O’Neill then Noe on the outside passed Hart. It was the Canadian’s race as O’Neill had the better kick in the end. O’Neill’s time of 9:54.40 was just half a second ahead of Noe (9:54.95) who ran the fastest American 2-Mile this spring. Hart finished third in 9:56.40 (US #2) becoming the first Illinois Girls High School athlete to run under 10-minutes twice in a season for 3200-meters/2-miles. Her time converts to 9:52.94 for 3200-meters.

“I’ve had that experience in the mile with runners right on my shoulder,” Hart said about the tight pack throughout the race. “The runners here today were so amazing. That helped push the pace. It was a little nerve racking but like I said it helped each other in the group. In a meet like this, there is going to be great competition and it was going to be close.”

Five runners in the race finished under 10-minutes. It was the first time ever in a high school race that has happened.

It was not the way that Evanston Township’s Enyaeva Michelin wanted to finish her high-school career before heading to the University of North Carolina this fall. Michelin led most of the Girls 800 Meter Run before being passed in the final 200-meters to finish sixth overall (2:09.34) just off her 2:08.44 personal best. Michelin pushed the pack through the first 400-meters in 61.9 with Brooke Manson of Eastlake WA right on her side. Race winner Lauryn McIntosh of Del Oro CA passed the two runners with 200-meters left in the race in 1:33.9. McIntosh finished in 2:06.50 just ahead of Manson (2:07.16) and Morgan Foster (2:08.38) of Chandler AZ.

(Photo: Clayton Mendez pictured in his race for the win at Distance Night in Palatine: Laura Duffy Photo Credit)

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