By Chris Parker
Familiar foes battled in the Class 1 boys 3200-meter relay to open the track events at the Class 1-3 state track meet on Saturday.
McAuley Catholic and Thomas Jefferson share a conference, district and sectional. At all three meets their 3200-meter relays have finished first and second.
On Saturday, the two programs battled back and forth with Thomas Jefferson leading after one leg. McAuley Catholic snatched the lead back after the second leg before Thomas Jefferson jumped back in front going into the anchor leg.
From there, McAuley Catholic senior Michael Parrigon went to work.
“I am pretty sure Liam (Cook) tried to make me chase him a little bit and try to get me to burn out. I had three races yesterday, so that was smart on his part to get out and test me a little bit,” Parrigon said.
Parrigon did not burn out.
Far from it.
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF DAY 2 OF THE MEET
He ran the fastest split of the entire race with a 1:57.71 anchor leg. It was the third straight head-to-head win over Thomas Jefferson in the event after losing the first matchup at conference.
“We push each other a lot. They got us at conference. I didn’t run the relay…but that was the first time we saw them all year,” McAuley Catholic senior Michael Parrigon said. “Then we were like ‘ok, this isn’t going to happen again. At districts we beat them by three seconds. At sectionals four (seconds) and today I think we got them by four or five. In cross country we see each other all the time. We continue to push ourselves. They get better and we get better. Everyone keeps getting better every race.”
McAuley Catholic got splits of 2:07.40 from Alex Bohachick, 1:58.30 from Franklin Veer and 2:11.55 from Connor Taffner to combine with Parrigon’s split of 8:14.94 to claim a second straight state title.
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF DAY 1 OF THE MEET
Thomas Jefferson’s team of Jack Twiss, Braden Honeywell-Lynch, Will Twiss and Liam Cook ran 8:29.39 for second.
McAuley Catholic finished second overall in the team competition to Dora.
CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO OF THE MEET
