St. Anthony's NY Duo Go 1-2 in Festival of Miles

By Michael Newman of DyeStat

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ST. LOUIS – The humidity hit St. Anthony’s Mason Gatewood and Matthew Payamps in their faces when they stepped off the plane after arriving in St. Louis for Thursday evening’s Festival of Miles. In the end it was 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 third 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.

RESULTS

“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 a one-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 in the last 100, 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 on the 4x800 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.

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 meters, running U#2 2:07.56. 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 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 meters. 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 mile. 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 meters, passing the first 400 in 59.9. Canadian Lindsey Butterworth took the lead in the final 200 to capture the win (2:01.13) by more than a second ahead of Chambers (2:02.18).