* Hinsdale Central's Aden Bandukwala during the Magis Miles
Photo Credit: Laura Duffy/MileSplit
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By Cory Mull - MileSplit
Naturally, you want to ask about the primary workout that led to an athlete's insane rally on the final day of action at the Illinois High School Association Class 3A Championships.
How did Aden Bandukwala do it? How did the high school junior from Hinsdale Central (IL) make up so much ground over the last 400 meters to claim victory in the state 1,600m final last month?
When he turned up the gears with a lap to go on May 27 inside O'Brien stadium at Eastern Illinois University, he was close to 45 meters down. By the end, he was five meters clear.
Bandukwala ran a nearly impossible 54.88 seconds -- just three hours after finishing third in the 3,200m -- over the last lap to claim his first Illinois individual title in a time of 4:10.39, which became a top 50 performance all-time in Illinois.
If you spend time in track and field circles long enough, you'll realize that moment is the rarest of them all, the kind of brilliant finish that defies all odds.
"I don't think you can attribute that to a single workout," said Noah Lawrence, the assistant coach at Hinsdale Central High School.
Really, though? There has to be some catalyst. There had to be a workout that explained how this all came to be.
It turns out, there's a complex answer.
First, we need to dial it back to some history.
Lawrence joined the Hinsdale Central coaching staff in 2005, along with head coach Jim Wesphal, a former Illinois state champion in 1987 who also possessed a signature kick. Lawrence ran for York under the guidance of legendary Illinois coach Joe Newton.
When the pair took over 18 years ago, Lawrence said, the program "was at rock bottom."
The boys team had qualified for the state championships only once in the past 30 years. But as procedure and expectation and belief was implemented, the tides began to turn.
The team reached the state championships three years later. In 2013, Hinsdale Central won its first boys team title, then defended it the next year.
Over the mid-2010s and into the early 2020s, Hinsdale Central continued to develop strong squads and in 2022, the team set an Illinois state record in the 4x800 at Nike Outdoor Nationals, posting a time of 7:32.15.
Dan Watcke, the team's star middle-distance runner and an athlete headed to the University of Oregon, is among the best athletes in program history, with PRs of 47.50 in the 400m and 1:48.59 in the 800m. He's largely taken the spotlight for the Red Devils, with a sea of accomplishments behind him -- like his first state 800m title as a sophomore. This year alone, he claimed titles in the 800m and 4x800.
But it would be unfair to say Watcke's been the only standout. In March, the team won an indoor national title in the 4x800, holding off Episcopal Academy in 7:43.82. Bandukwala was the lead-off, while Watcke was the anchor.
Lawrence said there were signs Bandukwala, primarily an 800m runner, was an emerging talent years earlier.
A perfect example, he said, came in 2021. Hinsdale Central had never won the 4x400 in a state championship setting. That same May, Bandukwala had run a 77-second open 400m in a tri-meet.
In need of a fourth runner, though, Lawrence and Co. landed on the freshman. The coaches decided to pull the trigger.
"He ran a 52.8," Lawrence said. "(We said to ourselves), 'Where did this come from?'"
Bandukwala progressed solidly as a sophomore, putting down times of 51.50 in the 400m, 2:03 in the 800m and 4:23.62 in the 1,600m. As a junior, though, an obvious turning point came.
Bandukwala first seemed to showcase a preternatural ability to go to the well in April at the Pete Struck Eagle Classic.
"He's different than any other athlete I've coached. He's so composed. We've never seen him fault in a big meet. He handles pressure really well."
Down 40 meters on Joliet's Marcellus Mines in another 1,600m, the junior clung to his second wind and just kept digging, eventually winning in 4:12.40, a mere 0.17 seconds ahead of Mines.
"I just wanted to be in it with a lap to go, I'm not sure if I was," he said afterward.
He lost his 1,600m sectional race from there, and then was second in the prelims of the 1,600m at state. It was anyone's guess how his final race would have gone, with a difficult distance double approaching.
Then came his burst in the final moments of the final, a few hours removed from this placement in the 3,200m.
What helped, however, was a sea of Hinsdale Central supporters, which filled the first two rows of the stadium during the record-run. They went wild when he claimed victory.
"He's different than any other athlete I've coached," Lawrence said. "He's so composed. We've never seen him fault in a big meet. He handles pressure really well."
The boys team eventually finished fourth overall in the team standings.
The irony, however, is that it this wasn't a singular moment. Exactly a week later, in the mile run at the Magis Miles in Chicago, Bandukwala pulled off another stunner, winning by one hundredth-of-a-second over Camyn Viger in 4:10.74.
"Every single race that's come down to the wire, he's been on the winning side of it," Lawrence said. "I don't know how you quantify that. That's a special quality."
Perhaps we would quantify this by measuring his success with a particular workout?
Lawrence finally obliged.
"Four by 400 meters with six to eight minutes rest," he says.
He added: "I want to say Aden ran 56 seconds average from that."
Maybe it was the workout that made everything possible. Perhaps it wasn't.
It could have been the moment, the entire season, a series of factors like confidence, drive, motivation and will.
But we do know this: Bandukwala found oil deep into the month of May, and if he's fortunate or willing enough, he'll chase after that feeling until he captures it again.
THE (POSSIBLY) CHAMPIONSHIP WORKOUT
4 reps
400 meters
56-60 seconds
6-8 minutes recovery
* Hinsdale Central's Aden Bandukwala during the Magis Miles
Photo Credit: Laura Duffy/MileSplit