Flyers relay earns national championship

Richard Tedesco

Chaminade High School’s 4×800 relay team broke a state record at the New Balance Nationals competition at The Armory in Manhattan last Saturday, as the Flyers foursome sped to their landmark finish with a time of 7:40.8 to capture a national championship.

“It was the first time we ran our top guys fresh,” said Chaminade track coach Brian Hayes. “It was big.”

The Flyers shattered the previous record of 7:41.10 in the 4×800 set by Boys and Girls High two years ago, according to Tullyrunners.com

Hayes said it was a tight race all the way between the Chaminade runners and a team from Blacksburg, Va. He said the runners in the first two legs ran pretty evenly. Then he said Chaminade’s Gunnar Nolan took the lead in third leg and the Flyers’ anchor pulled out the victory after holding on in second place just behind the Blacksburg anchor through most of the final leg.

“Our anchor leg, Sean Kelly, is one of the top middle distance runners in the country,” Hayes said. “Sean sat on his shoulder and, just with 100 meters to go, Sean passed him. It was awesome.”

Hayes said Kelly opted out of running the half-mile and mile events on Saturday. 

Hayes, who has coached Chaminade track for seven years, said the Flyers quartet is the best group of runners he thinks Chaminade has ever seen.

“It’s the best group that our schools ever had,” Hayes said. “They’ve pretty much rewritten all the record books,”

He said they hold individual school records in the 600 yard, and 800 yard, the mile, and the 1,000 yards, as well as the 4×800. The quartet won the 4×800 at the Catholic CHSSAA Intersectional championships to qualify them for the state championship meet.    

The national championship victor is the latest in a series of milestones for Chaminade’s Flyers this season, including a victory at the CHSSA Intersectional championship followed by a Millrose Games win the a New York State Federation Championship.

“We had a great season last year. But now we were figuring out how to win,” Hayes said of the 4×800 team’s success.

He said the bond that developed between the young athletes in preparing for track meets was a significant factor in their success.

“The boys are close friends, they hang out together, they train together. They have good chemistry,” Hayes said. “They’re a fun group of kids. They love running together and it’s a special group.”

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