LAKEWOOD — Reece Pratz knew the margins to win the Class 3A boys 4×200 were slim.
Northridge High School had just .41 seconds of breathing room from the second and third seeded teams at Jefferson County Stadium.
As Pratz grabbed the baton to anchor the relay, everything around him fell silent and his sole focus became the finish line.
Pratz parlayed that focus into a state title for Grizzlies with a time of 1 minute, 30.02 seconds.
“I don’t know if it was because of me or because of the fans,” Pratz said. “I couldn’t hear anyone and I couldn’t see anything other than the finish line. I ran the race in front of me and that’s what all of us did today.”
Northridge’s time of 1:29.28 in Thursday’s preliminaries marked their season best, but Harrison, which earned the second seed behind the Grizzlies at 1:29.33, also hit their stride in prelims.
Both teams made their second exchange at nearly identical rates and failed to build much distance for a lead.
The Classical Academy, the third-fastest team in the event, entered the mix on the second exchange with them Harrison and Northridge unable to create space with their third runner and entered the final stretch in close quarters.
But the final exchange for Northridge, Jayden Marquez to Pratz, gave the Grizzlies the boost required to separate from the field.
“Our 4×2 exchange has always been solid,” Pratz said. “Jayden handed it off to me. He started screaming at me and that’s like [nitrous oxide] into me.”
Once Pratz got the baton and cleared his first 100 meters, he bolted past the field and helped the Grizzlies win the 800 relay.
“The first 80 I’m pushing it,” Pratz said. “The next 20 I’ll coast. Then when I hit that 100, I’m giving it everything I got. Everything I got left in the tank I’m giving it. Then I hold that form through the finish line.”
Classical Academy finished second with a time of 1:30.38.
Not far behind was University at third and Harrison at fourth.
Just two one-thousandths of a second separated University and Harrison with the Bulldogs clocking in at 1:30.495 and the Panthers finishing in 1:30.497.
(Marcus Hill)
