Lukas Verzbicas, of Carl Sandburg High School in Illinois, became the first sophomore to win the Foot Locker National meet in Balboa Park, San Diego. Verzbicas, who ran a time of 15:08, beat second place finisher Matthew McElroy by 15 seconds. He was extremely satisfied. “It felt great because, I knew that all the hard workout I have done in training had paid off.” Verzbicas said. With the win, Verzbicas has given himself a chance to become the only runner to win the national championship three times.
For the first mile, Verzbicas was running in a pack with Matthew McElroy, a senior from Edision High School in California, Brian Shrader from Sinagua High School in Arizona, and Craig Lutz from Marcus High School in Texas. After the first downhill, Shrader tried to break away, but Verzbicas was able to stay with him. A few other runners were a couple of seconds behind the leaders. At the halfway point, Verzbicas broke away from Strader and the other runners, and never looked back. “My strategy was to try to pull away from the rest of the field after the first mile,” Verzbicas said. “I did that but it was around the mile and a half.”
The West was able to win the team meet scoring 31 points , followed by the South with 42 points , Midwest with 49 points , and the North East with 88 points. The West was led by Matthew McElroy from California who finished second overall running a 15:23 , other West runner on the teams top five were Wade Meddles from Neveda, Brian Shrader from Arizona , Shane Moskowitz from Washington and , Steve Magnuson from Arizona . The West had five of their ten runners finish in the top 15 of the race.
The runners who finished in the top 15 in the race earned All-American status. These runners where :
1st Lukas Verzbicas 15:08 from Carl Sanburg High school in Illinois.
2nd Matthew McElroy 15:23 from Edison High School in California .
3rd Wade Meddles 15:24 from Sierra Lutheran H.S.in Neveda.
4th Craig Lutz 15:30 from Marcus High School in Texas.
5th Brian Shrader 15:31 from Sinagua High School in Arizona.
6th Jake Hurysz 15:32 from Eastern Alamance High School in North Carolina.
7th Tyler Byrne 15:34 from North Harrison High School in Indiana
8th Kirubel Erassa 15:35 from Grayson High School in Georgia
9th Shane Moskowitz 15:35 from Central Kitsap High School in Washington
10th Matthew Mizereck 15:37 from Leon High School in Florida
11th Chris Walden 15:38 from Carmel High School in Indiana
12th Steve Magnuson 15:38 from Ironwood Ridge High School in Arizona
13th Martin Grady 15:38 from Fenwick High School in Illinois
14th Brandon Lord 15:40 from Baylor High School in Tenseness
15th Dave Oster 15:42 from Verona High School in New Jersey.
