Cardinal O'Hara boys flirt with sub 10 in DMR

Cardinal O’Hara coach Tom Kennedy was confident his distance medley relay could run fast and clock a time close to 10-minutes flat at the New Balance Nationals. He also felt that to do that it would take a near-perfect effort by everyone that carried the baton.

He got it.

The Pennsylvania foursome of junior Kevin James, junior Isiaih Cooper, senior Nick Smart and senior Jim Belfatto earned the coveted prize inside the New Balance Center, combining for a meet record of 10 minutes, 0.75 seconds. Chaminade (NY) was second in 10:04.37 (US #2) and Westchester Henderson (PA) finished third with a time of 10:04.45 (US #3).

O’Hara’s winning effort is the nation’s fastest time this season and a tick away from the all-time best of 9:59.94 by Gloucester (MA) in 2000.

“We did our projections. We looked at the national record and we thought it was a possibility, but we are talking about a possibility of a great day,” said Kennedy, who squad broke their own state record of 10:10, set at the NBNI meet 10 years ago. “How many times as a coach do you sit down and say ‘Well in a dream we could do this,’ and you get something much less? To watch them run like that, I am really still in shock. We have parents, who are crying. Kids who are crying. I am in shock. They made it look so easy, which I knew it wasn’t.”

Cardinal O’Hara was in contention throughout the race and were within striking distance of early-race leader Saratoga Springs (NY) after the first two legs. With a blistering 800 leg of 1:53.69 by Smart, the Lions were able to take the lead for good. Jim Belfatto put the finishing touch on the victory with a six-second PR of 4:11.51 for his mile leg.

“I just wanted to get out front and get a good lead for Belfatto,” Smart said. “I felt good the first lap, which I was really surprised about. I didn’t want to (jeopardize) us so I just kept going. It felt good.”

Kennedy wasn’t surprised by Smart’s effort.

“He split (1:53.69). He ran 1:54.84 at the state championship,” he said. ‘I figured that he would get the baton, down a little bit. As far as my calculations, he was the second best 800 guy in the whole field.”

Once in the front, Belfatto got a mental boost knowing that fellow state rival Tony Russell was running the anchor leg for Westchester. Russell defeated Belfatto in the mile at the PTFCA Indoor Championships on March 1. He was also won the event at the Yale Track Classic and the New Balance Grand Prix.

“I was just waiting for him to come up on me,” he said. “With about 1,000 meters to go, my coach told me Russell is coming. I was just looking up at the screen and never saw him behind me.”

James ran a strong opening 1,200m leg of 3:03.83 to put his squad just two-seconds behind Saratoga Springs.  Cooper had a split of 51.72 for his 400 leg.

Two weeks earlier at the state meet, this same foursome finished second in the 4x800 with a time of 7:56.48. They were also a runner-up in the same event at the New Balance Armory Collegiate Invitational in mid-February with a time of 7:50.98 (US #8).

“We knew at the beginning of the season that we could get close to the national record if everything went right,” James said. “Everything pretty much went right. We are pumped to have a national championship.”

Cardinal O’Hara’s previous best prior the nationals was a 10:22 at the TFCA of GP Meet of Champions on Feb. 22. Cooper admitted the time wasn’t a true representation of what his team was capable of doing on the Armory’s banked oval.

“We never really had a hard DMR like this,” he said. “This is the first time we ran a good, hard relay. The only other time was on a flat track. We knew we could get close to (a national record).”

Championship Boys DMR (View Official Results)