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Heath won the Class AA title in the 3,200-meter race Friday at the state track and field championships, taking the lead in the final 100 meters to win his second consecutive title in the event.
Heath, a senior at Winona Senior High School, set a Class AA state meet record with a time of 9 minutes, 2.65 seconds at Hamline University. He won a sprint to the finish to edge Hassan Mead of Minneapolis South and Rob Finnerty of Burnsville.
Mead was second at 9:03.29 and Finnerty was third at 9:04.42. The field was billed as perhaps the best ever to compete in the 3,200.
“I felt I could go a bit faster in the last 200 (meters) so I was trying to hang on until it felt like the right time to put a move on,” Heath said. “The last turn, I knew I had to go then.”
Heath passed Mead and Finnerty on the final lap, running the final 400 meters in less than one minute. It allowed him to improve on his mile-split time of 4 minutes, 40 seconds and helped establish the Class AA state-meet record.
The previous record was 9:03.12, set in 1995 by Jay Schoenfelder of Duluth East. The all-time Minnesota state meet record of 8:59.19 was set last year by Rochester Lourdes’ Mike Torchia.
“I was just shooting for place today,” Heath said. “Records at meets like this just come naturally. When you’re racing against good competition, it makes you faster.”
Winhawks distance coach Nick Uselding said the event did start slow but didn’t take long to pick up pace. He said Heath executed the race perfectly against the strong competition.
“Elliott was very relaxed and poised. We knew this was going to be a tactical race,” Uselding said. “He didn’t expend a lot of energy early and just sat back. He was ready to strike and did with that 59-second quarter on last lap.”
Heath, who will compete at Stanford in the fall, came in the favorite after running a much-talked-about time of 8:57.65 at last week’s Section 1AA meet. That time ranks sixth in the country this year.
Mead won the Class AA state cross country championship in the fall, while Finnerty was fourth. Heath placed third after winning the title in 2005.
“It’s an honor to be with this group of guys,” Heath said. “I’ve got to know them over the years, and we all get along really well. We’re happy for each other when the others do well. That really makes it fun.“
Heath won last year’s 3,200 meters in 9:05.92, doing so in another runner’s shoes. Heath’s spikes had been declared illegal just moments before the race. There were no such problems this year.
“It was definitely my goal coming and I’m really happy with this coming back this year,” Heath said. “I think it’s always harder to repeat, especially this year with maybe the strongest field ever in one class.
“There were a lot of the same runners, so my mindset was pretty much the same. I knew I was in a different position this year. I knew I’d have to run a really good race.”
Chris Nelson wrote on Jun 9, 2007 1:48 PM: