Boys Dash for Doobie Highlights:
The boys Elite race lived up to its name, featuring one of the best down-to-the-wire races in meet history. Dolan Owens was the early pace-setter, but Daniel O'Brien and Colin Baker covered his move on the second lap. The first two laps were somewhat conservative, the leaders reaching the 800 mark just under 2:20, and that might have ruled out a sub-9 attempt early on. That didn't take away from the excitement of the race, however, as Baker and O'Brien pushed to the front on lap 3, trying to recover their target pace and setting up a furious finish. Baker took the lead and forced the pace through the last lap, even opening up about a 20 meter lead at one point - but he suffered for the effort he put into that move, and O'Brien summoned up a final surge starting with 300 to go that carried him all the way to the lead in 9:07.85 to Baker's 9:09.23.
Behind those two, the chase pack shuffled several times, with Owens holding off challenges from Aaron Withrow, Anton Idhammar, and Carson Williams. That group, in turn, pulled an astonishing 6 more athletes under 9:20 behind them, for a record-breaking total of 12 to break that lofty mark. The entire final section finished under 9:34, and that wasn't the only remarkable race of the day. Section 11 featured Jackson O'Hara holding off Jason Thomson in 9:25 and 9:26, putting them in 15th and 16th overall - and all but one runner in that section broke 10. Virgil Moore took section 10 with a time of 9:35, while Davie's Clay Summers and Trey Raisbeck won sections 8 and 7, respectively, with Raisbeck being the first in the meet to crack the 10-minute barrier.