By Christopher Hunt
HUNTINGTON – This is where it is now for Terrance Livingston. He’s at the point now when he can run the state’s fastest time and walk of the track slightly indifferent and a little annoyed.
The Great Neck South senior, headed to Tennessee next year, came into the meet looking to break 1:50 for 800 meters and it was obvious when he dropped the field on the first lap. He was on pace through 600 meters but couldn’t quite hold on. He finished in 1:52.24, the fastest time in the state this season and the eighth-fastest in the country.
“I knew it was going to be hard because I’d be by myself,” Livingston said. “I know that I’m strong right now. I know if I have a race something fast will happen. I just need that one race.”
Livingston was pushed in a box right off the starting line but had no intention on settling into the constraints of race tactics. He pushed his way out and sprinted away from the field on the back stretch. He stormed through the first lap in 54 seconds and was around 1:21 by the 600 mark. He struggled to keep pace after the fast start and with no one challenging but displayed his tremendous shape as he heads into the championship portion of the season.
He was equally as resilient in the 400 meters. Livingston won that in 48.21. He was looking to run 47 but Livingston already has the state’s fastest time after a 48.07 finish at New York Relays. The senior didn’t hide the fact that his earlier race was still sitting in his legs.
“At least I didn’t die,” he said.
Bobby Andrews of Shoreham-Wading River appeared to be in fantastic shape coming off his third-place finish in the 3,000 at the Penn Relays last weekend. Andrews leisurely won the 1,600 in 4:16.65. Andrews ran the season’s second fastest time in the country at Penn Relays last week in 8:25.40. He admitted that after that race he wanted to save his legs for the 1,600 at the Loucks Games in White Plains next weekend.
Andrews, who committed to N.C. State, is having the best year of his scholastic career and the race at Penn may have finally started to give him some separation from another great high school runner with a very similar name.
“I think that I’m starting to really make a name for myself,” Andrews said. “There were a lot of people that would still get me confused with Robby Andrews (of Manalpan who broke the indoor 800 and 1,000 national records).”
Darryl Bradshaw of Sheepshead Bay won the 110 hurdles in a disappointing 14.77. He couldn’t much answer for the performance other than to say that he struggled in dealing with running into a headwind.
“That’s embarrassing,” he said. “I haven’t run 14.7 since like sophomore year. I just felt the wind like a whoosh, and that makes it hard to dive into the hurdles but that’s ridiculous.”
He laughed about it. Bradshaw has already run 14.30 this season, which is the second-fastest time in the state. Middle Country’s Miles Lewis won the 200 in 22.34. He’d been feeling some pain in his back after straining his hamstring but didn’t look to be struggling as he blasted around the first curve in the race.
“That’s okay,” he said. “I felt pretty good. I know I can run faster.”
As a precaution, he held himself out of the 100 meters. Sachem North’s Anthony Quezada won that race in 11.01, coming back in the last 30 meters to snatch the race from Charles Berfrantz of North Babylon.
“I just really wanted to win,” Quezada said. “I knew I could run faster and I really wanted to win.”
At the end of the meet with the sun gone and the field lights on, Half Hollow Hills West threw its hat in the ring with the best 4x800 relays around. Domeick DeMatteo, Harold Jamison, Jared Squiers and Nick Sferrazza won the 4x800 in 7:50.92, the fastest time in the state this season and the 12th fastest in the country.
Reach Christopher Hunt at chunt@armorytrack.com.