Glen Lake junior Colebrook Sutherland broke the school record in the two-mile that has stood tall since 1999 at a Northwest Conference race hosted by Buckley on Monday.
Sutherland beat the record of Justin Kibbey set back in another century with a time of 9:51. His time came in nine seconds faster than Kibbey’s 1999 record time of 9:59.
“I knew I could do it, it was just a matter of me picking one meet to go all out,” Sutherland said.
Sutherland admits he’s not a natural two-mile runner, and prefers to focus on the mile and 800-meter run.
Sutherland knew it was possible to break the record when he eclipsed 4:40 in the mile for the first time this year.
“I knew I was in good enough mile shape to get it done,” he said.
Sutherland’s next target is to go after the mile record, “That’s the main goal this year.”
He has plenty of work to do as Sutherland is back nine seconds from the school record for the mile that was set in 2001 also by Kibbey.
“I got nine seconds to go on the mile, but I haven’t really pushed myself that hard in it yet,” Sutherland said. “I got my confidence up from the twomile, which is good ... Judging by other times I knew that my fitness was there. It wasn’t ideal because there wasn’t really competition there to push me. So what I ended up having was coaches yelling out times to me and telling me to hurry up or slow down to keep me at pace. ”
Sutherland recalls being gassed in the middle of the race after he came across the mile mark in 4:55.
“Somehow I hung on and was good enough,” he said. “It’s just going to take good race preparation and competition and really just me deciding to push myself to the limit and not short myself on effort (to break the mile record).”
Glen Lake senior Dylan Cundiff finished first in the 400meter dash with a time of 53.9 at the Buckley meet.
Glen Lake senior Kariesue Taghon stepped up in a big way by winning four events in the 100, 200, and 400-meter dashes. During the Brethren Invitational on Friday, Taghon once again dominated in the 100 and 200-meter dash with times 13.20 and 27.83.
The Laker girls’ 4x200-relay team took first at Brethren with a time of 1:56.22 (Taghon, Emily Alaimo, Robin Lane, Lydia Fosmore). They also took second in the 4x400-relay. The boys team took first in the 4x200relay with a time of 1:35.05.
The Leland Comet track and fielders performed well at the Brethren Invitational earning many honors. Highlights include Ella Knudsen finishing first in three events including 800, mile, and two-mile. She won every event by at least 10 seconds.
Logan DeFour was first in long jump and set a personal record with a distance of 18’ 7.5. Leland boys finished fourth overall and the girls finished fifth.
“The team effort and performance shows their progress and ability to compete with a variety of schools,” Leland coach Karen Kirt said.
