Freshman phenom Tony Crisofulli ended his season on Sunday at Hayward Field in Eugene as the seventh-best junior 800-meter runner in the nation.
Just for clarification, a junior is anyone who was born after Dec. 31, 1990. Crisofulli fits into that category and exploded onto the track this season in the 800.
He qualified for the Junior Nationals at the Oregon Twilight meet on May 10 when he ran the 800 in 1:52.38.
The Junior Nationals in Eugene were held in conjunction with the Senior Men’s and Women’s Nationals as well.
With over 8,000 onlookers attending the meet each day during the four-day event, it was one of the largest crowds that ever attended a U.S. Championship track and field meet.
Crisofulli ran a personal best of 1:52.07 in the preliminary round on Friday, June 26, to place third in his heat. The time was seventh overall and earned him a spot in the eight-man final.
“I felt confident before the race, and felt really good in the prelim,” Crisofulli said.
He was very pleased with his training coming into this race, and his confidence boosted him into the final.
Crisofulli did a lot of strength-related work before this race.
“I worked a lot on my endurance, and did a lot of tempo runs to create a large base before the race,” he said.
Crisofulli also ran in a race at the Prefontaine Classic in order to prepare for Junior Nationals, and he came in 11th out of 18 competitors.
“After that race I knew I was ready to compete at Junior Nationals,” Crisofulli said.
In the end, the race proved to be a very tactical one as Joe Abbot, the favorite from Washington State, sprinted away for the win in the last 20 meters with a time of 1:51.54.
Crisofulli finished at 1:53.62, which was good enough for seventh. As a freshman, placing seventh in the nation is a great accomplishment for Crisofulli and his future at Portland State looks bright.
For now, Crisofulli will be taking a short but well-deserved break until he begins training for cross country in the fall. He plans on enjoying a week off before aiming to run 60–80 miles a week this summer.
He will be heading back home to Colorado where he will train at altitude, which gives distance runners a lot of strength and increases their endurance.
Crisofulli’s other goal is to make it to the NCAA Regional Cross Country Championships in the fall and set personal records in the 8k.
The one thing that concerns the 800-meter specialist is that he has no idea who his coach will be this upcoming season—the cross country program is currently without a head coach.