NBNI finds another gear on final day

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

New Balance Nationals Indoor builds to a crescendo on Sunday afternoon in a way that happens almost no other place in the world of track and field -- where highlight piles upon highlight for a few hours. 

An Olympic Trials or an NCAA finals can get there too, but those are tidy affairs filled with familiar athletes who are clawing and scratching for tiny margins at the far end of human performance.

New Balance Nationals Indoor is raw, emotional, messy, sublime -- just like the teenagers who come of age and make quantum leaps in this meet. 

Sunday's finals featured a trio of Virginians -- two of them brothers and a third practically in the family -- who could do no wrong. 

It featured the transcendent Sydney McLaughlin breaking a record in the 400 meters and less than an hour later breaking hearts with a devastating close in the 4x400 relay. 

It featured Weini Kelati running as if her future depended on her effort. 

It featured three runners from the Intermountain West -- Garek Bielaczyc, Katie Rainsberger and Michael Slagowski -- hammering out impressive victories.

It featured the two greatest 60-meter hurdles races of all time. 

And there were countless athletes -- not all of them first-place finishers -- who displayed ferocious appetites for competition and gave it everything they had. 

There were 11 national records set in the meet. That includes 55-meter en route times in the two 60-meter hurdles finals. And Tonea Marshall of Sequin TX broke the national record in the 60 hurdles twice -- running 8.08 in the semifinals and 8.02 in the championship. 

The Lyles brothers -- Josephus and Noah -- won together and separately. They won the 4x200 relay with their TC Williams teammates with the No. 2 fastest time in history (1:26.21). Then Josephus won the 60 dash and Noah broke the national record in the 200 with 20.63 seconds.

Their additional brother and future University of Florida teammate, Grant Holloway, broke the national record in the 60 hurdles with 7.53 seconds. 

McLaughlin, who had been working on 200s in recent meets, sped through 400 meters in 51.84 seconds to break Francena McCorory's national high school record. Fifty-two minutes later, McLaughlin took the baton for Union Catholic in fifth place and split 51.6 seconds. Hopelessly behind rounding the final turn, McLaughlin caught Motor City TC and Paul Robeson in the final 10 meters and flew past to win in No. 2 all-time 3:40.28. Motor City ran No. 3 all-time 3:40.69 for second and Paul Robeson clocked 3:40.95 for No. 4 all-time and third place. 

In the girls mile, NXN champion Rainsberger got help from Stephanie Jenks early and then pounded through an unrelenting pace to run 4:36.61 in the mile. Behind her, Virginia junior Kate Murphy stormed up late to take second in 4:39.47. Those are two of the fastest times ever run in high school-only competition. 

Bielaczyc sped to the front of the 2-mile with 400 to go and held off Thomas Ratcliffe to win in 8:57.03. 

The final section of the boys 800 was in danger of becoming an afterthought after Cameron Cooper from Motor City TC ran 1:50.97 in the second of three heats earlier in the day. But Slagowski of Rocky Mountain ID ran 1:50.29 to get the win and the US#1 ranking.

Kelati ran away from the girls in the 2-mile field and made a conscious effort to go after Mary Cain's 9:38 national record. She couldn't hold that pace in the second half of the race but still ran 10:02.71 and won by 12 seconds. Libby Davidson, another Virginian, was second in 10:14.97.