The Congress Mile Returns; High-schoolers Dominate
The magic of the mile returned to Austin on Saturday. After a one-year hiatus, the Mercedes-Benz of Austin Congress Avenue Mile was rekindled with a huge contingent of the top high school boys and girls milers in Texas, running in regional team competition.
Starting at the Capitol, the milers flew down Congress and despite humid conditions and a slight breeze in their face, PRs fell all morning long.
Leading the way, was Duncan Phillips of College Station. The junior, who won the state championship just a week ago, took the lead just past the half-mile mark (reached in 1:57) and was an easy winner in 4:06.7 over Dan Gerber in 4:09.8. Blake Shaw was third in 4:10.4. Phillips had such a lead that he was able to ease up coming across the flat section on the Congress bridge and enjoy the victory.
“This was really fun,” said Phillips who has a track best of 4:10. “I’ve never run a race like this before so it was really a good experience, coming so soon right after states.”
Loren Hodges, a senior from Paradise who is Baylor-bound, also won the state title, but she had a little more competition on Saturday morning. She was in a dog fight with Jillian Rosen all the way down Congress before winning by an eyelash in 4:49.9 to Rosen’s 4:50.5. Allison Pye was third in 4:53.6.
“Two girls went out so fast in the first quarter,” said Hodges, who set her mile PR of 4:53 at the Texas Relays, “that I decided to hang back a little. They went through in something like 60 seconds so I just stayed patient and caught them about halfway. From there, I was just trying to stay ahead of Jillian. This is a lot different than the track because none of us knew how to pace ourselves but it was very exciting to be part of this.”
In the open division, Bernard Manirakiza of Austin was an easy winner in 4:07.85 with Carl Stones, a sophomore from Round Rock (he won Chuy’s last Saturday) in second, in 4:26. Miles O’Neill, a 17-year-old, was third in 4:28.2.
“I needed some competition. I should have run in the high-school division,” Manirakiza joked afterward.
So should Ashley Isham. The 14-year-old phenom from Cedar Park was the overall women’s winner (if a 14-year-old counts as a woman) with a sparkling 4:59.7. Isham’s time would have placed in the top 15 among the top girls in Texas. Wait ‘til next year. Lea Schrader paced the masters women with a 5:46.
Other great age-group times were a 5:25 by another 14-year-old from Cedar Park—Amanda Russell—who took the 11-14 age group. Russell’s time would have won every female age group up to the 25-29 year olds. She’ll have plenty of competition in the next few years with Isham up in Cedar Park.
Among the old guys, former Russian stud Sergey Karasev was an easy winner in the masters with a 4:34 followed by the always tough Richard Mendez, 44, in 4:35 with Scott Birk third in 4:46. Mark Townsend, 50, in 4:59 eclipsed Bill Patience in 5:19 to win the really gold guys with Wish, 56, chugging home in 5:40 to win the really, really old guys. Jackson Battle, 60, won the ancients in 5:41.
Sitting this one out was His Excellency, The First Runner of Texas—Governor Rick Perry—who busied himself with taking photographs and greeting every runner to cross the finish line. The Gov who ran “in the neighborhood of 5:30” in ’04 (the last time the race was held) pledged to run the next Congress Mile.
Chances are it won’t be his last campaign promise.
Fox 7 filmed the race and will televise many of the heats next Saturday morning (May27th) at 11:30 a.m.
2006 results (May 20, 2006)
