Sean Torpy (Sr., Orland Park Sandburg)
One of the hardest things in the world to do is deciding on athlete of the year. For one, it is something that requires a sharp judgement and less personal intact or bias. At MileSplit Illinois the process of picking candidates is compiled throughout the indoor and outdoor seasons. Some of the factors which decided the top candidate include quality of competition, head to head match ups, post-season performances, etc.
Sean Torpy lived up to the billing that others placed on him, and he certainly exceeded all expectations internally of himself in 2016. After coming off of a wonderful cross country season in which he placed 3rd in the state championship. He ended the harrier campaign along with his Eagle mates in Portland, Oregon who finished fourth in the Nike Cross Nationals standings.
Torpy ran just a few races indoors and those were mostly of the team variety. Sean was an integral part of the second fastest indoor 4x800 relay in Illinois history that blasted its way to an US #4 7:45.80. A week later the Eagles won the New Balance Indoor Nationals 4x1 mile relay with Torpy running the anchor leg in thrilling fashion.
Outdoors the plan worked out well. Torpy finished the season undefeated in the 800, 1600, and 3200.
- Ran the 9th fastest 800m in US school boy history (1:47.95).The winning performance at the Midwest Distance Classic also represented the #1 overall time in Illinois history.
- US #1 1600m standard 4:03.42/ US#10 in the mile (4:05.10)
- Ran 3rd leg of state championship 4x800 relay that motored to a then US#1 7:37.36 clocking
- Led his team to a third place team finish that earned a trophy
Words from Sandburg coach John O'Malley:
For four years Sean was always pushing his abilities to the maximum. In his final race at Brooks PR, he was unwilling to settle back and just race for the win--he wanted to give the 4:00 barrier a shot even though it was a really windy day. That was the epitome of Sean's four years: never racing safe, never worrying about failure, always trying to do something special. He was also incredibly selfless. He's the fastest 800 runner in Illinois history and he ran the third leg to three consecutive 4 x 800s at state(2nd, 1st, and 1st). How many 1:47.95 high school 800 runners have there been who relish the selfless duty of putting us in a position to win by racing the third leg of a relay? He didn't need the celebratory finish line photo, he didn't need the attention or the limelight. He just wanted to do what is best for his team.