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Running Shots |
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| At the CA state meet June 7, 1975, Eric Hulst (Link to Eric's Page), a junior, grinded out a 8:44.9 2M to win an Epic duel with rival Ralph Serna & set the Junior class record... | 35 years later -Friday, June 18, 2010 -Joe Rosa, a junior, (West Windsor-Plainsboro North, NJ) ran the race of his life, and won a National track championship (New Balance Nationals ) before he won a state track title!! Rosa and his twin brother Jim broke Lukas Verzbicas, the reigning National cross-country champion, with 1,000 meters left in the boys two-mile, and Joe kept his momentum going en route to a winning time of 8:44.06, a state record and a National Junior Class Record. | Rosa's 8:44.06 2 mile = 8:41.02 3200m eclipsed Dathan Ritzenhein's (Junior) 8:41.10 / 3200 in 2000 (converts to 8:44.3 2M). |
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| Tom Graves (pictured above as a soph) won Carl Sandburg HS it's first IL state cross country individual title as a junior in 1976. (A second individual title in '77). | 2009 -Lukas Verzbicas won Sandburg a third individual cross country title. Also in '09... Verzbicas (a Lithuanian native, came to the U.S. as an 8-year-old) raced to the first National title for Sandburg at the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships -in driving rain which let up just as the top runners were finishing. Verzbicas (a 16 year-old Soph who turned 17 on Jan. 6) became the youngest national champion in the event’s 31-year history. On a hill approaching 2 miles, Lukas pulled away. Running scared, Verzbicas repeatedly glanced over his shoulder as his lead continued to grow and grow during the final mile. His winning time; 15:08 along the rain-soaked 5,000-meter challenge was 15 seconds clear of the field -the the largest margin of victory since Chris Solinsky's 20-second drubbing of the field at the 2002 meet. |
