Athens Drive senior Noah Valyo threw down last night at Friday Night Lights clocking an impressive 15:14 to shatter Marco Evans' meet record set last year of 15:31. Valyo held a personal best from a year ago of 15:28, but proved the steps forward he took on the track running 1:53 and 4:10 translated pretty well to his cross country fitness.
We expected a strong group of senior boys to battle at the front, and that's how the crowded field shaped up over the first 800m with Valyo up front alongside Luke Liming (Cary) with Raghav Gopalakrishnan (Ardrey Kell) and Eli Julian (South Rowan) just behind with a large group in tow.
Approaching 1 Mile, Tyler Surface (North Raleigh Christian) moved up alongside Valyo and Liming as they led the field through in 4:51 with over 30 points within 10 seconds of the front of the field.
Heading toward the 2 Mile a larger in tact field had spread to Valyo leading Gopalakrishnan, Surface and Liming as things were beginning to stretch out. Valyo took them through in 9:51 as the top 4 were 2 seconds of each other.
From there Valyo would hammer it home the rest of the way breaking away from the lead group definitely. He put 15 seconds on the field to prove he's the guy to beat so far this season in North Carolina running a PR and state lead of 15:14. It is also the ififth-fastest mark ever on any Ivey Redmon 5K configuration moving ahead of a lot of good company.
Valyo said "I used to get scared of being up in the front. But this year I'm coming in with new confidence from the summer, running from the front and running with the top guys and trying to stick with them throughout the race."
Gopalakrishnan would finish strong for second in 15:29, also under the previous meet record in a strong showing for the newly announced Penn commit. Last year he ran 15:54 for 14th in this race, so comes into the second much faster than 2022.
Surface would take 3rd in 15:35 with Luke Liming 4th in 15:44 holding off a charging Thomas Wlazlowski (Cuthbertson) who debuted with a massive PR of 15:47. He ran 16:31 on the McAlpine pancake course, but had been a high 16s guy over the course of his junior season. Philip Blum (Riverside) would edge Albert Turner (East Chapel Hill) at the line running 15:50 with Will Bradbury (Watauga) with an impressive showing for 8th in 15:53.
| PLACE | ATHLETE | TEAM | RESULT | POINTS | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Noah Valyo | 12 | Athens Drive | 15:14.70 | 1 | ||
| 2 | Raghav Gopalakrishnan | 12 | Ardrey Kell | 15:29.30 | 2 | ||
| 3 | Tyler Surface | 12 | North Raleigh Christian Academy | 15:35.50 | 0 | ||
| 4 | Luke Liming | 12 | Cary | 15:44.40 | 3 | ||
| 5 | Thomas Wlazlowski | 12 | Cuthbertson High School | 15:47.70 | 4 | ||
| 6 | Philip Blum | 11 | Riverside (4A) | 15:50.10 | 5 | ||
| 7 | Albert Turner | 11 | East Chapel Hill | 15:50.20 | 6 | ||
| 8 | Will Bradbury | 11 | Watauga | 15:53.10 | 7 | ||
| 9 | Eli Julian | 12 | South Rowan | 15:53.40 | 8 | ||
| 10 | Nicholas Grace | 12 | Ardrey Kell | 15:54.00 | 9 | ||