adidas Boys Dream Mile and 100 (Story and Video)

When a runner reaches enough milestones, breaks enough records, and claims enough titles, he inevitably comes to believe that any goal can come within reach. That's an attitude that can be at once both dangerous and powerful.   

For Lukas Verzbicas, who's accomplished just about everything there is in a high school running career, that was case on Saturday. Coming off perhaps his finest performance of them all, a two-mile record at last week's Prefontaine Classic, Verzbicas admitted that breaking four minutes in the adidas Grand Prix Dream Mile should be easy.   

"After last week, I really thought if I can run 8:29, why can't I run sub-four?" Verzbicas said. 

But when Verzbicas found himself well off pace through two laps, he realized he'd have to work harder than he expected in order to negative split the final half.   

With 600 meters to go, Verzbicas made his move, bursting from a small lead pack, and sustained the pace through the final homestretch. It was literally a race against time, with the oversized digital Omega clock in front of him clicking toward four minutes. 

When he finally crossed, Verzbicas didn't have to look up to know. The deafening roar from the Icahn Stadium bleachers told him everything. He'd broken four, barely. 

The final time was 3:59.71, but it wasn't easy and it wasn't comfortable. 

"I can tell you that doing it is a lot harder than thinking it," Verzbicas said, adding "it was the hardest race I've ever run." 

Trailing immediately behind the fourth fastest high school mile in American history were No. 11, No. 13 and No. 17 on the all-time list. Those belonged, respectively, to Austin Mudd, 4:01.83, who climbed from eighth place to second in the final 400 meters; Elias Gedyon, 4:02.08; and Edward Cheserek 4:03.29. Eleven boys in all broke four minutes, 10 seconds. 
 
There were several factors working against them. Times at the adidas Grand Prix had been slow across the board leading up to the race, bogged down by a steady head wind on the backstretch and whipping rains. In the women's 1500 meters, runner-up Morgan Uceny ran four seconds slower this year than last year, but placed four spots higher. The 1500 meter men's winner, David Torrance, also ran slower than last year, when he finished seventh. 

The race was also plagued by rabbit and athlete issues pacing early on. Pacer Conner Manley, a middle distance star from Pennsylvania with one of the fastest 800 meter times in the nation, was instructed to take the field out in 58 seconds, then 1:58 and drop out at 1000 meters, in 2:28. 

He stuck to the pace for the first lap, but no one went with him. Only Jantzen Oshier (5th, 4:06.51), who entered the race with a 4:00.83 1600 meter time, reluctantly led with a 59.63. 

Watching from the sidelines, Jim Ryun shifted his eyes between a stopwatch he was holding and the track. "They're a little bit slow," he muttered to himself. 
 
"They created a little bit of a gap between the rabbit and the pack," Ryun said after the race. "That led to the potential for not having fast times." 

Sure enough, the pace slowed in the second lap, with Jantzen leading Verzbicas, Cheserek and Gedyon through in 2:01.97. 

But Verzbicas made his move shortly thereafter and the others responded in force. The top four all closed with sub-two minute second halves to secure their all-time finishes. 

After the race, Verzbicas said that 50 percent of the win belonged to Jantzen, the six footer who plowed a wind-free path for those on his back.
"I'm disappointed that I was the only one because if it wasn't for these kinds of conditions I wouldn't have been the only one running under four." 

Both of the favorites won in the inaugural running of the boys' and girls' Dream 100 meters, though both admitted that the slow conditions led a lot to be desired in terms of time.

Florida's Octavious Freeman, the country's top sprinter in both the 100 meters and 200 meters, beat the eight-girl field in 11.78, more than half a second off her season best.  Freeman blamed the slow time on a stiff 2.3 mile-per-hour head wind, as well as a poor start, which could have resulted from the slipperiness created by the rainfall.

New Jersey's Myasia Jacobs upset the country's No. 2 and No. 3 sprinters to take second in 11.90.  That narrowly beat Tynia Gaither, who was considered one of the co-favorites to challenge Freeman.

Florida's Marvin Bracy blamed the same conditions for his relatively slow winning time, 10.47, in the boys' Dream Mile.  He barely out-leaned runner-up Sean McLean, of North Carolina, who ran 10.48.  

But both Bracy and McLean have an impressive consolation to take away from the meet.  Both of their performances would have won the Men's B 100 meters, which included Olympic and World championship medalist Marc Burns (10.56), in addition to a slew of professionals.