Rachel Hickey saved her best for last in the Women's 1500 Championship
San Jose, Costa Rica--
Typically, international championships last more than a weekend. However, the Pan-Am U20s was the perfect fix for some of the best young talents in the Americas. In just three days, the track and field world was shaped by a bunch of juniors.
Among the many great feats that took hold of the Central America landmass, it was the Men's 4x100 that lit the track and field conscious ablaze. The talk and eyeballs were already on the uber-talented Matt Boling of Texas. Boling, as many of you know, has taken the sport by storm this season with his tremendous exploits. After winning the 100m (10.11) and 200m (20.31), it was time to grab another gold medal. Team USA was in Jamaica's rearview mirror until Plainfield North IL rising senior Marcellus Moore scooted the turn as the third leg. It was there that Boling took a satisfactory handoff and roared home to a new junior world record 38.62.
Danny Kilrea (University of Notre Dame/Lyons Twp. HS) put the finishing touches on a tremendous freshman year by winning the Men's 10k. As he did in the US Championship, Kilrea bolted out to a sizable lead and cruised to victory. The time of 30:49.45 was 17 seconds better than U of Georgia's Nicholas Yanek. Look for Kilrea to recover and get back into his All-American cross country mode later in the fall.
-Danny Kilrea interview
Rachel Hickey (Illinois State University/Lasalle-Peru) overcame some hardships of not competing during the spring season due to a foot injury. Through a redshirt season and rehab, Hickey was able to get into tremendous shape which enabled an option to compete in the post-season. As the 1500m unfolded, Hickey was sitting just out of medal contention until the latter stages of the race. On the final lap, she used her strong surge to move into second place and held on for the silver in a personal best 4:26.83.
-Rachel Hickey interview
