By Justin Janssen '11
The historic Hayward Field is known to bring out the best of track athletes. The aura for a track athlete at Hayward Field is comparable to a baseball player competing at Wrigley or a football player at Lambeau.
On June 25, at Hayward Field, in the Nike Track Nationals, Thomas Williams '11 and Will Firth '11 set personal records in their respective events in their last race as a Brophy Bronco.
Williams and Firth graduated from Brophy Prep one month ago so this was the last time they would don the Brophy uniform.
Williams is the 2011 Arizona D-I 800 meter champion and 2010 Arizona 5A-I 1600 meter champion.
"Williwams" ran 1:54.10, good for 4th place and 910.50 points in the decathlon scoring. That's not a typo on my part, for some reason Nike has Tommy's name recorded as "Williwams."
Williams was right with the lead group for the entire race, but lost a step on the leaders in the last 100 meters or so.
"There was a little bit of contact with about 80 (meters) to go," Williams said. "I kind of got sandwiched behind a couple guys."
Williams has said in the past that he sometimes struggles at the end of races; the victor of the race finished 0.48 seconds ahead of Williams.
But place isn't too important in the decathlon scoring meet, as finishers 1 through 4 earned almost the same number of points for their team.
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Firth did not compete last year for Brophy at the Nike Nationals meet because he was sick at the end of the season.
This year he's healthy, but he had to wait till the last event of the night to show everyone.
During the mile race, coaches and the fans remaining in the stands stood in the outside lanes, anticipating the grand finale of the track season.
After one lap, Firth was in 6th place, but quickly (no pun intended) made his way into third.
With just 100 meters to go, Firth fell behind the two leaders by about 15 meters.
Then Firth found fifth gear and dashed faster than he'd ever gone before. Firth made up ground and passes the runner positioned in second at the finish line.
His time was 4:15.19. Converted that mile time into 1600 meters and the result is 4:13.79. A school record.
Firth had tied the school record of Charles Hampton '03 in 1600 meters at the Meet of Champions last month, but now he's all alone in Brophy's record book.
Upon receiving the runner-up medal at the meet, cheers for Firth erupted. The PA announcer said,"Apparently he has a very large fan club at Hayward field."
Video of races:
Williams PR's
Williams interview
Firth motors to 2nd
Firth receives award
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