Both have been running in the shadows of the likes of Jordan Hasay and Mac Fleet for most of their high school careers, but Saturday night's 3200 meter races at the Arcadia Invitational was sort of a coming out party for both Rancho Buena senior Collin Jarvis and San Clemente senior Alex Dunne in their monumental victories. Jarvis often faces Fleet, one of the nation's top milers, since both go to school in the San Diego area. Meanwhile, Dunn has plenty of achievements worthy of great name recognition, but when Jordan Hasay also competes in your state then its tough to share the spotlight and attention which is often focused on last year's US Olympic trials 1500 meter finalist.
Its easy to see that Collin Jarvis (pictured right by Margot Kelly) came into the race with a little bit of a chip of his shoulder and feeling he had something to prove. Despite recently clocking in at a personal best of 9:03.68 in the 3200 meter run on March 28th at the Asics Mt. Carmel Invitational, Jarvis was not considered as a strong threat to win at Arcadia. However, it was who he beat in that 9:03 race which led him to believe in himself heading into this race. "9:03 wasn't the best in the state, but beating Mac Fleet gave me a huge amount of confidence because it isn't often I can say I beat him. He's phenominal."
In a race which many simply come to time trial and run fast, Jarvis and his coach had different plans in approaching the race more focused on place throughout the race and being where he wanted to be towards the end. "My coach and I just talked about competing and not looking at the clock at all. Just making sure I stayed within reach towards the end."
He was looking to execute a race plan of grinding it out with 800 meters to go, but the leaders with Wes Rickman of Colorado pressing the pace had spaced him too much at that point to follow through. "My idea was to move at the 800 [to go], but they were too far ahead. I just changed it up to hold on and see what I had for the last 250 [meters]."
With modest leg speed as a 51 second leg on his school's 4x400 meter relay, Jarvis took into another gear and really pulled away from a pack of out-of-staters including Tim Freriks of Arizona, Nathan Mathabane of Oregon, and Rickman for a US #1 8:58.15 to drop 5 seconds from his race at Mt. Carmel. Jarvis coverted the final 400 meters in 60 seconds.
Freriks (8:58.71) and Mathabane (8:59.96) also slipped under 9 minutes as well.
Jarvis, who realistically thinks he can challenge the 8:50 barrier by season's end was estatic about realizing the signifiance of winning the Arcadia 3200. "Its huge. This is probably the most competitive high school race in the United States. To be able to say I won the two mile, it is awesome. It is one of those things that if my kids run that I'll be able to tell them that and they will be like 'whoa'."
Winning the Arcadia 3200 meter run might just be the first of several big races for Jarvis to have won in which he will be able to tell his future kids about it.
Alex Dunne (pictured left by Margot Kelly) and the rest of the girls' 3200 meter field when it was realized just before the start of the race that race favorite and three-time 3200 winner at Arcadia, Jordan Hasay of Mission Prep, would not be competing due to being under the weather. "We found out seconds before the race started. I thought she would go out and have someone in front of me to push me throughout the race. It was definitely a bummer that she wasn't able to run," said Dunne after the race.
It opened the door of opportunity for someone else to become an Arcadia champion and it was Dunne who gladly stepped through that door. Through the first half mile though, it seemed as though all of the competitors in the race were still in disbelief trying to think of a new race plan without Hasay to take out for a fast early pace including Dunne. "At 800, I was just worrying about positioning and seeing where we were at. Then at the mile, I realized we were at 5:13 and if I wanted to run sub 10:20 that I needed to start pushing it. So I started running negative splits."
Arizona's Jessica Tonn had done much of pacing up front for the first mile, but Dunne then made a move to get ahead of her and gap the rest of the field to pick up pace. She looked very comfortable and strong in doing so. Certainly did not look like someone behind schedule in outdoor training coming off a late cross country campaign. "I've been mostly training for the 6 kilometers at the World Cross Country Championships in Jordan." Dunne ended up as nine second winner in a lifetime best of 10:16.83, which ranks her second in the nation at this time.
There was some talk of Dunne shooting for a lofty goal of sub 10 tonight, but the Stanford bound senior did not have that in her thoughts. At least not yet this season. "I don't know about a 28 second PR. Ultimately that's my goal. I haven't been doing much speed work, so I didn't think I was ready to run sub ten [minutes] tonight."
While Dunne as a true model of sportsmanship was upset about Hasay's illness and missing out on becoming a four-time winner, she still felt good about picking up the win and running quick time through her own efforts through leading most of the last half of the race. "It was still nice to come out and be able to run a fast time tonight."
Both 3200 meet winners Dunne and Jarvis proved to be team players on the night as well quickly turning around from personal best 3200 meter wins to run 1600 meter anchor legs on the distance medley relay. Dunne had a great anchor to move her team well from behind into third place overall at a US #3 12:06.84.