Dream 800m

By Jarrett Felix

The night was a bit chilly. The rain had essentially subsided, but the crowd was layered up in sweatshirts and long sleeves. It was not exactly typical June weather. Visible in the holding area was a small group of runners, stripped down into uniforms and waiting eagerly to race. For some, the journey to the meet took hours in a car. For another, it took hours in a plane. But in the end, they had all made it. In the end, the dream 800m was going to be run.

***

Almost exactly five years earlier, on this same track, at this same meet, Tom Mallon from Central Bucks South was running out of chances to break the long standing state record of 1:48.8h in the 800m, held by Paul Vandegrift for almost 25 years. Mallon had split under 1:50 twice as a junior, including the anchor leg of the state record 7:33 4x800m. He ran sub 1:50 earlier in the year at Henderson and blasted a state meet record at Shippensburg, but it was still fractions away from Grift at 1:49.31. Already holding six state championships and two state records, Mallon's legacy as an all-time great was cemented, but that didn't stop him from putting himself on the line one more time.

Mallon's teammate Nick Drozd got him through 400m fast enough and then Tom did the rest as he powered around the track. From the stands, fans were not sure what exactly the official time would be. After some eager waiting from the crowd, they finally announced the time: 1:49.01. The time was ruled equivalent to old the record and Mallon and Vandegrift were considered "co-record holders".

***

The runners were beginning to take the track in the Meet of Champs 800m. Walking up to the upstagger were three men, a trio that had yet to race each other all together. It was the AAA state champion, the AA champion and one of the state’s best milers ever. Standing back a few feet, somewhat forgotten, was the independent league champion.

Together the group held four of the fastest seven PRs in the state. Together they held four state titles at 800m, the only group to hold any sort of claim to “state champ” status in the two lapper.

As anticipation hung in there, the gun sounded and the group was off and running. Gliding along, seemingly effortlessly, to the front was the man everyone expected to take the lead. The man with perhaps the most to gain and yet the most to lose. John Lewis from Cheltenham took an early lead.

***

Most people separate the 800m into two groups. There are those who are speed based, considered 400m types who move up and there are those who are strength based, milers moving down in distance. At the high school level, I’d argue the importance of speed is often times overlooked. The half often gets listed among the distance events and scares away sprinters while typically attracting some of the quicker cross country guys to come aboard. It takes a special kind of sprinter to put in the work it takes to be great at the 800m. Of course, John Lewis has always been a special kind of sprinter.

As a sophomore at Cheltenham, John Lewis helped shape one of the best 4x800m relay teams in school history. He ran a dominating second leg on the relay that medaled at the state championships in 2013. For a brief period after that, his 800m credentials were forgotten as he and the always powerful Cheltenham core of sprinters took over the state. Lewis won his first state title indoors at 400m. He raced the quarter outdoors as well and that seemed to be the event he would focus on for the rest of his career. It made sense of course, the team was always in the hunt for a title so why overextend their best runner when he could win a less taxing event? 10 points is 10 points after all.

But John always loved the 800m. He appreciated the guts and drive it took and understood it’s sprint based roots. An unforeseen set back at the indoor Meet of Champions 400m set Lewis up with the justification to ditch the quarter in favor of the half. And he did not disappoint the following weekend at the state championships. Leading wire to wire, Lewis blasted a 1:50.57, missing Kyle Francis’s state record by just .02 and pulling the rest of the field to PRs.

If anyone doubted Lewis’s ability at the longer distance during the winter, those concerns were wiped clean by spring. He consistently blasted 1:51 type marks, soloing at the front, refusing to play games or take races off. At Districts he was willing to sacrifice a potential record setting run to try and carry his 4x8 teammates to the state championships. He split a massive 1:49 in the prelims and was likely ready to torch the track for that kind of mark one more time given the chance. In his individual 800m, Lewis blasted a district record in the 800m, clocked his first sub 1:50 mark and became #4 all time behind only Vandegrift, Magaha and Mallon. John Lewis was coming for the state record. And coming fast.

Just a week later, after blasting a pair of 1:49s and a pair of monster 4x4 splits, Lewis stepped onto the track at Shippensburg. A few weeks earlier Lewis had taken the track at Abington where Drew Magaha had set his state record, but had been unable to match it. He had run at the legendary Franklin Field where Vandegrift had set his record, but Lewis had not had a chance at 800m there. And now he was headed to the state track where Tom Mallon had taken what many thought would be his last shot at the #1 spot.

The crowd couldn’t wait to see Lewis run. After a series of races where the picks for champion had varied drastically, the heavy favorite Lewis was going to run. It wasn’t about if he would win, but how would he win. What would the clock say when he was done?

From the start, he took it out with great passion and speed. As he cruised around the first lap a large gap opened up from 1^st to the chase pack and when he hit his first 400m split, it was obvious why. He was barely in the 51s, so close in fact that he thought he can come through in 50 flat, a time reserved for diamond league meets or NCAA championships. On the third turn, it seemed like he might have been paying for his big move. He was slowing up a bit and the gap was shrinking back to second. But then Lewis found his next gear. Maybe he wasn’t dying, but instead saving. And now he was powering home down the final stretch, the clock ticking up towards history with Lewis eating the up track, pumping his arms and trying to hold form and relaxation through one of the most painful stretches in athletics.

When he crossed the line and clock stopped, the crowd began to cheer. The official time: 1:48.72. There were no more ties to be had, John Lewis was the fastest 800m man in state history. A pair of state golds and the state record. What was left to prove? For most, the answer was nothing.

***

Lewis was flanked early by his two partners on the upstagger. Unlike Lewis, both men looked like they were working hard to stay with the blazing earlier pace. But neither was afraid either. Lewis may have thrown down intimidating splits in the past, yet these two did not enter races they intended to lose. As the group approached 400m, it became clear Lewis had taken a bit off his normal hot first lap meaning that Domenic Peretta and Sam Ritz would be ready and waiting to challenge for the win.

***

If Lewis was the ideal 400m runner moving up, that it was hard to argue that Ritz was not the ideal 1600m runner moving down. The Senior from Germantown Academy had already run three of the fastest indoor miles in state history, including a third place finish at the national championships. He ran one of the fastest times in state history at the Penn Relays and then dropped a 3:47 1500m at the Swarthmore Last Chance meet, a time that, when converted to 1600m, would put him in the same league as the state’s all-time greats: Miller, Lowery and Vandegrift.

Logically, Ritz had his sights set on Vandegrift’s remaining state record, his 4:03.22, for most of the season and he chased some of the best competition around to try and beat it. At the Prefontaine Classic, the weekend before the PA Distance Festival, Ritz flew across the country to run at the historic Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon. In a field of some of the nation’s best runners Ritz pushed himself towards his limits and although he clocked another excellent time, it wasn’t enough to best Vandegrift.

Ritz, one of the best milers of his era and an undisputed PA great, flew back across the country to his state of Pennsylvania. The PA Distance Festival was scheduled for Tuesday night, an awfully quick turnaround from someone who had just traveled to the borders of the country. To compete in the distance festival would be a huge risk to his reputation, especially if he decided to move down in distance to the 800m where some thought he would be even more vulnerable.

***

Around the turn and into the back stretch they went. All three runners were still at the front, battling for position. On the outside, the youngster of the group made a push. He was relatively inexperienced against this sort of competition. Perhaps outmatched in this sort of field. But Domenic Peretta didn’t know any other way to race, besides going for the win. So that’s what he did.

***

Domenic Peretta was a Junior from a small school called Beaver Falls. He raced A during cross country and AA on the track. Despite the fact that he won both the 1600m and 800m at the state championships as only a sophomore, few were prepared to give Peretta a spot among the state’s elites. This was especially true in the mile, where Dom’s PR sat around 4:19. Of course anyone who had actually watched the man compete knew that he was capable of more. He was winner with a fierce kick and great speed. He hated to lose and that competitive instinct showed itself even in prelim races.

When Domenic got his first chance against elite competition under the spotlight, he did not disappoint. At the Baldwin Invitational he beat a field of the best WPIAL runners of any school size, breaking the field of names like VanKooten, Kolor, Curtin and Graca at the half way point and never looking back. His time for a full mile converted to roughly 4:10.07 for 1600m. For good measure, he doubled back at 800m and ran 1:52.44 for another PR and impressive gold.

Peretta didn’t slow down at districts. He destroyed two fields of top notch runners setting a pair of meet records in the 1600m and the 800m, the latter of which was run in a mind-blowing PR of 1:51.50. At Shippensburg the next weekend, the record watch was on just as it had been for Lewis and a repeat double gold was not in question.

Peretta was pleasantly surprised by how fast he had run in the mile, but in the 800m he understood his talent and ability. In multiple interviews, he discussed his hopes to break the 1:50 barrier and join a rare club in Pennsylvania history. He took a little something off his 1600m at Shippensburg, although still winning the race in impressive fashion, to be prepared to double back in the 800m. He rolled around the track, running around 54 for the opening lap. Pushing hard, he kept up a pace to give himself a shot at the meet record of 1:51.96, ironically held by Paul Vandegrift. As began to close the final 100m, it was clear he was tying up just enough that a record run was out of reach. The frustration was already pouring from him before he had even crossed the line as the crowd watched him try to almost throw himself at the clock as 1:50 became 1:51 became 1:52.

He had always run the 800m on the double and, although he had tremendous success, he knew there was more to give. But for a small school kid out West, there were not many opportunities to test himself. To attend the PA Distance Festival, the Junior would have to be willing to trek roughly five hours across the state for less than two minutes of racing. There were few that would view it as a worthwhile decision.

***

There was now about 100m to go. The top three were still all together in what had been a thrilling race. A state record sort of time was likely out the window, now it was just a battle for respect and honor. The competitiveness of these great athletes was on full display. Although the crowd was focused on the incredible top three, lurking into fourth place was another runner. Billy McDevitt from Malvern Prep had put the pedal to the floor and was chasing a shot at the upset.

***

There are guys you can see coming in the 800m. There are the strong 400m types moving up and there are the milers with great speed who move down. But then every once in a while a wild card emerges. There are sometimes guys seen as strength runners, like Ned Willig or Sam Webb, who transform themselves from 2 milers to 800m runners and become studs at the lower distance, harnessing a talent they may not have known was inside of them. Malvern Prep’s Billy McDevitt fits this mold.

McDevitt himself admits to thinking of himself as more of a long distance type and his excellent cross country resume fits this description. As a Junior, he ran 8:54 for 3,000m indoors, placing 11^th in a loaded field. The following fall he ran 15:40 for 5k at Paul Short and placed third at Independent States. To continue the longer distance trend, he began his indoor season with a 9 flat 3k, placing second at Lehigh’s Burdette Invitational.

But as the season continued, McDevitt began to get more comfortable in the mile. He played a key role in Malvern Prep’s DMR and also ran two impressive miles at Yale and Kevin Dare, the latter of which he won in 4:23. Two weeks later, in a TFCAofGP meet, he blasted a dominate 1:57.12 800m, thrusting himself towards the top of the state leaderboard in the event. At the end of February, he proved that mark was not a fluke as he clocked an incredible 1:55.16 to beat Pennsbury’s 1:52 man Alek Sauer at the indoor Meet of Champions. Suddenly, McDevitt was one of the state’s best 800m runners.

Outdoors, McDevitt’s success continued. With a new found focus and confidence in the half mile, Billy was able to win the outdoor TFCAofGP meet in 1:56. Then, at the same site of the PA Distance Festival, but almost exactly a month earlier, McDevitt defeated a stacked field and dropped a jaw dropping PR of 1:51.47. To close out his epic stretch run, McDevitt added an Independent League State Title at 800m.

McDevitt had transformed himself from long distance specialist to 800m monster in a matter of months. He had beaten Alek Sauer, a man who had split sub 1:50 on multiple watches at the state championships, twice in a row and had bested 3:47 man Sam Ritz as well. McDevitt had put together an impressive resume for himself, one that many people would be happy to hang up the spikes holding. But he had more to prove and more dreams to chase.

***

The runners came down the final stretch, a group of 4 PA elites having broken clear. Four men with too many state golds to count, too many records to list and too much heart to break. As the crowd cheered, Ritz was able to break loose of Lewis and triumphantly cross the line first. For Ritz, the clock showed a PR of 1:50.72, but what was likely most important to him was the win.

This race was one of the most fantastic races I’ve had the pleasure to witness in person. I was there in 2010 when Mallon torched the track and ran 1:49.01. This may have been slower, but it puts that mark to shame. I have so much respect for what each of these runners was willing to do and willing to give up. John Lewis had nothing left to prove. He had gotten his state record. He had run all out for two straight weeks individually and on the relays. But he wanted to come out and race the best. He didn’t settle. The same can easily be said for McDevitt who had bested Ritz at his state meet and could have retired with the title. And of course Ritz and Peretta, excellent and accomplished milers, made long grueling trips to move down in distance and face elite competition.

We rarely get to see races like these. McDevitt and Ritz are not affiliated with the PIAA, Peretta is in AA and Lewis is in AAA. These four runners were never in the same race before and maybe will never be again. Heck, I’m not sure these four runners have been within the same zip code of one another at the same time ever before in their lives. I’m thankful that Kevin Kelly was able to put together such a fantastic race and thankful that these four runners were the ones willing to lay it all on the line to make it happen. I can’t think of a better group to make this dream 800m into a reality.