Arcadia Boys — Birnbaum Fastest As 44 Break 9:00

ARCADIA, CALIFORNIA, April 07–08 — For more than 50 years, the Arcadia Invitational has been the go-to place for boys in search of cracking 9:00 for 8 laps.. While the event may slide between 2M and 3200m, the emphasis is still on breaking that barrier, and this year’s race did not disappoint.

A packed stadium watched as runners from all parts of the country met on the SoCal oval. Prerace favorites Simeon Birnbaum (Stevens, Rapid City, South Dakota), Connor Burns (Southern Boone, Ashland, Missouri), Rocky Hansen (Christ, Arden, North Carolina) and Daniel Simmons (American Fork, Utah) were up in front, being rabbited by Aaron Sahlman, who had earlier won the 800 in a list-leading 1:49.07.

Sahlman — the younger brother of ’22 winner and T&FN HS AOY Colin Sahlman — pulled out after crossing 1600 in 4:19, as Simmons, Burns and Birnbaum led Hansen and Jason Parra (Millikan, Long Beach) across 2000 in 5:25, with the gap to the rest of the field widening.

At the bell, it was Simmons, Burns and Hansen separated by a step, with Birnbaum back another beat. Going down the backstretch, Simmons stepped it up, with Hansen and Birnbaum responding in kind. With 100 to go, Simmons dug down and started to draw away from Hansen, but Birnbaum dug even deeper, first passing Hansen and then Simmons in the final 5m, cresting the tape in 8:34.10 (worth a year-leading 8:37.09 for 2M), 0.04 ahead of Simmons with Hansen 3rd in 8:34.78 and Burns 4th in 8:41.67.

Thanking Sahlman for the pacing help and crediting the two who finished just behind him, Birnbaum told RunnerSpace, “You could kind of tell, after that first mile I started slipping back. The pace was feeling just too unattainable; I didn’t know if I was gonna make it, and with 800 to go I was like, ‘2 minutes, that’s all it’s gotta be,’ pretty much.

“I can handle any amount of pain for 2 minutes so I just made that switch and with 100 to go I was just, ‘I am the best when it comes to 100 to go.’ I just kept saying that and I just pushed myself to the level of complete exhaustion. It was so much pain but coming across the line makes up for it.”

In total, there were 23 sub-9s from the race, with another 21 breaking 9:00 in earlier races.

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