Amsterdam's Izaiah Brown Is Ready for the Handoff
If you did not get the memo three years ago when Izaiah Brown (Amsterdam) obliterated the freshman 400-meter class record with a 47.80 mark, please take note. He is fast. How fast you ask? The short answer is 46.60 fully automated fast -- a mark that was good for third overall in the 400-meter Championship Division at last spring's New Balance Outdoor Nationals. For the long answer you might want to ask one of the anchor legs that competed against Brown in the 4x400 Meter Relay Championship at the same meet.
When Brown grasped the baton from his teammate, the clock read 2:31.86 and the Rams were in 14th place: six spots away from an All-American honor. Just 45.16 seconds later, the fastest split of any leg by over one second--an eternity at the distance--the chase was over and Brown found his Rams in fifth place. It was back to the medal stand for Brown for his second All-American honor of the weekend.
It's been a sure and steady ascent for Brown, from freshman phenom status in 2012 to national contender in 2015. In 2011 he joined the Amsterdam Track & Field Team as a middle schooler with aspirations of breaking the school's decades-old high jump record held by his uncle. While Brown remains several inches short of the mark, the event has assumed sideshow status -- his true exploits occurring on the 400-meter oval.
"The whole reason I joined track was for high jump," said Brown. "I ran cross-country the fall before, so in modified [track] they had me going back and forth between sprints and distance, and they eventually put me in the four-hundred, and I ran a fifty-six, which was pretty good."
Brown had found his sweet spot. The time was very good for a middle-schooler. But in no way did it forecast what was to come.
"When he came into the program, we always knew he could be pretty good," recalls Kevin Wilary, Brown's coach at Amsterdam who had witnessed firsthand Brown's promise in middle school. "He ran cross-country, and you could tell he could run. But he didn't really like cross-country, so we brought him up to varsity track. He was running around a fifty [second 400-meter], and we were like 'Wow, what a great talent -- we have never had anyone like this.' But we didn't know how good he truly was until the Eddy Meet when he ran the 47.8 open."
Slicing over one second off the freshman class record previously set by Bay Shore's Keith Hinnant in 2003, Brown catapulted himself into the national conversation and the crosshairs of college coaches everywhere.
"It happened gradually," said Brown about his freshman campaign,
where he lowered his 400-meter time from 52.34 seconds at a dual meet in April
to the 47.80 mark at Eddy in May, five weeks later. "My motto when I was
younger was 'when the gun goes off you run, you get to the finish line.'
I kept it simple because I really had no idea what track was about."
Brown's first MileSplit Interview, as a freshmen at the Eddy Games
While thrilled with his individual breakthrough, Brown was most enamored with the team element of the sport: not the post-meet arithmetic to find out who won, but instead the thrill and adrenaline of a good relay race.
"It's good to know that you can run times by yourself, but being part of something bigger than yourself always intrigued me," said Brown. "It's one thing to run by yourself and keep to yourself, but where you support a group of people and they support you, that's something you can grow with."
Accustomed to cross-country where the perception of collective team effort is sometimes muffled by mid-race isolation and tortuous trails, Brown was immediately struck by the camaraderie of the Rams' 4x400 relay team.
"During my first and second 4x400 races, I saw the senior and juniors working together and having a good time and I wanted to be a part of it. I was thrilled that we were able to work together and achieve something."
Brown's freshman year culminated with a sixth-place States finish in the 400-meter. Next came the summer and with it football preseason -- a place where Brown had toiled the summer before in preparation for a football season where he was a sort of one-man band; playing, among other positions, defensive end, running back, and wide receiver.
"The football team has asked me many times to come back out," says Brown with a laugh. "But I just don't want to risk an injury that could jeopardize my running. I think they were disappointed, but they eventually understood. "
With football and high jump in the rearview mirror, Brown tailored his training and channeled his talent with a focus on his newfound niche: the long sprints.
Brown's sophomore year saw him capture Federation titles in both the indoor 300-meter and outdoor 400-meter dashes. Het set the sophomore class 300-meter record at 34.38. He also lowered his 400-meter personal record to 47.20, and narrowly missed his first individual All-American honor at the New Balance Outdoor Nationals, where he finished ninth in 47.69.
While Brown ceded his 300-meter title his junior year, he was able to defend his 400-meter crown. Of course, the capstone of Brown's junior campaign was his dual performance at the New Balance Nationals, where he claimed third in the 400-meter championship--lopping six-hundredths of a second off his previous best (46.61)--and anchored his Rams to All-American status with his breakneck 45.16 split.
Last week at the Ithaca College Bomber Invitational, Brown opened his final prep season, dashing to a 34.63 open 300-meter and splitting 47-point for his 4x400 leg on the unbanked track. While the season is young, his 300-meter effort ranks second nationally.
The Rutgers-bound Brown has refused to set firm expectations time-wise for his final season, but is resolute about one thing: no regrets. "After the meet I was content," said Brown. "Knowing I can run those times this early in the season has me pumped to see where I can end up at the end of the season."
Some followers of the sport are wondering whether Brown will end up in the record books, i.e, atop the Larry Byrne Archives. Newburgh legend Elzie Coleman's 400-meter state record of 45.93 will be ten years old in February. While Brown holds the freshman class record, Coleman's sophomore (46.97) and junior (46.33) class records survived Brown's onslaught by two-tenths and three-tenths of a second, respectively. Brown hopes to turn the tables this year.
"I obviously am looking to go as low in time as I can," said Brown. "I want to leave it all out there. Hopefully I can hit 45 [seconds] or so."
Of course, if that record--or any record for that matter--is to be surpassed by Brown this season, the performance will probably not come in the next several weeks. Up in Section II, Brown has to make do with SUNY Albany's 160-meter, four-turn indoor track for many of this winter's early developmental meets.
"It's possible he will go after Coleman's record," said Wilary. "There are only a couple of meets where he will have the chance. We are looking closely at the Loucks games. His junior prom conflicted with the meet last year, but hopefully this year he will have the chance to run against that competition this year."
But individual records are not Brown's priority this season. The relay squad that achieved All-American honors last spring has lost nobody, and Brown is confident that by season's end it could contend with any team in the nation.
"We want to win nationals for both indoor and outdoor, or at least finish pretty well," said Brown. "The relay is also our focus at states."
"He sets a high expectation," said Wilary, about Brown's role on the team. "With what he does, we have like six or seven kids who want to run the 400-meter. You see the best out of these kids because of Brown; he pulls them along."
"I am a team-oriented guy," said Brown. "I am no different from the slowest guy on the team."
The Rams' 3:28.41 performance in Ithaca enjoyed US#1 status for about ten minutes before Xavier clocked 3:25.80 at the CHSAA Relay Carnival. Brown's squad will need to lower that time by greater than ten seconds over the next half-year if it wants to compete for a National title.
"He's successful because he works hard and has a bunch of people who really support him," said Wilary. "He doesn't have a big head on him, either. When you have that kind of talent it's easy to get an inflated sense of who you are. That's not the case with Izaiah. He's a down to earth kid."
As expected, Brown was heavily courted by a number of top Division-I programs. By the fall, the list had been narrowed down to four: UCLA, Michigan, Penn State, and Rutgers. After a slew of official visits, Brown settled on Rutgers, citing its relative proximity to home, academic offerings, and an immediate rapport with the Scarlet Knights' coaching staff.
Brown is excited for his future in the Garden State, but also somewhat relieved
to have the decision behind him and his final prep season upon him.
His fellow anchor legs across the state and nation, however, would
rather he just graduate and move on.
"Izaiah likes to chase people," said Wilary. "If you keep it close for him, he is going to be able to bring us to victory."
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