Races leading up to todays 3200m had the hype that a Texas Relays match up should have. Today's much anticipated 3200m races were preceded in previous weeks by the Lovejoy Spring Distance Festival, Texas Distance Festival, and the Victor Lopez Classic. Even yesterday's 1600m events were enough to get a distance event fan's entertainment fix eager for today.
In the girl's 3200m, another opportunity to see London Culbreath and Libby McGrath compete was the on the minds of the fans.
Culbreath demonstrated the aggressive running from the start that we are used to seeing. She ran her race whether someone was interested in going with her or not. She averaged a 1:18 for the first three laps that led to a 5:11.88 split at the 1600m.
Behind Culbreath, Halena Rahmaan and McGrath ran together through the first mile coming in at about 5:17 for the first mile. McGrath pulled away from Rahmaan and the rest of the field to try to challenge Culbreath, but the Texas distance queen was too strong and experienced to let up. Culbreath closed in about 5:19 for the last mile to run 10:30.24.
Five girls ran under 11:00 as some of the best distance runners in the state and nationally were in the field. McGrath would close strong in 10:36.63 for second, Laura Fairchild ran 10:45.92, Ava Peeples was third in 10:47.85, and Carrie Fish finished fourth in 10:53.55.
The boys race also featured some of the best distance runners in the nation and like yesterday's boys 1600m, it came down to the 100m split.
The field was talented and deep as twelve boys ran under 9:30 including the top three who cracked 9:12. The race went out pretty comfortable and casual as entire field was packed up through the 1200m split. During the third lap is when the pace picked up and the second half mile was about 2-3 seconds faster then the first half.
Still with the entire field in contention, things began to string out at the mile as the top guys came through at 4:30 - 4:40. From there, the race was all about three guys. Keller Central senior Eric Casarez was continuing his comeback season as he led the next mile on and off with Flower Mound all star junior Alex Maier. Aledo junior Graydon Morris was content to draft off of Casarez and Maier as the three pretty much even split the remainder of the race until the last half mile.
That last half mile is when the race began and anybody who thought they had a chance for the win outside of the top three guys had their hoped demolished.
Casarez would push the pace over the last two laps and the seventh lap to a blazing 1:06 split. At the bell lap, Maier would display his confidence as he took the lead. The three distance studs would fly around the track together until there was only 100m to go.
Similar to yesterday's 1600m, the race would turn into a sprint and the best kick would win. Today, that honor belonged to Morris as he swung on the outside of Maier and Casarez and motored up the home stretch in a 1:01.41 final lap sprint for the 9:08.84 win.
Casarez closed in a 1:02.48 last lap for 9:09.47, and Morris ran a 1:04.68 final lap to finish in 9:11.53 for second and third places.