Lukas Verzbicas
As featured in the JulyAugust 2009 issue of Running Times Magazine
The old adage "records are made to be broken" was given its ultimate proof at the conclusion of the indoor season when the national high school mark for 5,000m, admittedly an infrequently run distance, was bettered twice in a single day.
In the morning of March 14, running at the National Indoor Scholastic Classic in New York, Solomon Haile lowered Brad Hudson's 25-year-old mark of 14:29:80 by nearly 7 seconds, running 14:22.88 on the Armory Track & Field Center's banked track. But the ink wasn't even dry on the new mark when, a few hundred miles to the northeast, it was lowered further, to 14:18.22, by Lukas Verzbicas at the Nike Indoor National meet in Boston. While Haile is an established star on the scholastic scene, having won the Foot Locker cross country championship in December, Verzbicas, a freshman at Lincoln Way High School in New Lenox, Ill., is a relative neophyte. And running isn't even his primary sport.
"My main sport is triathlon," he says, and he's experienced no small degree of success in that venue, winning a national junior championship and being named to the U. S. team for this May's Pan American Junior Games. "Running is my best and most liked leg of the triathlon," he says, adding, "Of course I still race separate swimming and biking races."
Verzbicas was born in the Lithuanian town of Kaunas in 1993, and came to the United States in 2002. His parents were professional track coaches in Lithuania; since immigrating to Illinois, Verzbicas has been their only charge.
"My training consists of swimming, biking, and running," he says. "I swim five times a week during swimming season, and run or bike each day before swimming. Whenever I have an important running race like NIN I take a week off of swimming and concentrate on running.
"My running mileage is not high," he continues. "I probably haven't run more than 50 miles a week, but during that period my swimming is around 20,000-25,000 yards per week, also I bike sometimes over 100 kilometers. It depends during what period I'm training in." Verzbicas has recently been training with Jeff Jonaitis, a 2:19 marathoner from Tinley Park.
Kids begin school later in Lithuania, so Verzbicas, who turned 16 on Jan. 6, is a little old for a typical American high school freshman, but that doesn't diminish his accomplishments. Just three days after his birthday, he set national freshman marks for the mile (4:15.43) and 3,000m (8:29.15) at the Arkansas Invitational. But those were just a hint of what was to come in Boston in March.
Verzbicas blazed out on the fast Reggie Lewis Center track in 64.0 and 2:13, hitting the 1600 in 4:29.0 and passing 3,000m in 8:31, just off his record for that distance. His last kilometer (2:42.4) was the fastest of the race, and put him 43 seconds ahead of second-place Sean Curry. "I think I was in better shape than my performance," he says. "I just didn't have someone who can run as fast as I could that day running with me. My dad told me that I had to break the record Solomon Haile set earlier that day, which really motivated me. Also, I wanted the Nike Indoor National race to have the record. My plan was to set the 5K record, and later just win the 2-mile." He accomplished that goal, winning by 4 seconds in 8: 57.44. That obliterated the old freshman mark of 9:16.55, but Verzbicas still doesn't have his school records for the mile and 2-mile -- those marks (4:05.1 and 8:43.2, No. 5 on the all-time high school list) are held by Dave Merrick, who went on to All-American cross country and track status at the University of Pennsylvania in the mid-70s.
Verzbicas doesn't compete for his high school track team, but may do so if his school coaches can accommodate his multi-sport training. "The way I feel after my triathlon summer season will matter a lot, too," he says. "Right now I will do both triathlons and running, my main focus being the triathlons, and the future will have to depend on my running results. If I can get to the level of where the East African runners are, then maybe I will become a runner. My goals at the present are to win the triathlon junior national championships in August, and win both Nike and Foot Locker cross country championships in the fall."
Ambitious goals, to be sure, but after taking down some impressive records this winter, you'd expect nothing less from this precocious multi-sport phenomenon.
In the morning of March 14, running at the National Indoor Scholastic Classic in New York, Solomon Haile lowered Brad Hudson's 25-year-old mark of 14:29:80 by nearly 7 seconds, running 14:22.88 on the Armory Track & Field Center's banked track. But the ink wasn't even dry on the new mark when, a few hundred miles to the northeast, it was lowered further, to 14:18.22, by Lukas Verzbicas at the Nike Indoor National meet in Boston. While Haile is an established star on the scholastic scene, having won the Foot Locker cross country championship in December, Verzbicas, a freshman at Lincoln Way High School in New Lenox, Ill., is a relative neophyte. And running isn't even his primary sport.
"My main sport is triathlon," he says, and he's experienced no small degree of success in that venue, winning a national junior championship and being named to the U. S. team for this May's Pan American Junior Games. "Running is my best and most liked leg of the triathlon," he says, adding, "Of course I still race separate swimming and biking races."
Verzbicas was born in the Lithuanian town of Kaunas in 1993, and came to the United States in 2002. His parents were professional track coaches in Lithuania; since immigrating to Illinois, Verzbicas has been their only charge.
"My training consists of swimming, biking, and running," he says. "I swim five times a week during swimming season, and run or bike each day before swimming. Whenever I have an important running race like NIN I take a week off of swimming and concentrate on running.
"My running mileage is not high," he continues. "I probably haven't run more than 50 miles a week, but during that period my swimming is around 20,000-25,000 yards per week, also I bike sometimes over 100 kilometers. It depends during what period I'm training in." Verzbicas has recently been training with Jeff Jonaitis, a 2:19 marathoner from Tinley Park.
Kids begin school later in Lithuania, so Verzbicas, who turned 16 on Jan. 6, is a little old for a typical American high school freshman, but that doesn't diminish his accomplishments. Just three days after his birthday, he set national freshman marks for the mile (4:15.43) and 3,000m (8:29.15) at the Arkansas Invitational. But those were just a hint of what was to come in Boston in March.
Verzbicas blazed out on the fast Reggie Lewis Center track in 64.0 and 2:13, hitting the 1600 in 4:29.0 and passing 3,000m in 8:31, just off his record for that distance. His last kilometer (2:42.4) was the fastest of the race, and put him 43 seconds ahead of second-place Sean Curry. "I think I was in better shape than my performance," he says. "I just didn't have someone who can run as fast as I could that day running with me. My dad told me that I had to break the record Solomon Haile set earlier that day, which really motivated me. Also, I wanted the Nike Indoor National race to have the record. My plan was to set the 5K record, and later just win the 2-mile." He accomplished that goal, winning by 4 seconds in 8: 57.44. That obliterated the old freshman mark of 9:16.55, but Verzbicas still doesn't have his school records for the mile and 2-mile -- those marks (4:05.1 and 8:43.2, No. 5 on the all-time high school list) are held by Dave Merrick, who went on to All-American cross country and track status at the University of Pennsylvania in the mid-70s.
Verzbicas doesn't compete for his high school track team, but may do so if his school coaches can accommodate his multi-sport training. "The way I feel after my triathlon summer season will matter a lot, too," he says. "Right now I will do both triathlons and running, my main focus being the triathlons, and the future will have to depend on my running results. If I can get to the level of where the East African runners are, then maybe I will become a runner. My goals at the present are to win the triathlon junior national championships in August, and win both Nike and Foot Locker cross country championships in the fall."
Ambitious goals, to be sure, but after taking down some impressive records this winter, you'd expect nothing less from this precocious multi-sport phenomenon.
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