Photo courtesy of John DyeEVESHAM - Instead of taking a lifeguard test in Wildwood last spring, Camden Catholic senior Kevin McDonnell competed in the 3200 of the Parochial A state championship, finishing fourth and eight seconds behind then-junior Mike Sheehan of Holy Cross.
All the lifeguard stands in Wildwood were full when McDonnell tried applying again, but he was undeterred, earning a whistle at Wildwood Crest this summer.
That’s not the inspirational part of this story.
While basking in the sun, McDonnell logged mileage on both land and water, developing muscle in his upper body and a mentality as dark as a tan.
“Every time I go out in a race I just want to hurt really badly,” McDonnell said. “That’s what I like to do.”
McDonnell did just that Saturday in the 3,200-long Cherokee Challenge against, among others seniors, Sheehan.
McDonnell got out fast but was dogged throughout by Sheehan and the specter of his killer kick.
“I couldn’t stop thinking about it,” McDonnell said. “I had to turn my head every five seconds to see where he was.”
With Sheehan 10 meters in his wake for the last 800, McDonnell kept his form and his lead, winning by five seconds in 9:45.
Camden Catholic coach Dennis Quinn said his lifeguard experience saved him from being overtaken
“I think that really helped him out as far as finishing out a race because he never [finished as] good as he did today,” Quinn said.
The time was the fastest for the course being altered in 2004.
Meet director Chris Callinan said the new course slows a runner about six seconds with the addition a hill, a change Haddonfield sophomore Boo Vitez doesn’t mind.
“I love hills,” Vitez said. “All 107lbs of me gets up all those hills pretty easy.”
It was the rest Vitez had to adjust to.
An admitted “distance guy” with a limited kick, Vitez said he avoided a footrace with speedsters teammate Colin Baker and Shawnee’s David Forward in the sophomore race by going out unusually fast early.
“If it goes out slow and we’re all together I know they can all outkick me,” said Vitez, who ran a personal-best 4:36 in the 1600 last spring.
Vitez shot out from the pack with the sound of the gun, rounding the first 800 meters in 2:19.
But he was not alone.
Baker, a childhood friend, was on his heels and Forward lurked near but Vitez did not relent, dropping Baker on the looming hill and keeping Forward at leg’s reach en route to victory and history.
“Getting out hard took a lot out of their legs I guess,” said Vitez, who ran a 9:56, the best time ever ran by a sophomore in the race’s 12-year history with or without the hill.”
Moments before nabbing a new record, Vitez lost one to Triton’s Robert Rawls.
Rawls, a lanky freshman who placed fifth in the meet’s middle school race last year, took a summer’s worth of training – and the words of coach Kevin Pumphrey – with him to the starting line of the freshman race.
“My coach told me to stay calm and if someone goes out like a nut don’t chase him,” Rawls, 14, said.
Rawls kept close enough to the nutty frontrunner to surge past him before the one-mile mark. Then he passed Vitez’s freshman record of 10:17, finishing in 10:09.
“I was a little disappointed but it’s alright,” Vitez said, laughing.
Ocean City junior Brett Johnson didn’t break any records but, more importantly, he also didn’t break anything else.
Recovering from a season-ending stress fracture last spring and, most recently, a golf ball-sized lump on his right leg incurred from slipping on the slick boardwalk at a quad-meet Tuesday, Johnson won the junior race comfortably in 9:53, seven seconds ahead of runner-up Haddon Heights’ Josh Black.
Johnson’s win, along with a fourth-place finish by teammate Ryan Birchmeier – another member of the running wounded – in the senior race, propelled the Red Raiders to their second straight team championship.
Although mostly known to gauge the individual than the team, the Challenge showed Red Raiders as real state contenders, Johnson said.
“Everybody is going to be skeptical of us,” he said. “They know Ryan is coming back from an injury and he’s running well. Everybody knows that I’m coming back from a stress fracture and they’re going to test that. I definitely think we have something to prove.”
