“Florida’s best 3200 race ever!”

The boys’ invitational 3200 at the FSU Relays last Friday, 27 March 2015, was surely a great race. I’ve seen many superlatives used to describe it, such as the one above. Are they accurate? It depends on what they mean, I suppose.

On the off chance that you aren’t familiar with the race, Leon senior Sukhi Khosla held off Windermere Prep senior Franco Martins for the win, 9:03.57 to 9:03.87. Three other athletes went under 9:10--Sickles senior James Zentmeyer was third in 9:04.15, Wolfson senior Connor Vaughan was fourth in 9:04.99, and Plant senior Jack Guyton was fifth in 9:08.60. It was a thrilling race. Was it the best ever? The fastest ever? The most competitive ever?

Most people have been careful to limit their comparison to Florida races. This is a wise qualifier. Just last year, the Arcadia Invitational in California saw 19 athletes go sub-9:00 in a single section of the boys’ 3200, with Stockdale (California) senior Blake Haney going 8:46.80. No Florida prep has ever run that fast [yet], so “fastest” is out the window unless we limit ourselves to Sunshine State races.

Even then we’re going to have to abandon “fastest” if we’re talking about winning times. Khosla’ first-place 9:03.57 isn’t as fast as the 8:59.50 he ran in the same race in 2014, setting the FSU Relays meet record. Several Florida preps have run even faster inside the state--among them Brett Hoffman, Andres Arroyo, Billy Convey, Basil Magee, and Sean Jefferson. So no one is looking at only the winning time.

The people who exclaim “best” or “most competitive” are probably looking at something harder to measure, such as depth of field. I’m not even sure that’s a measurable quantity, or that any two fans could agree on how to measure it. One statistic that has been cited for this race, though, is that there were five athletes under 9:10. This is indeed impressive. It’s never happened before in Florida, right?

Actually, it has happened before. On another Friday evening in Tallahassee, 26 March 2010, in another FSU Relays 3200 race, six Florida high school athletes went sub-9:10.

It was a stacked field, with all four reigning FHSAA cross country champions at the line--Melbourne senior Brian Atkinson (4A), Leon senior Matt Mizereck (3A), Bishop Kenny senior Colin Barker (2A), and Maclay junior Patrick Swain (1A). Mizereck came into the race hoping to go under 9:00, but it soon became clear that this was going to be a difficult event to win, and the race became tactical. Colin Barker unleashed a kick that put him into the lead for most of the final 200 meters, but Leon’s Mizereck thrilled the Tallahassee crowd by catching Barker just before the line. Mizereck was first in 9:02.87, Barker second in 9:03.03, Bishop Kenny senior Michael Wallace third in 9:06.22, Creekside junior Jimmy Clark fourth in 9:06.26, Estero senior Erick Montoya fifth in 9:08.81, and Chamberlain senior Mark Parrish sixth in 9:09.26.

It was a great race. Was it “Florida’s best ever?” Was it better than the 3200 at the 2015 FSU Relays? I don’t know how you compare these things, so I couldn’t say. I can say, though, that I feel privileged to have seen both races. And being greedy, I hope that I’m around to see more exciting meetings of Florida’s high school distance runners.