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After a disappointing sixth place finish at the Nike Indoor Nationals in the 800 meter run, Wilbur Cross (New Haven, CT) senior Cas Loxsom was looking to getting back into action with a springboard meet into his outdoor season. "It was just frustrating. I was coming off a big win at New Englands and I felt great," said Loxsom (pictured left by Margot Kelly) of his race in Boston in which he got tied up early with Terrence Livingston of New York early in the race and was never able to recover. "Things just didn't work, but you can't always have your best day." It took him a cross country trip, but Loxsom found a better day certainly at the Arcadia Invitational in California this past weekend.
Competing in the invitational boys 800 meter run on Saturday night at Arcadia High, Loxsom found himself in a field of runners all aiming to run closer to 1:50 point. At 400 meters in, Loxsom and the field clocked in at a 53 second split which was not too far off where he wanted to be. "That was a little bit more comfortable than I liked. My original plan was 52 low, 1:19 [at 600 meters], and keep going with whatever I had."
Whatever he had left in the final 200 meters was plenty enough as he turned on the jets in the final stretch to win by over a second and half to Rancho Verde (CA) junior Ruben Danielsen (2nd, 1:52.85), who ran anchor on the victorious 1600 meter sprint medley relay on Friday night. Loxsom's final time was a new US #1 and personal best performance of 1:51.05 to jump start his outdoor season and erase some of bad memories from Nike Indoor.
Loxsom will now return back home to compete in area meets and see if he can find some competition to push him along to his top goal in breaking the Connecticut high school record in the 800 meter run of 1:49.95. Next major meet for Loxsom will be the Hartford Public Invitational, which usually brings in many of the best from the New England. "We are going to take another step at the Hartford Public." Loxom placed second last year in the meet at 800 meters in 1:53.64.
He will likely need some help by athletes from other states to go after the record as he is in a class of his own right now back home. There is one athlete from his homestate in particular which Loxsom wishes would jump up to 800 meters at least once again because he feels this athlete would be the one who could push him to the time. That individual happens by National Scholastic Indoor Championships 400 meter dash winner Daundre Barnaby.
Loxsom was very interested to see what Barnaby was going to do in relay action this weekend. "He's running the 4x800 actually today back in Connecticut, so I'm going to check to see what he split. If he wanted to, he could step up to run some 800s with me, but I'm pretty sure he's going to stick down at the 400. He's a phenominal 400 meter runner."
A strong start for Loxsom with the PR performance in his opener can be attributed partially to mixing it up this indoor season with some longer and shorter races to build strength and speed at the same time. "Earlier on in the indoor season, I worked a lot more on mileage and was running a lot of 1000 meter races. Then we came down to run the 600 at the end of the season, but my speed in the 600 has definitely given me a lot more confidence."
Loxsom had won the 600 meter run at New England Championships in one of the nation's fastest times this past winter in 1:18.72. "I know if I want to go under 1:50 this season I need to be hitting that 600 meter around 1:19. Being able to go through 1:18 indoors in the 600 has given me a lot of confidence to get out fast enough to hit the times I want to hit."
