Nick Crits was one of the first top flight runners I watched run in person. Except back then we didn't really think of him as some game changing runner, we just thought of him as that guy who we needed to beat from Wissahickon's squad. And then eventually he became the guy who likes to play with his food before he eats it.
My first conference championship I ever saw, our 9:26 3200m runner Joe Dorris tried to break Crits on the opening laps of the 1600m. Crits promptly rolled by him the final 200m and probably broke the remaining career for Joe.
The next year I watched him blow by my teammate and future state champ Mike Palmisano, a guy who had a great kick in his own right. It was absurd to watch Crits pick his moment and just leave everyone else looking like they just hit a patch of quick sand. It was like somebody picked up a real life Mario mushroom.
But the seemingly invinceable Crits kick had been bested in 2008. At indoor states, Max Kaulbach, the two mile specialist from GFS, dropped down to the mile for a chance at a rematch with Crits, who had outkicked him the previous year on the anchor leg of the DMR in the battle for 2nd.
The pace was absurdly slow to start before outdoor 1600m state champ Vince McNally mercifully took the reigns and began to make things honest. But at 200m, the sitting duck was jumped by Crits who tried to blow by and hold in for the win. To my amazement, Kaulbach roared back down the back stretch and sprinted by with 100m to go. It would prove to be a valuable lesson about timing.
Outdoors Crits rolled his way through double gold at districts in the 1600m and 800m and awaited a stacked field at states, including defending champ and 4:07 man Vince McNally, Greg Kareis, who had beat McNally at Districts, and the poster child of the WPIAL, 1:52-4:12 man TJ Hobart who had allegedly split 47 on a 4x4 that year.
The resulting match up of talent became one of my favorite title runs of all time.
http://youtu.be/iihSczlwZfY
PS Crits and I share a birthday. How great is that?
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