ST. LOUIS – Cameron Byrley has been through the tension of a photo-finish before, but they are always stressful.
The Parkview senior took over the lead of the Forest Park Cross Country Festival’s White Division with a little more than a mile left in the race. He built a gap on the rest of the field and felt confident that the space was enough to ensure him the victory.
But Mexico sophomore Malik Holman had other ideas.
Holman started moving through the chase pack and continued to pick up speed. As they turned toward the finish line, Holman closed the final 10-meter gap and pulled even with Byrley only a few strides from the finish line. A surprised Byrley quickly picked up his pace, and the two went across the line side-by-side.
Minutes later, the photo reveals Byrley had done enough to outlast Holman by .2 of a second – 16:19.10 to 16:19.30.
“A lot of people told me they were screaming their lungs off trying to tell me he was coming, but I had no idea,” Byrley said. “Once I saw him I turned on my jets. I barely got it.
“I was trying to finish off the race. I had figured that I had a good distance on them, so I just started to close in on the gap toward the finish line. I’m just glad I was able to finish the way I did.”
Holman said he likes his come-from-behind strategy and enjoys picking people off at the end.
“The first race of the year I did about the same thing,” Holman said. “I try to strategize my race so I can get them at that very end point. About halfway through the race my coach said he was nine seconds ahead so I knew I had to pick it up, but I wasn’t really worried. I knew I could catch him.”
Byrley said he was the one doing the chasing last year at Monett when he caught Nixa’s Devon Colegrove and won by a second.
“It makes me think twice about maybe I shouldn’t give up so much toward the end. Maybe I should put in a little bit more than 100 percent, just to show people I’ve got something left in the tank,” Byrley said.