Jake Hurysz of Eastern Alamance pulled off the biggest victory of his career this past Saturday at the Wolfpack Invitational.
Q. What were your goals heading into the Wolfpack race?
A. Well, I was really just hoping to go sub 15:45 (because of the toughness of the course) and place top 5 (because of the field.)
Q. You were 1 second off the course record which was set last year at the NXN regional. Did you have any idea you would run that fast?
A. Seriously, I had no idea I almost set a course record? But no there was never a thought in my mind I would have ran 15:12 and take home the title. Hands down to Thomas and Mo. They ran a great race.
Q. How did the race play out?
A. Well I knew the start bottlenecked so I went out hard. Harwell went out with me and Mo. Thomas was about 5 or so meters behind for the first 1200. So us four came through the first mile in 4:37 or so? I dont know the exact split but it was fast. After the first mile mark, Harwell dropped and it was just us 3 for the next mile and a half or so. We were together for a long time. With about 1200 to go, thats when I started making my move to go for the win. We came out of the woods and made our way to the hill. I had about 10 meters on Thomas so I thought I would conserve something left for a kick. I knew he would be coming. So Thomas passes me with about 200 to go and thats when I kicked. And from then on I had the lead and won the title.
Q. What did you say to yourself as you crossed the line?
A. Well I had a little fist pump before I crossed the line because I just beat Thomas and Mo who have established themselves as the top runners in the state. But my coach came up to me and was like you just ran 15:12 and I was like "No way, get outta here with that." But after I found out I was just like, "well, those Umstead runs payed off afterall."
Q. Did this race make you rethink your goals for the rest of the season?
A. Yes. Without a doubt. I want to be around 14:40's by Footlocker at Mcalpine which everyone knows is extremely fast. My goal is to qualify for Footlocker Nats and make a pretty good showing in San Diego. We'll see what happens. I dont want to jinx myself.
Q. You had to be excited for how well your team ran as well. What were the team's emotions after the race?
A. Yes my team came out and ran there tails off. They havnt been running to well these past months and we have kind of fell off the coaches poll map. We want to make a run at the state title but we all know those Chapel Hill kids are going to be tough. The guys were excited except for Mike Tamayo. He really wanted to break 17 there but he just had a bad day. He will saturday though. But Coach was very please and so were the guys so it was all around just a great day.
Last year, Jake ran 15:57 at the Foot Locker South Regional at McAlpine, but since then has improved drastically. The first meet of the season, Jake ran 15:43 which was good for 3rd place overall. He finished behind Cary Academy's Thomas Graham, but was able to get him at the finish this time around. Jake has proven himself in the state of NC now and must be viewed as one of the state's top 3 runners.
