Wednesday, February 18, 2009

The Road To 7:32.89

From left: Coach Weisend, A. Kostelac, G. Bradley, L. Noble, Z. Vrhovac, Coach Male (photo courtesy of www.milestat.com)

(For the first post, I thought it would be interesting to give an inside look at the Albemarle High School boy's 4x800 meter relay team. The foursome of Zach Vrhovac, Luke Noble, Garrett Bradley, and Anthony Kostelac rose to national prominence with their 2nd place finish at the national track championships last June. They are coached by Buz Male and Lance Weisend, two veteran coaches who have been around the sport for over 30 years. I have been lucky enough to be an assistant coach this year at Albemarle and have shared in the daily quest towards their ultimate goal of breaking the national high school record of 7:32.89. Here is their story...)

After five minutes in their company, you'd swear that they must be brothers, albeit very different looking ones. Or maybe lifelong friends who first met each other before they could walk and talk, most certainly before they could run. Their interactions are upbeat and fast-moving, filled with the lighthearted banter that is very typical of four teenage boys, especially those who so thoroughly enjoy each other's company. Today, I half listen to their chatter as I sit in the weight room poring over last year's Northwest Region results. Pausing at the boy's 1600 meters, I interject my own smack talk, giving senior Luke Noble a hard time for finishing in 7th, one spot out of state qualifying and much slower than I would have expected. I ask him what happened, and he mumbles a response, pointing farther down on the page to the 4x800 meter relay. I notice that Albemarle finished in the top spot by five seconds, hardly a surprising result even though their time of 8:13 again seems slower than I would have expected. "Yeah, so what?" I ask, seeing nothing noteworthy about the performance. "This was the first time the four of us ever ran together" Luke responds. I check the date, February 28, 2008, not even a year ago. I chuckle and shake my head, thinking again just how improbable their last 12 months have been...

Zach Vrhovac is an athlete first, and a runner second. The senior captain of the football team played almost every snap for the Patriots this past season, starting at safety, wide receiver and special teams. He is a coach's dream, the type of athlete who excels at every sport he touches and who will do whatever it takes to win. This past fall, in his last football game in a Patriot uniform, Zach scored four touchdowns to lead his team to a close victory over district rival Riverbend. Sixteen hours later, he was running in the third cross country race of his life, completing the 3.1 mile course in 17:29 (5:38 mile pace) to help his Albemarle team to the runner-up spot at the AAA State meet, the highest finish in school history. Like his legs, his mouth moves a mile a minute, a continuous flow of freestyle vocals, good natured smack talk, and the usual discussion of a victory-filled march into the high school record books. His attitude is extremely infectious, and the other three quickly latch onto it, building each other up until no deed seems unattainable. To the outsider it could be perceived as cocky, but that would be a mistake as it is more like a complete and utter belief in one's abilities instead. A total refusal to accept anything other than victory, no matter what the situation holds. Next year, Zach will take both his walk and his talk to the University of Virginia, where his middle distance speed should be a great asset to a rapidly-improving track team. But before all that, he has some record book editing to do...

Seven days later and it was on to the state meet, a chance to compete with the very best that Virginia had to offer and a reality check of sorts after a relatively easy cakewalk the week before. It was only their second time running together, and yet the Patriot foursome crossed the line in just a shade under eight minutes and six seconds, good enough for sixth place. They had mixed it up with the state's best and had undeniably held their own, shaving seven seconds off their previous week's time and earning all-state honors in the process. Next up was the last meet of the indoor season, the national high school championships in Landover, MD where the best track athletes in America converge on a tiny fieldhouse in the shadows of Redskin stadium. Here again, the Patriots held their own, finishing in sixth place in a time of 8:02.33, another personal best for the foursome and just a few seconds out of the top spot. With the indoor season now over, the team could look forward to big things in the outdoor spring season, most notably a full-time commitment by Vrhovac, who had foregone his spot on the varsity baseball team to focus solely on track. Now he could start playing some catchup to his three teammates who had been training since the beginning of cross country season back in August...

Luke Noble is the true distance man of the group, probably destined (or doomed) to have run the mile/2 mile double for most of his high school career if not for his part as the 3rd leg of the Patriot relay. The senior captain of the cross country team is big for a high school runner, standing well over six feet and defying the stereotypical leanness of a distance man with his solid, muscular build. Like Zach, he is a very vocal individual, always leading by example and never afraid to get on a teammate who is slacking or stepping out of line. The role of a leader seems to come naturally to him, and during the fall's cross country season his relentless work ethic and confidence caught on to the rest of his teammates, ultimately resulting in the aforementioned 2nd place showing at the state meet. He has improved by leaps and bounds over the past year, and if his senior cross country campaign was any indicator, there are big things in store for him this spring, both as part of the relay and as an individual in the longer events on the track...

With their 8:02.33 behind them, the Patriot foursome opened up their spring track campaign, picking up right where they had left off indoors, their confidence building with each successive race. The first big test of the season was in front of the screaming masses at Penn Relays, the biggest and arguably the most prestigious track meet in the United States each spring. Rising to the challenge, the Patriots ended up third in their heat, obliterating the school record (8:02) and the 8:00 barrier with their 7:51.25 clocking. It was a breakthrough performance and a stunning effort, each of the four splitting under two minutes to beat the Virginia indoor state champions (Thomas Edison) by almost nine seconds. This would be the foursome's last loss of the season as they proceeded to steamroll their way through the postseason, capturing the state crown with a 7:49.55 wire to wire victory, their first time under the 7:50 mark. Now firmly established as the best relay team in the state, the Patriots traveled south to the outdoor national meet in Greensboro, NC to once again compete against the best in the nation. Running out of the "slow" section, they continued to defy all expectations by running a scintillating 7:42.21, anchor leg Anthony Kostelac running a monster 1:52.8 split to walk down Hudson HS in the last 100 meters. The seven second personal best was not only the 2nd fastest time in the meet, but the 2nd fastest time EVER run by a Virginia 4x800 relay team, trailing only the 2001 South Lakes squad which was anchored by 3:53 high school miler and Olympian Alan Webb. However, with all four of the Patriots returning, they would have an opportunity in 2009 to better not only the 7:35 South Lakes mark, but the 7:32.89 national record as well...

For every ten words that Luke and Zach get into a conversation, Garrett Bradley may get just one. The third and final senior of the group, Bradley is much quieter and more reserved than the other two, inclined to smile and laugh at their antics rather than joining in. He runs the second leg on the relay and usually goes it alone, way out in front after a typical blistering leadoff leg by Vrhovac. When he first started competing in track as a freshmen, he gravitated more towards the shorter events like the 400 meters, but his ability to run the longer ones has greatly increased as he's gotten older. This success has even translated to the cross country course, where he was the solid #3 runner for the Patriots for much of this past season, running a personal best of 16:31 (5:19 pace) in his final race. His best event is still without a doubt the 800, where his combination of strength and natural speed produced a 1:56 personal best last spring, a mark that will most certainly drop this year as the foursome looks to shave another ten seconds off their cumulative time...

A scant two months after their storybook run in Greensboro, the four Patriots began their 2008-2009 campaign and their march towards the 7:32.89 record. Noble, Bradley, and junior Anthony Kostelac all ran cross country this fall, each enjoying a stellar individual season as their fourth teammate led a different group of Patriots on the football field. Vrhovac ran a handful of races when he could, his only training being what he ran each day up and down a one hundred yard stretch of grass. And in November, when the cross country team needed him the most, he stepped up and ripped off a couple of performances that most high school harriers NEVER achieve even after four years of training. After the season ended, he once again decided to forgo another sport (this time as the starting point guard on the basketball team) in order to join his teammates in their quest to be the fastest foursome to ever run the 4x800. With the overarching goal being the aforementioned 7:32.89, the Patriots have set an intermediary goal of trying to win the indoor national championship AND break the indoor national record of 7:42.22 from 2005. In January, they took the first step towards these goals by running a 7:49.88 at the Virginia Tech Invitational, leading from the gun and running under 8:00 for the first time ever indoors. It currently stands as the #2 time in the country this year, second only to a Morris Hills team from New Jersey who Albemarle faced at the Millrose Games in late January, a much hyped matchup that never materialized as Albemarle blasted them from the gun to record a eight second victory on a very slow 145 meter track. Now, the indoor season is rapidly drawing to a close, and the Patriots will have only two more shots at the national record, the first being February 27th at the AAA state meet and their last at the indoor national meet up in Boston on March 15th. If the record is to fall, it will most likely happen in Boston, where Morris Hills will be on hand to try and avenge their earlier loss as well as to defend their US #1 ranking...

At first glance, you might wonder why THIS kid is running the anchor (and arguably the most important) leg on such a heralded relay team. Standing at six feet tall and maybe, MAYBE 135 pounds soaking wet, junior Anthony Kostelac is all sinew and muscle, not a single ounce of wasted fat on his gangly frame. His appearance is accentuated by two very long sideburns running the entire length of his face, a trademark look that he has worn since his team busted onto the national stage last year. It is a unique look for sure. He runs with a short stride, his efficient steps more reminiscient of a marathoner than of a kid who can drop a 49 second quarter with ease. He has an unbelievable range, arguably the best in the nation, which he demonstrated earlier this season with a 1:03.41 500 meter, the fastest in the US this winter. He has also run 1:52 for 800 meters, a 4:17 mile, and was 7th at the AAA state XC meet in 15:53 (5:07 mile pace). Times that would make any college coach salivate, and he's still only a junior. Kostelac also has the uncanny ability to run fast even when he's all alone, a deciding factor when choosing to put him on the anchor, since by the time he gets the baton, he's often 5-10 seconds up on the competition. On the rare occasion that he gets it with people around him, it's usually game over as he has a monster kick, one that was first seen in it's full glory last spring at the national meet (watch it here*). Without a doubt, he is an absolute joy to watch, and is a perfect capper to such an amazing relay team, one that hopes to go down as the greatest ever by the time it's all said and done...



-Alec Lorenzoni

*video courtesy of www.flotrack.org, note that Albemarle is wearing the all black uniforms in lane 1. The order is Vrhovac, Noble, Bradley, Kostelac.

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