Aidan Ryan & Ethan Lipham Renew State Battle At RunningLane

In a nearly identical mirror race of their state meet to battle for the 2A boys 1600 meter state title two weeks ago, Bolles junior Aidan Ryan and Berkeley Prep senior Ethan Lipham found themselves in a different state of Alabama battling it out on the last lap of the second-fastest heat of the boys' mile at the RunningLane Championships.

In the FHSAA 2A State Championships, Ryan was able to just hold off the hard-charging Lipham (2nd, 4:14.69) with both runners splitting under 60 seconds for the final 400 meters lap split in a 4:14.53 PR for his first state title in the 1600 meter run.

In Huntsville late on Saturday night as the third to last race of the event, Ryan and Lipham were both well-positioned coming out of the outside alley for their one-turn stagger start and found themselves in the top third of the field but not leading until the final 100 meters. At that moment is when Ryan made his move to go for the win after sitting on Edward Baha from Pace Academy in Georgia. Meanwhile, Lipham was right behind him scooting ahead of Baha into second place.

Ryan with another scorching sub 60-second last lap close would win the heat in a new personal best at the full mile distance of 4:12.43 as well as hit 1600 meters in a PR of 4:10.94 from an official timer's recording setup at that mark en route. The Appalachian State University signee Lipham would make a 1-2 finish for the state of Florida with 4:13.52 PR (4:11.84 1600m en route) with a 59-second final lap split.

For Lipham, it appears that will be a wrap on his high school career with his final race for Berkeley Prep in Tampa, which included breaking 9 minutes for 3200 meters at the FSU Relays earlier this spring. 

Meanwhile, Ryan will likely start turning his attention to summer training and the cross country season as he will look to lead Bolles to another state team title while also trying to grab the 2A state individual title after finishing as a state runner-up this past November in Tallahassee. Ryan also recorded a new 800-meter PR of 1:52 in the post-season last Friday at the JAC Distance Classic.

Other top performances by Florida athletes competing at RunningLane included Rockledge sophomore Malinda Underwood just missing sub 5 minutes in the mile run clocking a time of 5:00.35 to finish ninth in her heat, but going thru 1600 meters en route at 4:58.57 for personal bests at both distances. 

In her second straight weekend competing out of state against elite national level competition (raced at Trial of Miles event in New York City last Friday night), Lake Minneola senior Lily Henne ran 10:43 for the full two miles on Friday night and then doubled back to run 5:02 in the mile on Saturday night. It was the first time that Henne has raced in the state of Alabama, but certainly will not be the last as she heads to the University of Alabama in the fall. 

Buchholz junior Emerson Miller ran under 9:20 for the third time this season in the 3200-meter run and just off his PR finishing 10th in his heat with a 9:18 performance and running slightly faster than Boca Raton senior Collin Brooks, who was in the top section of the event and ended up with a time of 9:21.

Miller also doubled back to run a 4:19.21 mile PR on Saturday as a runner-up in his section on Saturday evening.  In the next section of the boys' mile run to follow, Rockledge's Devin Makousky also dipped under 4:20 finishing fourth in his heat at 4:19.78.

Fresh off his 1:52 PR to finish 3rd in the FHSAA 4A state boys 800-meter race, East Lake senior Noah Chatman was Florida's top performer in the 800-meter run at RunningLane recording his second-fastest time ever at the distance in 1:54.21 to place 8th in his heat.

Buchholz sophomore Riley Smith, who was also on the state meet podium with Chatman in that 4A boys 800-meter race (8th), chopped a few fractions of a second off his PR performance at the state meet with a 1:55.02 run in Alabama to finish 4th in his heat.

Florida Results @ RunningLane Track Championships