Meet the Albemarle boys 4x800: Anthony Kostelac, Garrett Bradley, Luke Noble, Zachary Vrhovac
The Millrose Games this upcoming weekend at the Madison Square Garden will feature the nation's fastest two high school boys' 4x800 meter relays. The mile races are typically the highlight of the high school portion of the Millrose Games, but this year's 4x800 meter relay could trump the individual races with a highly anticipated matchup between US #1 Morris Hills of New Jersey and US #2 Albemarle of Virginia.
Entering this past weekend, Morris Hills had held the #1 ranking in the country with a 7:51.07 performance at the Hispanic Games on January 10th. Their time was topped though by a quartet from Charlottesville, Virginia on Friday at the Virginia Tech Invitational. Albemarle boys, returning all legs from a 7:42 squad last spring which finished second at the Nike Outdoor Nationals, ran the first sub 7:50 performance this season with a 7:49 clocking on the 200 meter bank track found in Blacksburg, Virginia.
The Morris Hills boys, All-Americans in the DMR at the 2008 Nike Outdoor Nationals with a 6th place finish (10:08) last June in Greensboro, quickly responded though on Saturday to regain their spot on the national leaderboard as they competed on a fast 200 meter banked track as well at the New York Armory in the New Balance Games. With all legs under 2 minutes and 1:53.4 anchor leg from Liam Tansey, the four high school runners from Rockaway, New Jersey dropped their season best by five seconds to 7:46.54.
No new national leading time will be expected from the two schools on a shorter banked (11 laps to a mile) track at the Madison Square Garden for the Millrose Games, but it could be thrilling race with the teams potentially going back and forth for the first three legs and then a foot race on anchor leg between Tansey for Morris Hills and either Anthony Kostelac (2:31 1000 winner at Tech) or Zachary Vrhovac (1:04 500 at Tech) for Albemarle.
The boys 4x800 meter relay will be run at 7:24 PM on Friday night.
Millrose Games - Boys 4x800 Meter Relay
Half Hollow Hills West (NY)
Warwick Valley (NY)
Morris Hills (NJ)
Washington Twp (NJ)
Albemarle (VA)
Pine Bush (NY)
Northport (NY)
Pleasentville (NJ)