Murphy holds on for 3200 win at NCC Boys Invitational
10 Records fall in second-year meet; Naperville Central repeats in winning team title; Austin electrifies Res Rec Center with sprint double; Batavia runs state leading time in 4×2
By Michael Newman
Naperville – One of the most anticipated events in Thursday evening’s NCC Boys Invitational held inside North Central College’s Res-Rec Center was the 3200 Meter Run. Four of the top runners in the west suburban area faced off and realized the expectations that this event could have.
Aidan Murphy of Wheaton North took command of the race just after the mile and pulled away from the pack until the final lap where he held on for the win. Murphy’s time of 9:27.37 set a meet record breaking the 9:34.98 time that Josiah Narayanan of Wheaton-Warrenville South set in the inaugural meet last year.
Murphy was hoping to hit 70 second 400’s in the first mile of the race when the pace disintegrated after the first two laps where the pace slowed down to 72 second 400’s for the next 800 meters of the race. The pack of Murphy, Narayanan, Edward Polaski of Batavia, and Patrick Clune of Naperville Central passed the first 1600 in 4:48, a pace which was not in Murphy’s plan. The pace slowed down but in the third part of the race but Murphy at that point had built up a sizeable lead of 5 seconds entering the final 400 of the race. Polaski and Clune worked off each other to close the gap to three seconds entering the final lap. Murphy thought he had won the race entering the final 50 meters but flinched as he peeked and saw Polaski charging hard towards him. Murphy picked up his strides to hold on for the win.
Polaski was just 36 hundredths of a second behind Murphy running 9:27.73 to finish second. Clune was third (9:30.07) also breaking the previous meet record. Narayanan ran 9:40.41 to finish fourth.
Murphy’s race was one of 10 records broken in the second year of the meet. It’s normal to see some meet records set especially with the newness of the meet. Two thirds of records broken in any meet is quite extraordinary.
Naperville Central captured the team title for the second year in a row with 106.5 points. Batavia scored 92 points in placing second with Downers Grove South scoring 71 points to finish third. West Aurora and Naperville North both scored 57 points to finish in a tie for fourth.
There was only one multiple event winner in this meet…
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