Boys 3200
One of the premier races of the night with a field of 20 in the fast section all seeded at 9:45 or faster including a dozen 9:30 or faster will be our boys 3200 meter race.
While tough to pin down who exactly is the pre-race favorite in this race, Buchholz senior Emerson Miller owns the fastest personal best in the field at 9:16 from last March's FSU Relays and was one of the state's fastest this past cross country season with a 14:57 5K best.
He has broken 9:20 three times before including FSU Relays, FHSAA 4A State Meet, and the RunningLane Trakc Championships during the outdoor season. Miller ultimately finished 3rd in the 4A state race and would certainly like to celebrate a first place finish here.
The other runner in the field with proven sub 9:20 credentials is Montverde Academy senior Riley Novack, who actually ran under the time during an indoor meet last winter in Virginia Beach. Novack has been racing great as of late including a 15:31 season best 5K performance for third place in the 3A state cross country race and broke 16 minutes at Holloway Park last week to win the FACA All-Star Senior Meet.
He's run fast at 1600 meters with his 4:13 state runner-up run in the 4A State Meet last May as well as shown the range at 5K too with a 15:22 PR and runner-up finish in the 4A state race in Tallahassee two Saturdays ago, so Alec Miller is ready for something fast at the in between distance of the 3200. Miller has a PR of 9:25 from last spring in the 3200 but raced it sparingly while focusing more on the 1600 and 800 meter races, so the University of Florida commit seems prime to dip under 9:20 this weekend.
While none of the 4 boys state cross country champions from two weeks ago are racing this weekend, one runner that should have been called on in Cambridge Christian senior Braxton Legg will be racing in the 3200 on Saturday night at Viera.
Since Legg missed racing in his regional meet while out of the country competing for the Team USA triathlon team in Uruguay, he was ineligible from being officially recognized individually as a state champion or All-State finisher while eligible to race in the state meet since his team qualified. Legg still crossed the line first in 15:37 in the 1A state cross country race.
Would not be surprised to see him cross the line first in the 3200 on Saturday night as he already boasts an impressive resumé of performances including a 15:14 5K best from cross country and last spring ran 1:55 for 800 meters and 4:18 for 1600 meters. The time though that seems to be due to come down is his 3200 PR of 9:28 which came in his last 3200 meter race since then at the FSU Relays.
While there is plenty of great distance talent traveling in from all across Florida into the Space Coast this weekend to race, there is plenty of homegrown talent found within Brevard County that will be among the top contenders to watch in our loaded boys 3200 between the Viera duo of Cameron Raney and Aedan Rendek along with Rockledge's Devin Makousky.
Raney has a 3200 meter best of 9:24 and nabbed his second straight All-State individual honor in cross country two weeks ago in Tallahassee with a 9th place finish in the 4A race, while the sub 4:20 miler Rendek joined his teammate on the podium as well in 15th place and ran a 5K best of 15:40 this season. Rendek will likely have one of the biggest 3200 PR time drops of the meet as he is ready to blow his 10 minute flat PR out of the water. Raney just signed with Florida Southern College this past week and would certainly love to win on his home track and set a new facility record.
Meanwhile, Makousky was hands down the best runner in Brevard County this season including winning the Cape Coast Conference title. He took an unfortunate fall in the 3A state race to explain his abnormal race result (16th, 16:25). He will be anxious to get some redemption with a fast time on Saturday night as the recent FSU commit has a 9:27 3200 best and also ran 4:17 for 1600 meters on the track last spring.
And winning the award for the furthest distance traveled to compete this weekend automatically goes to TJ Hansen, a sophomore from Freeland High School in Michigan. It would be a 19 hour and 1,200+ mile drive from Freeland High School to Vieria High School, so likely Hansen and his family are flying down for the ace.
He certainly can mix it up with the Florida elites in the race after running 9:21 for 3200 meters remarkably as a freshman last spring and ran a 5K best of 15:41 this past cross country season while finishing 5th in the Division 2 state race in Michigan.