Birnbaum’s Closing Speed Carries Him To Another Historic Performance At The Brooks PR Invitational, This Time In The 2-Mile
By Keenan Gray of DyeStat
RENTON, WASH. – No disrespect to the rest of the nation’s top distance runners, but the lethal kick of Simeon Birnbaum has proven to be a vital weapon in his racing arsenal. It’s one that nobody should take lightly.
The nation’s top distance runners found themselves in a close pack heading into the final lap of the boys 2-mile at the Brooks PR Invitational. Right in the mix of it all was Birnbaum, ready as ever to chase down the field.
Like many times before, he did just that.
Birnbaum, of Rapid City, S.D., put together another instant classic performance in his storied senior season, closing the final 400 meters in 55.94 seconds to capture his second Brooks PR title in a meet record time of 8:34.10 at Renton Memorial Stadium Wednesday afternoon.
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Birnbaum’s time ranks No. 2 on the all-time high school list, just right behind the time of 8:29.46 held by Lukas Verzbicas of Sandburg IL from the 2011 Prefontaine Classic.
“I felt pretty good,” Birnbaum said. “I obviously started tightening up the last 100 and I really just maxed it out the last 50 and just prayed no one had the extra gear since I was maxed out. Luckily it worked out.”
Birnbaum, indeed, hung back early on, letting competitors Hunter Jones and Rocky Hansen do the work from the start to pull the field through 4:23 at the first mile.
“My plan was just to stay in third and fourth and just let the other guys push the pace,” Birnbaum said. “It went pretty much exactly how I planned it except we were a little bit slower than I thought. I thought the guys were going to push a bit harder.”
Heading into the final three laps, Tyrone Gorze took the pace for about 600 meters, with Birnbaum still in the back patiently waiting, as the pace began to pick up.
Then the move happened on the backstretch with 600 to go. Birnbaum found himself out front with 1.5 laps to go.
Going through the next lap at 62 seconds, Birnbaum opened up his stride and began to pull away from the field under 400 to go. Responding as well was his future Oregon Duck teammate, Connor Burns, sitting right there on his heels on the final lap.
Before the race, the two close friends talked on the bus ride over how they wanted to go 1-2 in the race.
“I was like, ‘Alright, Connor, this is our time to…
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