Phillips, Hicks Go Sub 9 At Arcadia 3,200m

Chiles senior and Syracuse signee Michael Phillips has logged his second sub nine minute performance in the last month. Two weeks after running 8:54.62 and finishing second behind Jacob McLeod of Georgia, Phillips headed out west to the Arcadia Invitational joined by fellow Floridians Charles Hicks of Bolles and teammate Matthew Newland, an FSU signee. Under the lights once again, the Timberwolves standout ran 8:55.53 just off a personal best by .91.

"It was a very different race," he explained. "I was not used to being in a race with 32 other guys. It was an awesome learning experience and super competitive. I was able to race some of the best guys in the country and that's such an honor."

Phillips went onto say the race didn't go the way he wanted. After all, the senior was in the lead with about 800 meters to go and negative split the second half of the race around 4:25s.

"Not every race goes as planned," he said. Now it's time to keep working and move on into the postseason."

Hicks also negative split the final half of the race and finished in 14th place with a time of 8:58.78 and  improving on his 9:01.11 from FSU Relays. According to statistician Ricky Quintana with that performance he becomes the 13th runner in state history to go under 9:00 for 3,200m joining a who's who of Sunshine state distance talent.

Phillip's teammate Matthew Newland was 7th in the boys seeded 3,200m with a time of 9:10.68.