Freshman Sprout Runs Massive 3200 PR En Route to Meet Record
The boys 3200 was promising to be one of the big races of the evening: 2016 4A state runner-up Ian Meek was signed up. Durango's trio of Harry Steinberg, Aidan Fitzgerald and Marcus Flint made the four-hour trip as the teams' only meet entries. Benny Smith (Glenwood), Riley Allen (Moffat County), and local favorite Jared Leblow (GJ Central) were in the field. And wearing #2 was Faith Christian's frosh phenom Cole Sprout.
When it was time to take the line, however, Meek was a scratch. Having won the 800 title in 1:57.57, he was saving his legs for another day.
Even so, with the temperature in the low 60s range, the field of 26 was ready to take advantage of the conditions and competition. With a hum coming down from the stadium lights and from the infield crowd-- well, more of a whopping and hollering from the amassing throwers--he race started.
For the first 800 everyone seemed to be content to run in a pack, with Sprout taking on the lead-man job. Shortly thereafter, Sprout decided he didn't care much for company and put a surge on that quickly put him 25 meters in front.
The trailing pack, not quite sure what to make of the surge, picked it up, but did not actively pursue Sprout. After coming through the half-way point in roughly 4:44 pace it looked like a good time was possible, but a lot of questions were left to be answered. Could Sprout continue to push the pace in a solo effort? Would someone make a surge to go after him?
By this time, Sprout had increased his lead to about 40 yards. It was obvious he had no intentions of slowing down and continued to press the pace. To their credit, the chase pack was pressing as well and started to whittle just a little bit into Sprouts lead.
The pack had also dwindled in number and was comprised of Steinberg, Smith and Leblow. The other Durango runners were falling a bit off the pace, but Allen was gaining to take their place.
When all was said, and done, Sprout crossed in 9:34.64, beating Alfredo Lebron's meet record of 9:35.48 from 2011. Steinberg crossed next in 9:45.39 followed closely by Smith (9:47.42), Allen (9:50.16), Leblow (9:51.18), and Fitzgerald (9:56.61) to all drop under ten minutes. The top 8 runners had all run PR's.
Sprout, buoyed by his performance, stayed at the finish line, greeting and congratulating each runner as the crossed the finish and assisted in helping when a runner collapsed afterwards.