Lukas Verzbicas never intended to run the 5,000-meter run at last year’s Nike Indoor Nationals. The original plan that the 16-year-old freshman and his stepfather/coach Romas Bertulis had set for that weekend in March was to run the mile.
“I was planning to run the mile instead, but because of my mile time I was only going to be in the second heat,” he said. “The 5K was very sudden for me to race. I wasn’t planning to run it until about a week before the nationals.”
As the high school track world would find out, that decision to forgo the slower heat for the longer distance was the right one.
On March 13 at Boston‘s Reggie Lewis Athletic Center, Verzbicas etched his name into the books with a stunning national record of 14 minutes, 18.42 seconds. The ninth-grade phenom from Lincoln-Way Central High in Illinois, running unattached, topped the existing mark by more than four seconds. It was a record that was set only a few hours earlier by Foot Locker cross-country champion Solomon Haile (14:22.88) at the National Scholastic Indoor Championships in New York City.
“I certainly did (expect what happened),” said Verzbicas, who also set a freshman mark in the two-mile run at the NIN with his winning time of 8:57.44. “My coach actually scheduled me to run 14:16 at Nike in my 5K, but I wasn’t disappointed with the 14:18.”
The question now for Verzbicas, also a top-level triathlete with impressive wins at the 2008 Youth Elite National Triathlon in Colorado Springs and the Pan American Junior Championship in Oklahoma City this past spring on his resume, is what’s next?
The answer is simple. Take it one day, one season at a time.
“Right now, my main goal is the Duathlon World Championships (on Sept. 26),” he said. “From then on it will be all cross country. I hope to run both Foot Locker and Nike Cross-Country Nationals.”
Since his stellar frosh campaign when he broke records nearly ever time he stepped foot on the track or cross-country trails, Verzbicas no longer wears the singlet of Lincoln-Way. The sophomore transferred to Carl Sandburg High in Orland Park at the end of the summer after his family moved into the district. He insists it wasn’t over conflicts with the coaching and his desire to also compete in triathlons during the school year.
In his debut for the Eagles on Sept. 5, Verzbicas proved that his multi-sport training hasn’t affected his leg speed too much as he dominated the field at the Lyons Invitational in Western Springs, smashing his own record from last year by 16 seconds with a time of 14:19.76 for the three-mile course. Verzbicas was never challenged in the race, beating second-place finisher and returning all-stater Sam Telfer of Lyons (15:15.62) by nearly a minute.
“The start at Lyons wasn’t bad,” he said, “but it was more of a fast workout as I ran most of the race alone and I was still at a hard training period.”
Verzbicas, who also set national freshman marks in the mile (4:15.43) and the 3,000 (8:29.16 ) in 2008-09, was unable to finish last year’s cross-country season. He suffered a bad back at mid-season, putting a halt to his hopes of a possible state title, and more.
After competing in the Duathlon (run-bike-run) in North Carolina in a few weeks, the focus returns to the trails where Verzbicas hopes to make up for his lost time from last year. Besides his unmatched ability to do whatever it takes to win, Illinois finest prep distance star has something else to fuel that competitive fire. He’s coming off an outdoor track season where he placed third in the two mile at the Nike Outdoor Nationals. Verzbicas (Photo by Matt Shatkus, NJRunners.com) still finished with a not-too-shabby 8:55.58 clocking in his rare non-winning performance.
“After the NON two mile I was disappointed,” he said. “My main goal during the spring was the Pan American Triathlon, and that meant I had to do more swimming and biking, which took up some important training for track. That’s why it turned out that way. Of course, the NON race has motivated me very much to do better in the future.”
Verzbicas currently logs about 50 miles per week running and an additional 100-plus more on his bike. After competing in the Duathlon, he’ll be looking to make some more noise on the trails, eyeing a win at the Illinois state championships and possibly doing the same at Foot Locker and Nike.
The future after that would be an assault on the high school indoor and outdoor two-mile records. The outdoor mark was once held by the legendary Steve Prefontaine, the late great Oregon runner who held numerous American records in the 1970s before a tragic automobile accident claimed his life at the young age of 24.
Verzbicas is often compared to his running idol, who mesmerized his fans nearly every time he raced with his gutsy and fearless attitude.
“I will never be able to have the kind of impact he had on the United States running fans,” he said. “He just had that kind of gift in which he amazed anyone who saw how he ran.”
Sure does sound familiar.
