Saturday's California State Meet Championships saw a number of outstanding performances but one was definitely for the record books. After qualifying 11th on Friday's heats, Brea-Olinda freshman Austin Tamagno returned Saturday set a new National Record for freshman in the 1600. Despite temperatures exceeding 100 degrees Tamagno was able to erase the previous 2005 record set by Sintayehu Taye of Portland Maine in 4:09.69.
Tamagno was the only freshman boy to compete in the prestigious California State Meet finals. Capping off of a stellar rookie season that saw the 15 year-old place second at the Orange County Championships in a PR and school record of 4:11.10. He was just third at the Century League Finals, a league that eventually saw 5 athletes race in the State Prelims and made up 3 out of a field of 12 in the State Meet Finals.
Coming into the year Tamagno had a converted 1600m time of 4:25. The experienced age-group runner had success during the fall placing 6th in the DIII XC meet. Before the State Meet, Tamagno was already the school record holder for Brea-Olinda in both the 1600 and 3200 (9:16.65). After navigating his way through the lengthy 6 consecutive-week qualifying process, Tamagno was feeling the effect of a long season. Having the luxury of two fellow Century League competitors in the race allowed the young buck to have a dash of familiarity leading into the race.
As the gun sounded many of the crowd may not have known that Tamagno was the sole Freshman in the meet. They did however hear his name when eventual winner, Blake Haney, was seemingly unhappy with the opening 800 of 2:07. Haney opened up the race with a solid 59.72 for the third lap and the freshman was about 10-15m in the rears. The bell was reached by Haney in 3:07.49 and Tamagno was determined to finish strong. Tamagno was eventually passed by Miguel Vasquez of Andrew Hill High School in Palo Alto who finished second. After the race, Tamagno said he could hear the announcer warning that Garrett Corcoran, a fellow Century League runner and 4:10.95 1600m runner, was on the move. Austin later stated that he thought, "Oh no! Not again," referring to loosing to Corcoran in all preceding match-ups. Tamagno was able to push down the home stretch and finish an astonishing 3rd. Looking over the readily available results, 2004-2013, there have been zero freshmen to make the 1600 State Meet Final during that time.
Lastly, all of this was done with around 40 mile per week. In talking with Tamagno's talented head coach, Jeremy Mattern, Mattern says that moving forward they will focus staying healthy, happy and positive.