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Nike Festival of Miles
June 5th, 2014 at 7:00 pm CT
St. Louis University High School
Boys 800m
The boys 800m comes very wide open. With the fastest seed, Bryce Richards, coming in just under 1:55, and the slowest running being just over 1:57, the race could be won by anyone in the field.
Richards, a junior from Mundelein High school in Illinois, is a conference and sectional champ. In both of those meets he ran under 1:55. A relatively unsuccessful state meet should have left Richards ambitious to have a successful race on Thursday.
John Esswein comes in the favorite from Missouri. Esswein will be right at home. He attends St. Louis University High, where the meet will be held. On top of that, he is a bit of a Festival of Miles Veteran. He won the middle school mile back a couple of years. As a freshman, he paced the first high school mile race. Since then, he has developed into one of the best 800 runners in the state, earning All-State honors in both of the last two years. This past year he finished 5th, running a PR of 1:55.48.
Two other runners come in having run under 1:55 – Kevin Vroegh and Daniel Chan. Vregh is coming off of a fifth place finish in 2A at the Illinois State Meet in a season best 1:55.59. He has the fastest PR of the field, having run 1:54.01 a year ago. Chan, who will be making the journey from Ames, Iowa, was third at the Drake Relays in a quick 1:55.94. Chan has some wheels, coming in with a PR of 50.53.
The sixth, seventh, and eighth place finishers from Class 4 all are entered (Taylor Stephen, Mark Sheridan, and Zach Penrod). Add in Alex Burson, the Class 3 Champ in the 1600m who was third in the 800m, and that makes five All-State 800m runners from Missouri.