American Fork shatters Great Oak national record

Utah quartet lowers 4x1600 relay standard from last year by more than 11 seconds to highlight first night of 50th Arcadia Invitational

By Erik Boal, DyeStat Editor

American Fork returned to Utah following the Arcadia Invitational last year with a collection of victories and impressive individual performances, but also wondering if there was an opportunity lost for greater team success when Great Oak CA set the national high school record in the boys 4x1,600-meter relay.

"I remember last year at Arcadia after Great Oak broke the record, we were talking with them and we were like, damn, why didn't we do the 4x1,600? It would have been such a good matchup," American Fork senior Casey Clinger said.

After a year-long wait, the Cavemen finally got their opportunity Friday at the meet dubbed, "home of national records," to get on the same track with Great Oak.

But just like the Wolfpack last year, American Fork had no equal. Not just in the race, but perhaps in the 50-year history of the Arcadia Invitational.

Carson Clinger, McKay Johns, Patrick Parker and Casey Clinger clocked 16 minutes, 41.30 seconds to smash Great Oak's mark of 16:52.95 from last year's Mt. SAC Relays, the 29th national high school record set at Arcadia.

"Hearing that time last year just blew my mind. It made me wonder what we could run, then running at altitude, it made me wonder again what we could do here," said Johns, who helped American Fork run 17:01.26 at 4,700 feet altitude last year at the Timpanogos Relays.

"I wish we had run against them because it would have been an awesome matchup. Great Oak last year, that was an awesome team and maybe we could have helped push them and who knows what they could have done or what we could have done."

After Carson Clinger led off in 4:26, Johns moved from eighth place to first on the opening lap of his 4:08 second leg and the rest of the race evolved into a matchup of American Fork against the clock and its place among the most impressive national high school performances.

"We knew what we wanted to do. I don't know if everyone else in the stands knew what we were trying to accomplish," said Parker, who clocked 4:05 on the third leg.

"It was amazing with Carson going out there and having the announcer start talking about it with Carson's time and then when McKay got out there and took the lead and started getting a pretty big gap and dropping a good time, you could tell the announcer was getting excited and the fans were getting excited as well.

"Then it started getting better and bigger and louder. The atmosphere for me was pretty incredible. People were cheering for us and screaming their heads off and we were trying to run as fast as we can. I thought it was awesome having everybody root for us. The atmosphere and the feeling at Arcadia is unparalleled to anywhere else."

And so was American Fork's performance in comparison to any distance relay in U.S. prep history.

Although Casey Clinger had lapped runners to pursue on the final four laps, he also had to weave his way in and out of the first two lanes to keep his momentum going. By the time the two-time Nike Cross Nationals champion entered the final lap, he had a capacity crowd on its feet, with his eyes focused on the finish-line clock with every step as he sprinted down the home stretch to cap the memorable performance with a 4:02.2 anchor leg.

"It definitely helped having people to chase and reel in, but definitely the crowd and my teammates and that clock were the things that were really keeping me going," Casey Clinger said. "We've been looking forward to this race for a long time. We knew we'd be more mature this year and faster and we'd have (Carson) coming up. We just did what we normally do to prepare for track season and we just decided to come out and see what could happen and I'm glad it worked out."

American Fork was treated like royalty following the race's conclusion, taking a victory lap, posing with the results board and having custom batons made by Relay Batons to commemorate their historic achievement.

"It's kind of a lot to take in. It's just crazy," Carson Clinger said. "These guys are amazing dropping the times they can drop. I had no idea what I was going to be running on that track at all. I was just hoping for a PR to help them out because they did amazing and I did OK, I guess."

Adding more impact to the Cavemen's accomplishment was the fact that American Fork beat Utah rival Lone Peak (17:31.04) and pre-meet national leader Alexander GA (17:31.50) both by nearly a minute.

"I think it's awesome that we can put American Fork on the map and show how great a coach we've got and how great are the people we've got," Johns said. "This is something we can remember for the rest of our lives."