Pacific Association's Distance Running Stars: German Fernandez, Jordan Hasay, Christine Babcock, Laurynne Chetelat, Alex Kosinski

2008 in Review

By Joe Hartman

Link to Joe Hartman's July 2, 2008 story & interview with Jordan Hasay

Pacific Association High School runners won races and established records within the last month across the nation that will be talked about for years to come.  Beginning with the California state meet on May 31st, in which PA athletes won three of the four distance events, German Fernandez of Riverbank High School, the 2008 junior men’s national cross country champion, recorded a 1600/3200 double that had the jam-packed Cerritos College stadium in a distance frenzy.  German won the 1600 meters by over nine seconds with a time of 4:00.29, the 3rd fastest time ever in high school-only competition. The Oklahoma State-bound senior, who in November broke the Woodward Park course record at the state cross country meet, was only getting started.  Less than two hours later, German ran a very even-paced race to destroy the national 3200 meter record with an epic 8:34.23, the fastest time ever recorded in high school-only competition at that distance.

On the girls’ side, the Southern California Association’s Christine Babcock (Sr., Woodbridge H.S.) got the meet off to a rousing start with a mind-boggling 4:33.82 over 1600 meters, crushing Alex Kosinski’s National Federation Record of 4:38.15 as well as her own state meet record from 2007.  But Pacific Association girls recaptured the glory two hours later in the girls’ 3200.  While the other three distance races were phenomenal solo efforts, Jordan Hasay of Mission Prep H.S., the two-time defending champion in this event, and Laurynne Chetelat of Davis H.S., the runner-up to Hasay in 2007, were about to square off in the most dramatic event of the meet that left the sun-drenched L.A. crowd nearly as breathless as the runners.  Responding to every move and surge that Chetelat had to offer, Hasay managed to outsprint the Stanford-bound senior over the final 400 meters and win in the stunning time of 9:52.13.  Hasay’s time was #2 all-time, second to Kim Mortensen’s 9:48.59 in 1996.  Chetelat, either slightly ahead of or right on Hasay’s heels for the final 6 laps, ran the 3rd fastest time in prep history (9:52.51) just to settle for second place.  Hasay and Chetelat’s back-half 1600 splits would have been fast enough to take second place in the girls 1600 meter race earlier in the day.  In some states 11:17 might get you a medal; in this state it got you lapped.  Only in California.  

Two weeks later Chetelat and Hasay would find themselves on the same track again, but not in the same event.  Laurynne Chetelat, who in March ran for the U.S. Junior National Team in Scotland when Hasay decided to stay stateside, put together a solid effort and qualified for her second national team in four months when she won the 3000 meters at the U.S. Junior Nationals in Columbus, Ohio. Her time was 9:29.45.  Just a few hours earlier Hasay and Kosinski dueled in an on-again-off-again 1500 meter contest (read more about this in the "Eugene to Europe" story).  Both runners hit the qualifying standards and will room together in Bydgoszcz, Poland when the United States puts its best teenagers against the world three weeks prior to the Olympics.  Catherine White of Arkansas will run in the 5000 meters, but the Pacific Association still claims three of the four girls distance berths.

That same weekend a bit further east, nothing could be finer that watching German Fernandez in Greensboro, North Carolina at the Nike Outdoor Nationals.  Willed to the finish by a smallish but boisterous crowd and a pleading announcer, German made even more history.  Jeff Nelson’s American high school record in the 2-mile had stood for 29-years: a mark maybe not as untouchable as Alan Webb’s one-mile mark of 3:53, but resilient nonetheless.  Always a joy to watch run, German barely left any footprints floating to a smooth, rhythmic, yet powerful run of 8:34.40, splitting approximately 4:19.5-4:14.9, an effort which eclipsed Nelson’s mark of nearly three decades.  

With all due respect to great predecessors Stamps, Bei, Claugus, Mastalir, et al., considering the legacy that has just been left by Chetelat, Kosinski, Fernandez, and Hasay (and Marie Lawrence, as well) one has to wonder if  we have we just witnessed a golden era in Pacific Association youth distance running?  Or has the ground been broken for even more awesome performances?  Time will tell.