1600m Run
On Friday, was arguably the highest anticipated distance event of the championship in the 4A 1600 meters where we would see the standout North Carolina State commits Noah Valyo of Athens Drive and Will Venable of Broughton go head to head with North Carolina commit Luke Liming of Cary, other contenders included Tate Shore of Reagan, Will Fiore of TC Roberson and Lukas Malek of Laney who ran 4:16 last week at the 4A East Regional.
After a tame pair of 1:07 laps to open up the race the whole field went through in the 2:15-2:16 range in a tactical affair. The pace began to wind up with a 1:03 lap as Kyle Barney of Marvin Ridge continued to lead the field through what was setting up to be a monster last lap. Tate Shore of Reagen was the first to make a big move which was immediately covered by Vaylo who surged to the lead dropping a 55.58 last lap to take the win in 4:14.67, Venable delivered a strong final 100 meters to place second in 4:16 as Philip Blum of Riverside and Shore would be right behind to round out the podium with Blum finishing in 4:16.52 and Shore at 4:16.77.
In the 2A edition of the 1600 favorite coming in and current NC #2, Jack Anstrom of Seaforth would comfortably take the title in a time of 4:24.23. Turner Knox of Hendersonville grabbed second in 4:30.53 followed by Aaron Brown of Nash Central at 4:34.63 for third and Damon Cook of Shelby in for fourth at 4:36.29.
After helping his team to a state championship 4 x 800 win, junior Noah Guerrero continued his winning ways in the 3A 1600 meters blowing away the rest of the field in a seven-second personal best 4:13.20. A three-man pack led by Eli Julian of South Rowan, followed by Noah Guerro and Hudson Rice of West Henderson broke away from the rest of the field 400 meters in going through the first lap in a 1:03.009. There wouldn't be much movement in positions from the front pack of three until 500 meters to go where Guerro made the move that secured him a state championship closing down in a 1:02.25 final lap. Eli Julian took the silver in 4:17.70 followed by Hudson Rice in 4:17.93 and Andrew Wahlgren from Croatan in 4:23.00 to round out the top four positions.
Carson Williams of Corvian Community School secured the 1A 1600 crown in a personal best of 4:20.16 throwing down a 1:00.85 final in the process, Joshawa Huneycutt (South Stanly) followed to finish second in a time of 4:23.53 just ahead of Swain's Connor Brown and Northside junior Andrew Harding both at 4:23 as well.