The Mt Sac Relays have lost a bit of their luster. The open meet is no longer the top domestic meet in the US, and the high school portion is not quite as prestigious as back in the day when coach Glenn Stewart, in the early 80’s, made Hilmer Lodge Stadium, and here we quote, “my house”.
Nevertheless, the big races are still pretty big, and senior Chistopher Ramsey used a huge kick to make the Invitational 800m his first significant win.
The Tartans got rolling by competing in several field events on Friday. The most notable performance came from seniors Justin Matthews in the discus and James Kashyap pole vault. Justin was 6th in his flight with a PR 134′10″ while James fought off a chaotic warm-up situation to jump a seasoal PR of 12′0″.
On Saturday, the morning began with our 4×1600m relay team finishing second in the seeded race. Chris was joined by junior Austin Goodheart in the 800m Invitational race, but Austin developed some big blisters during the race and struggled to an 8th place finish. And the day ended with our 4 x 400m relay team of juniors Derrick Erwing and Alex Ostrowski, soph Dillon Downard, and Chris finished fifth in their heat. But the Invite 800 was the top event.
Unlike other recent races, Chris chose to run in the pack, and so the group went by the 400m mark in a pedestrian 60.1. But at 300m, he made a very strong move, went by the leader at 150m and then held off the previously unbeatable Elias Gedyon of Loyola to win the race. The winning time was only 1:56.05, but that included a last lap of 55.9, a 26.7 final 200 and the the last 100m was 12.9. You can view video of the race here and here, and it’s especially fun to hear the announcers give Chris no chance to win until he, um, wins.
GHS results are here and here, complete meet results are here.