By Michael Newman

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St. Louis – The humidity hit St. Anthony’s Mason Gatewood and Matthew Payamps in the face when they left their plane when they arrived in St. Louis for Thursday evening’s Festival of Miles. It looked like a minor inconvenience as the New York duo finished 1-2 in the Boys Championship Mile.

Gatewood’s time of 4:07.00 is currently second fastest in the nation. Payamps finished more than a second back (4:08.32) in a race where the two teammates keyed each off each other to take the top two spots.

“It gets hot in New York, but not this humid,” Gatewood said. “Whatever the weather is, we just race our best.”

The pace was hot from the start as Ryan Riddle of Webb City MO led the pack through an opening 60.1 first 400 meters. Riddle, Payamps, and Greenwood were close in the front as the pace slowed down to 2:04.45 for 800-meters. Andrew O’Keefe of Granite City IL started to push the pace running 62.3 for the third-lap while opening over a second lead on the rest of the pack.

Gatewood and Payamps looked fresh entering the back straight away overtaking the Illinois runner with 250-meters left. Gatewood had the final gear entering the final 100-meters pulling away from this teammate.

“Opportunities like this only come once in a season. You just have to make the best of it,” added Gatewood. “We really didn’t look at the clock. The pace felt fast. We just went by feel. One thing during the race was that our coach (Tim Dearie) kept saying work together.”

Easton Allred of Rock Canyon (CO) became the fastest sophomore in the country at this distance finishing third (4:09.49).

The season is not over for these two New York runners. Both will compete in New York’s State Meet next weekend running the 3200 Meter Relay. St. Anthony’s will also compete at the New Balance Outdoor Nationals the week after that in the Distance Medley Relay. The team placed second nationally indoors.

A New Meet Record in the Girls 800

Marlena Preigh of Fairview (CO) passed Ally Ryan of Jenks OK in the final 80-meters to set a new meet record in winning the Girls 800 Meter Run. Ryan defined the pace from the start stretching the pack with a 62.6 opening 400-meters. Preigh stayed within striking distance and closed the gap coming out of the final curve.

The Colorado junior had run 2:09.19 to win the Colorado 5A State Title on May 19. Coming down from altitude for this race, Preigh knew that her 2:07.56 (US #2) record-breaking performance was in the cards.

“Some of the workouts that I have been doing showed that. I just wanted to execute that,” Preigh said. “A couple of days ago, I had a 200m workout that gave me a lot of confidence. I ran a couple of 29’s, 27’s.  I knew I had the speed for this.”

Ryan ran the fifth fastest time in the nation as of Thursday finishing second (2:08.74). Illinois 2A champion Rachel Hickey of LaSalle-Peru hit a life-time best of 2:10.09 to finish third.

Meet Notes

Brandon Miller of John Burroughs MO was coming off a grueling weekend where he won two events at the Missouri State Championships including the second fastest time in the nation (1:49.55) in winning the 800 Meter Run. Miller was in control in this race running 53.5 for the first 400-meters on his way to a 1:50.03 win. Illinois runners Thomas Shilgalis of Naperville Central (1:51.81) and Grant Jensen of Prairie Ridge (1:53.10) ran personal bests to finish second and third.

Tori Findley of Blue Springs South MO had more than a three second lead entering the final lap of the Girls 1-Mile Run. She felt the previous weekend’s races at her state meet in that final lap but held on to run 4:49.35 to win the race by more than a second ahead of McKenzie Wilks of Pittsburg KS (4:50.68).

They had to go the photo to decide the winner of the Men’s Elite Mile. Tripp Hurt, who previously ran at Furman, had the move in the final 20-meters to win in 3:58.54. Hurt was only six hundredths of a second ahead of Sam Atkin (3:58.60) with Nick Harris finishing third (3:58.88). Seven runners in that race finished under four-minutes.

Kendra Chambers pushed the pace in the Women’s 800 Meter Run passing the first 400-meters in 59.9. Canadian Lindsey Butterworth took the lead in the final 200-meters to capture the win (2:01.13) by more than a second ahead of Chambers (2:02.18).

Illinois Notes

The past week of racing has been a learning experience for Granite City’s Andrew O’Keefe. The junior had defined the 3A Boys 1600 Meter Run race at Saturday’s state meet only getting nipped at the line by Sandburg’s Dylan Jacobs. In Thursday night’s race, O’Keefe pushed the pace running 62 seconds for the third lap. He paid the price for that move as he faded to finish ninth. It is those experiences that will make him a better runner this fall.

“I was thinking to try to sit up in the front (of the pack) and see what happens. The plan was to go in the final two laps,” O’Keefe said. “I really do not know why I took the lead. This race was fun. I just went for it. I was tired of sitting back.”

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Thursday’s race in the 800 Meter Run was the first of two that Naperville Central’s Thomas Shilgalis will attempt this weekend. In April, Shilgalis ran 1:55 at the Rock Island Invitational followed by running 4:10 the following night at Distance Night in Palatine. The junior will come back on Friday evening to run the mile at Magis Miles in Chicago after running 1:51.83 on Thursday night.

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It was the final race of Rachel Hickey’s high school career. Her 2:10.09 was not what she wanted, but it was a personal best. “I really wanted to run under 2:10 tonight,” Hickey stated. “I will just have to do it next year at Illinois State University.” Mikenna Robinson of Neuqua Valley finished fourth behind Hickey. The junior, who finished third in the 3A state race, will race at New Balance Outdoor Nationals in two weeks. Then she will have a senior season where she could be one of the top runners at that distance in the nation.

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They thought it would be one final race before Logan Hall of Arthur-Lovington and Wyatt McIntyre of Athens enter the University of Illinois this fall as teammates. The race against each other changed when McIntyre was moved into the Championship 1-Mile after one of the runners dropped out. Hall got boxed in at the beginning of the Elite Development 1-Mile but had the lead after the first 400-meters. That first lap took a little sting out of his kick as he finished second (4:16.07) behind race winner Caden Fischer of Fayetteville AR (4:13.03). McIntyre ended his High School career by running 4:20.61 to finish 12^th overall.

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Freeburg’s Charlie Parrish explained after running 4:23.14 in the Boys Elite Development race that he waited to long to make his kick. This was the first of two races in a cross country journey for the soon to be student/athlete at Kansas State University. After the meet was completed, Parrish and his father took off driving to Albuquerque, New Mexico to compete in the 2000 Meter Steeplechase at the Great Southwest Classic. Parrish is also entered to run in that event at the New Balance Outdoor Nationals later this month.