Dylan Jacobs Wins Foot Lockers to Make Carl Sandburg High in Illinois The First With Two Different FL Champs (Lukas Verzbicas)

by LetsRun.com
December 9, 2017

Dylan Jacobs, a senior at Carl Sandburg High, bounced back from a 13th-place finish at NXN last week to win the 2017 Foot Locker Cross Country Championships in 15:19.7, ahead of fast-closing sophomore Graydon Morris (Aledo, TX), who was second in 15:23.3. Lukas Verzbicas, the 2009 and 2010 Foot Locker champ and a Carl Sandburg graduate, held the finish line tape today, as Carl Sandburg became the first school to produce two separate individual champions at Foot Lockers.

Boys’ Race

Your champ Your champ

With no clear favorite, the first mile was a cautious one. West Regional champion Kashon Harrison (Red Valley, AZ) was the leader at 4:55.7, but there was a tightly-bunched pack behind him, with all but one boy within five seconds of the lead. The first serious action of the race took place as the field climbed the course’s major hill for the first time, with Harrison pushing the pace and opening up a five-meter lead.

On the downhill, Dalton Hengst (York, PA) took a page out of Reed Brown’s winning playbook from last year by sprinting to the lead but his advantage would prove to be short-lived as Jacobs overtook him just after the halfway point. Jacobs soon had company in the familiar form of Danny Kilrea (La Grange Park, IL), a fellow Illinoisan and Notre Dame commit, and by two miles (9:48.3), those two had opened up a seven-second gap on the field with three South athletes (Morris, Michael Phillips, and John Tatter) forming the chase pack.

As they approached the hill for the second time, Jacobs made another move. His lead was 10 meters at the base but had almost doubled by the top. Kilrea had no response, and as they headed downhill and back across the road to the finish, he was fading as Jacobs continued to motor.

Jacobs kept pushing until he spotted the finish line, at which point he began to smile and soak in his victory. He noticed Verzbicas holding the finish line tape and pointed excitedly, the two men sharing a special moment and a unique accomplishment in high school history.

Morris closed extremely quickly, cutting what was an 8.7-second deficit at 2.5 miles to 3.6 by the finish, but had to settle for second, the highest finish for a sophomore since Verzbicas won it all in 2009 (Verzbicas was old for his grade and reclassified as a senior the following year).

Jacobs’ winning time of 15:19.7 was the slowest since Chad Hall’s 15:20 in 2006.

Analysis below results.

    Foot Locker National Championships
                                   December 9, 2017 - Balboa Park - San Diego, CA

                                             Results by Finish Results
                                              www.finishedresults.com

                                                        Boys
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PLACE NAME                YR HOMETOWN               FINISH   PACE   0.5 MILE   1 MILE   1.5 MILE   2 MILE   2.5 MILE   3 MILE
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    1 Dylan Jacobs        12 Orland Park IL         15:19.7  4:56     2:26      4:57      7:16      9:49     12:20     14:48     
    2 Graydon Morris      10 Aledo TX               15:23.3  4:58     2:26      4:57      7:19      9:57     12:28     14:56     
    3 Daniel Kilrea       12 La Grange Park IL      15:27.3  4:59     2:26      4:57      7:18      9:49     12:22     14:56     
    4 John Tatter         12 Winston-Salem NC       15:27.9  4:59     2:26      4:58      7:20      9:57     12:27     14:58     
    5 Jake Renfree        11 Knoxville TN           15:38.7  5:03     2:27      4:59      7:27     10:07     12:42     15:10     
    6 Robert Carter Chees 11 Keller TX              15:41.1  5:03     2:26      4:58      7:22     10:02     12:40     15:12     
    7 Drew Bosley         11 Thiensville WI         15:41.9  5:04     2:26      4:58      7:23     10:06     12:39     15:14     
    8 Drew Thompson       12 Trumbull CT            15:43.7  5:04     2:26      4:58      7:26     10:07     12:42     15:13     
    9 Clayton Mendez      12 Chicago IL             15:45.0  5:05     2:27      4:58      7:26     10:08     12:43     15:15     
   10 Devin Hart          11 Point Pleasant NJ      15:45.9  5:05     2:26      4:57      7:23     10:06     12:41     15:13     
   11 Chad Johnson        12 Galion OH              15:46.6  5:05     2:27      4:59      7:29     10:08     12:43     15:19     
   12 Zachary Kreft       12 Sunbury OH             15:48.2  5:06     2:26      4:59      7:24     10:02     12:40     15:13     
   13 Harrison Scudamore  12 Denver CO              15:48.3  5:06     2:27      4:59      7:28     10:11     12:46     15:19     
   14 Kashon Harrison     11 Fruitland NM           15:50.9  5:07     2:26      4:56      7:17     10:00     12:40     15:17     
   15 Carter Coughlin     12 Knoxville TN           15:52.3  5:07     2:26      4:56      7:21     10:03     12:42     15:20     
   16 Michael Phillips    12 Tallahassee FL         15:52.3  5:07     2:26      4:57      7:18      9:56     12:40     15:22     
   17 Collin Ullrich      12 Galt CA                15:57.0  5:08     2:26      4:57      7:25     10:08     12:45     15:27     
   18 Fahd Nasser         12 Jersey City NJ         15:57.8  5:09     2:27      4:59      7:30     10:15     12:53     15:27     
   19 Matt Scrape         12 Pickerington OH        15:58.5  5:09     2:27      5:00      7:30     10:13     12:50     15:29     
   20 David Melville      12 Summerfield NC         15:59.2  5:09     2:25      4:58      7:30     10:16     12:55     15:29     
   21 Meikael Beaudoin-Ro 12 Sunnyvale CA           16:01.1  5:10     2:27      5:00      7:31     10:14     12:50     15:29     
   22 Darius Riley        12 Rancho Cucamonga CA    16:01.5  5:10     2:27      5:00      7:31     10:18     12:58     15:32     
   23 Rusty Kujdych       12 Feasterville PA        16:06.6  5:12     2:26      4:59      7:29     10:15     12:57     15:36     
   24 Dalton Hengst       12 York PA                16:08.0  5:12     2:26      4:57      7:16      9:59     12:42     15:33     
   25 Damien Dilcher      12 Brick NJ               16:10.9  5:13     2:26      4:57      7:23     10:07     12:51     15:37     
   26 Matthew Schadler    12 Chandler IN            16:14.3  5:14     2:26      5:03      7:34     10:20     13:01     15:41     
   27 Shuaib Aljabaly     12 Coldwater MI           16:15.2  5:14     2:26      4:58      7:26     10:16     13:01     15:45     
   28 Nathan Lawler       12 Pittsford NY           16:15.2  5:14     2:27      4:59      7:29     10:15     12:58     15:42     
   29 Joaquin Martinez de 12 San Diego CA           16:15.7  5:15     2:26      4:57      7:23     10:09     12:55     15:44     
   30 Roberto Porras      12 Draper UT              16:15.7  5:15     2:27      4:59      7:29     10:15     12:58     15:44     
   31 Bronson Winter      12 Farr West UT           16:23.7  5:17     2:27      4:58      7:28     10:15     12:58     15:50     
   32 Justin Hartshorn    12 Alpine UT              16:25.5  5:18     2:28      5:00      7:34     10:25     13:11     15:54     
   33 Kyle Harkabus       10 Senoia GA              16:27.4  5:18     2:27      5:00      7:34     10:26     13:12     15:57     
   34 Zachary Winter      12 Farr West UT           16:29.6  5:19     2:27      4:59      7:29     10:20     13:10     15:57     
   35 Titus Winders       12 Mansfield TN           16:36.1  5:21     2:26      4:59      7:33     10:25     13:12     16:05     
   36 Mason Gatewood      12 Garden City NY         16:37.9  5:22     2:26      4:58      7:29     10:26     13:19     16:08     
   37 Turlan Morlan       12 Spokane WA             16:38.8  5:22     2:28      5:01      7:39     10:29     13:13     16:04     
   38 Lucas Aramburu      11 Brookline MA           16:41.1  5:23     2:26      4:59      7:33     10:25     13:14     16:07     
   39 Tristan Shelgren    12 Boxford MA             16:55.6  5:27     2:25      4:56      7:26     10:25     13:19     16:20     
   40 Camren Fischer      11 Fayetteville AR        17:14.5  5:33     2:27      5:00      7:36     10:42     13:38     16:36     

Dylan Jacobs Pulling Away Dylan Jacobs Pulling Away

Quick Take: For the second year in a row, a boy won Foot Lockers after failing to finish in the top three at his state meet

Article continues below player.

In our preview, we noted the similarities between Jacobs and last year’s champion Reed Brown, two big talents who entered Foot Locker over a month removed from their last victories. However, like Brown, Jacobs had the fastest 1600/mile PR in the field and, like Brown, Jacobs is now a Foot Locker champion.

Brown and Jacobs also had an in-state rival whom they struggled to beat until Foot Lockers. For Brown, it was Sam Worley, and for Jacobs, it was Kilrea. Both Worley and Kilrea beat Brown and Jacobs four straight times (states, Nike regionals, FL regionals, NXN) before turning the tables at FL nationals.

Here’s how Brown and Jacobs’ postseason runs compare to one another.

Reed Brown, 2016 Dylan Jacobs, 2017
States finish 4th 6th
NXR finish 2nd 4th
FL regional finish 6th 5th
NXN finish 6th 13th
FL finals finish 1st 1st

We should point out, however, that Jacobs was sick before the Illinois state meet, and that illness persisted the following week ahead of NXR Midwest. But even at 100% Kilrea, who wound up third today, would have been tough to beat at states (though Jacobs did beat him at the sectional meet the week before).

“He’s beaten me more than I’ve beaten him and I really respect him,” Jacobs said of Kilrea.

One thing’s for sure: Notre Dame is going to be very happy with today’s results. Jacobs (1st), Kilrea (3rd), and Zach Kreft (12th) are all going to South Bend next year.

Quick Take: NXN was undoubtedly stronger in 2017, but will that change next year?

The fact that Jacobs won today, and his slow winning time in ideal conditions, was more evidence that NXN was the stronger of the two national meets this year as he could only manage 13th a week ago in Portland. Obviously runners have good and bad days (Jacobs lost to both Kilrea and Drew Bosley last week and beat both convincingly today), but it’s hard to argue that FL was better than NXN in 2017.

That may not be the case in 2018, however, as sophomore sensation Graydon Morris — who was second today and also qualified as a freshman last year — said he wants to emulate join Jorge Torres as the only boy to qualify for four Foot Locker finals (he also said he wants to run 8:45 for 3200 on the track this year).

Considering five of the top six at NXN last week were seniors, Morris may enter next fall as the #1 runner in the country. If he runs FL and FL can engineer a showdown between Lane and Tuohy (Lane said today she’s running FL again next year, and Tuohy has said that she wants to race Lane at some point), FL may be the more prestigious meet in 2018.

Girls recap here: Claudia Lane (17:03) Crushes Field to Win Second Straight Title at 2017 Foot Locker Cross Country Championships

MB: Official Foot Locker Nationals 2017 Live Thread

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