Cornelius Shocks The State With Stewart Not Far Behind
Caleb has been mentally preparing to win the race...Caleb knows that he is capable of running sub 16 on a flat, easy course, meaning that he is a lot closer to the Lamar runners than anyone expects. That has made a huge difference for him, because he knows that he has similar abilities than his competition.
- Karla Cornelius, 11/2/17
From time to time, MoMileSplit receives an email that makes us say, "Hmm..." The logic was sound: Southwest MO is known for its grass tracks and Saxony Lutheran junior Caleb Cornelius was our Class 2 #3 28 seconds behind our #1 ranked Lamar senior Mark Venable. Cornelius had seen challenges at a few races, but many of which were not known as exceptionally fast ones. Even at the District 1 meet, Cornelius ran 16:30 on a modified course that four different people had shown to be long on their Garmin watches. While GPS watches cannot always be trusted, that four verified it showed that Caleb's mother could actually be on to something. On Saturday, their hunches were proven to be valid.
Through the first mile, it was the two favorites, though, as Venable and teammate Kolin Overstreet pulled the race through in 4:57. The rest of the field came across in 5:05 as the chase pack was led by Fatima senior Logan Borland, Maplewood-Richmond Hts. sophomore Malik Stewart, and Tipton junior Isaac Ashton, with Mark Twain senior Devin Neff and Warsaw senior Dallas Larsen all in the mix. In fact, Cornelius was eighth at the mile, 11 seconds back of the leaders. It appeared a done deal already as the two Lamar boys had already created an 8 second gap, but they would soon come back to the pack as they moved toward the 2 mile.
As they came to 2 miles, the writing started to appear on the walls. Venable had dropped a 5:24 and Cornelius was tracking close behind after his 5:16 closed the gap and moved him into 2nd with a smooth gait, loose arms, and his head up. The confidence was oozing while Venable appeared to be feeling that 4:57 first mile. Overstreet was definitely feeling his 4:58 and had dropped back to 3rd in 10:36, 12 seconds back of Cornelius. A chase pack of Stewart, Ashton, and Neff made their way across the 2 mile sensors between 10:41-10:43. Clark County sophomore Nathan Frazee was now 7th followed by Borland and Stockton's Bryson Coulter.
For spectators wanting to see the 2 mile, top of Firehouse Hill, and finish, sometimes sacrifices must be made. But from the finish, one can see the runners come through with about 800 meters to go and it was at that point that Cornelius had secured the victory. He roared off the top of Firehouse Hill and down past the clubhouse. As he began to make to the final turns, it appeared to be a sealed deal. Caleb Cornelius was going to pull off the biggest upset of the day and take down the two Lamar juggernauts ahead of him for the Class 2 victory. He rolled through 3 miles in 15:50, 28 seconds ahead of his next closest challenger as his 5:26 3rd mile had left everyone else in the dust. The look on his face as he crossed the line was one of bewilderment, exasperation, and jubilation as, just the day before, he had spoken with us about how nervous he was, an interview that, in fact, took two takes. The confidence was there on the course, though, as it takes a special athlete to roll through the mile 11 seconds behind, but then make it through 3 miles 28 seconds out in front and win by 25. It was a personal best for the junior as his 16:22.55 was 8 seconds better than his previous best from District 1. He is also now the 8th fastest runner in Class 2 history at the state meet. You can check out our Friday interview with him here, but here is our post-race interview:
In second, though, was neither Venable nor Overstreet, but instead the sophomore from MRH Malik Stewart. He also made a late race surge that secured his spot in 2nd in 16:47.57, a personal best as well. It was a far cry from Stewart's freshman year results in which he ran under 19:00 once (18:57.68 for 12th in District 2) and was 139th in the Class 2 race. The incredible jump by Stewart has placed him firmly in a power position heading into his second track season and with his strength and speed, we see him as a potential threat to the balance in the Class 2 middle distance scene. We got to speak with the young man after his dazzling performance:
Surging into third was the young man who we had ranked third from the outset as Isaac Ashton was able to surge past a struggling Venable for third. It was his second straight top 10 finish. Behind him were the two favorites from Lamar in Venable and Overstreet. Calling 4th and 5th a bad race for anyone is tough to do unless said athletes are truly elite. For Venable, it was only his 3rd time over 17:00 (17:04.20) on the season and for Overstreet it was 1:27 slower than his personal best of 15:42 from the District 6 meet a week earlier. Both boys took it out at a blistering pace and paid dearly as the unforgiving 3rd mile at Oak Hills struck once again, this time pushing both boys back into 3rd miles of 6:08 and 5:57 respectively. Watch out for them as the regroup and continue to be dangerous on the track this season. For whatever reason, the 3rd mile in the Class 2 boys was not particularly fast past those top 2 boys as nobody else was faster than 5:40.