Soren Knudsen Thrills In Post-Season Debut


Soren Knudsen expresses himself after a big win

Results

The weather was perfect on an otherwise lazy Friday in early June. Instead Chicago St. Ignatius boys track and field head coach Ed Ernst and his trusty staff put on the third annual Magis Miles.

It was 78F at game time inside of Fornelli Field and ready for action. As the crowd filled in, the undercard races got underway with a fleet of middle school, coaches races, open, high school elite, and finally Men's championship.

The first significant race of the evening was the high school elite mile race #2 that featured many of the state's top distance aces. Among them were Charlie Kern Jr. (York), Vince Zona (Lyons Twp.), Danny Kilrea (Lyons Twp.), Tyler Dau (Geneva), and Alex Tam (Libertyville). The pace was not set up exceptionally well as it went out in 64.4 and then 2:07. Kern impatiently bid his opportunity to take off once the pace setter stepped off the track. He immediately improved his cadience against the field and reached the bell at 3:10. Kern was in all out mode coming off the final curve and ran a personal best 4:13.20. Though he won solidly he was not overly excited about how the outcome was set up. "I was getting antsy about 600m in and I had to move into lane four," said Kern. 


The final event of the evening featured Soren Knudsen (Minooka) and Dylan Jacobs (Sandburg) against bright eyed collegians and pros. UIC runner Kyle Hauser did not mess around here. He went out in 57 seconds for the first quarter mile as the pacer. Though it appeared a bit fast, it afforded the field some room to calm down and settle. Hauser kept the surge on at the half mile in 1:58.0. Joe Coffey (unattached) assumed the chores on the third lap and looked strong momentarily. Meanwhile, Knudsen sat comfy in the anchor position running 2:02. Coffey would begin to falter just after the gun lap and the sharks would attack him.  Knudsen began surging forward with 350 to go. He and Chris Torpy (U of Miami) worked the lead on the final backstretch. Knudsen was too strong for the former Illinois prep great. Torpy faded back and Luke Brahm (unattached/U of Illinois) moved forward as the last threat to Knudsen. He could not match closing speed of Knudsen who breezed past the finish line in a super personal best 4:05.58. Knudsen's time is good for US #9 and one of the top five fastest times ever for 1600m that was captured in 4:04.06.