Photo of Cooper Lutkenhaus (Northwest)
UIL Track and Field State Championships
UIL 5A Race Videos - UIL 5A Articles - UIL 5A Athlete Interviews - Photos - Results
UIL 5A boys 800m
The top four boys from last year's state meet race all graduated, leaving a vacancy at the top of the awards podium.
Not that it would have mattered a whole lot, because Northwest freshman Cooper Lutkenhaus entered with the state's fastest time on the year with his 1:50.80. He also entered with the top regional performance 1:53.19.
Despite Lutkenhaus' state leading rank, there were multiple capable athletes in the race and the intrigue on how much his following 400m race would impact his strategy.
Once the race began, the field came through 200m at 25-seconds and through the quarter-mile at 54.73 with Myles Redding (Waco University) and Caleb Atkinson leading.
By the 500m, it was Lutkenhaus trying to make his way to the front, but his route to the led was blocked at 600m due to the congested field.
He would breakthrough before the 650 mark and surge to the lead and to a new personal best 1;49.84, just off the UIL 5A record of 1:49.41 set by Dickinson's Derrick Small in 1995.
Anthony Zapata (San Antonio Southwest Legacy) finished runner-up in 1:53.17 and Caleb Adkinson (Red Oak) was third in 1:53.74.
- - -
UIL 5A Boys 1,600m
Several of the boys qualifiers in this race were coming off of this morning's 3,200m race, including last year's state champ Adam Burlison (Amarillo).
Burlison was the 3,200m runner-up this morning to Joseph Wienen (Georgetown), but both guys had entry seeds from regionals behind Logan Tauch (Melissa) - 4:11.40 and Caden Gary (Lucas Lovejoy) - 4:11.78.
Burlison opened up the first 200m with a swift 30-second split and followed that up with a 29 for a 59 second first 400m split and a 15-meter lead. He continued the pacing with a 1:30 split at 600m, but slowed a bit with a 2:02 800m split.
Gary led the chase pack and put on a move at 1K to try to reel Burlison in.
At the bell lap, he was only five meters behind and was soon on the heels of Burlison for the final 300m.
The two would kick home with Bulison placing one last surge with 10m to go to hold Carlson off.
Burlison's winning time was 4:07.81, Gary finished in 4:08 and Wienen was third in 4:13.69
