Of course, Robby Andrews loves The Armory.
That’s where he set the National Scholastic 1000-meter record of 2:22.28, at the New Balance Armory Collegiate Invitational, as a senior at New Jersey’s Manalapan High School, last February.
Of course, Robby Andrews loves The Armory.
That’s where he set the National Sholastic 800-meter record of 1:49.21, at the National Interscholastic Indoor Championships, last March.
Of course, Robby Andrews loves The Armory.
That’s where he won the 800 meters in 1:48.02 as a University of Virginia freshman, running the Armory Saturday Night Meet on Feb. 13.
That 1:48.02, of course, became his qualifying ticket to the NCAA Championships.
However, following the events of March 12-13, Robby Andrews asks for understanding. Of course, he remains fiercely loyal to The Armory, but the fact is that he happens to have found another track to love.
It’s the University of Arkansas’ Randal Tyson Center 200-meter oval in Fayetteville, scene of his astoundingly eye-opening triumph in the NCAA Championships last Saturday night.
Rocketing around the final turn of the NCAA 800-meter final, Andrews not only outspurted seven other collegiate greats, among them University of Oregon senior Andrew Wheating, who’d run for the USA at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, but completed an undefeated winter season.
Andrews got to the finish line in 1:48.39, to Wheating’s 1:48.40 and third-placer Ryan Foster’s 1:48.79 for Penn State. Right on their heels in a packed finish were LSU’s Richard Jones (1:48.92) and Wisconsin’s Zach Mellon (1:49.08.)
Just one other Virginia athlete had ever won the NCAA 800 meters. That was
Paul Ereng in 1989 and before he was an NCAA champion Ereng was the 1988 Olympic 800 champion for Kenya.
To NCAA-goers, this was a huge upset. He’d beaten the longest kind of odds.
In Robby Andrews' own words, “this is unbelievable,.”
Soon as he caught his breath - and caught up to the reality of the achievement - he added to his personal astonishment.
“There were so many great guys in the field and running in this race,” he said. “I never thought this could happen, but my coaches and my Dad gave me the confidence I needed. I am so thankful for such a great support crew.
“It just feels really good.”
Obviously.
His Dad, Bob Andrews, had flown out to Arkansas from New Jersey to see this one. He returned on the Sunday - but continues walking on Cloud Nine.
Initial strategy plotted by Virginia Coach Jason Vigilante was for Andrews to
hang with the pack and make his big move with about 150 meters to go.
But then, by consensus, a revision was written into the script.
“This guy (Wheating) is just too good, and strong, and experienced, to be able to do that, we realized,” said Bob Andrews, himself a noted 800 man and track coach.
”The only way to get around him was to save it for the last turn, the final 50 meters. To sneak by him, to zap him before he knew what happened, and leave him no room to come back on you. Just accelerate coming down off that last turn and bring it in.”
That was the game plan that worked out to perfection.
Andrews hit the line a winner by the slimmest of margins, all of 1/100th of a second. But an NCAA champion all the same. It was the closest finish all night - the 60-meter dash was decided by 3/100ths, the 200 by 8/100ths, the 400 by a huge 4/10ths.
“It was a one-in-a-million thing,” said Bob Andrews. “God just blessed him again.”
Running and racing, perfect together, that’s the Andrews family of Manalapan Township, Monmouth County, NJ.
Robby’s big sister, Kristin, is a top performer for the St. Joseph’s University of Philadelphia women’s team, holds the SJU record for 1:15.00 for the indoor 500 meters, and recently won the Atlantic 10 Conference title in the 500.
Bob Andrews was an outstanding 800-meter runner for Staten Island’s Tottenville High School, where he was coached by the legendary Bill Welsh.
He went on to the University of Pennsylvania and was a star for the Quakers of Coach Jim Tuppeny, setting a Penn record of 2:26.0 for the indoor 1000 meters and starring on the IC4A and Heptagonal circuits and at Penn’s own Relays.
Unlike so many other collegiate runners, though, Andrews was never ready to hang up his spiked shoes, So he continued on the open circuit, representing the Westchester Track Club and coached by Mike Barnow, where he set his 800-meter P.R. of 1:49.76 five years after graduation from Penn.
The Westchester club fielded dynamite relay teams with Andrews a big part of
them - once teaming with Tony Colon, Bill Krohn and Tom Donahue on a near-world record 4xmile team.
Now, at 51, he continues running at a high level as a member of the Shore Athletic Club Masters Team.
Robby Andrews’ Mom, the former Mary Perrota, was a track star in her own right.
At Staten Island’s Moore Catholic High School, she ran on a winning 4x400 team at the Penn Relays, excelled at both 400 and 800, and set a Staten Island record in the heptathlon.
It goes back another generation, too.
Grandpa Adrian Andrews was a member of a national scholastic cross country championship team, then starred for the Manhattan College teams coached by Pete Waters that were major powers of their day. Among other things, he ran on a second-place 4x800 team at the Penn Relays.
His Grandma, Marian Thomson, had all the ability of an Olympian. Three times, 1935-36-37, competing for the German-American AC of New York, she ran second in the National AAU 200-meter dash. Only trouble was that the longest Olympic distance for women in 1936 was 100 meters.
One of Bob’s uncles, James Thomson, competed in track and soccer at
Columbia University. Two other uncles, Joseph Perotta (Midwood High School) and Frank Perrota (Erasmus Hall) competed for Brooklyn schools.
But the most famous member of the extended family continues to be
uncle Bobby Thomson.
Yes, the Bobby Thomson of baseball fame, who enjoyed a 15-year major league career and in 1951 slugged the homer off Ralph Branca - often called “the shot heard round the world’ - that sunk the Brooklyn Dodgers and sent the New York Giants into the World Series against the Yankees.
Born in Glasgow, he was often called “The Staten Island Scot.” But to family members, he was always “The Flying Scot,” a tribute to his speed - in the outfield, around the basepaths, and almost always, as the fastest of the clan in family footraces of every description.
Bob Andrews served as track coach at Curtis High School for 13 years and now is assistant principal for administration at Staten Island Technical High School.
Bob Andrews had never forced the sport on his children. Track had never been work, had always been fun.
Years earlier, he remembers taking Robby to a youth meet, and his son just not ready to take on the competitive challenge.
“That was OK," said Dad. "So don’t run.” It was never made it an issue.
“We just went out and got an ice cream.”
One more memorable moment for the Andrews family came at the 2007 USA Track and Field National Club Championships at Icahn Stadium, Randall’s Island. Father and son, Bob and Robby, got to run on the Shore AC 4x800 relay team, sharing the baton and scoring the points that helped Shore AC win the National Club team title.
Robby had just completed his sophomore year at Manalapan High that summer. He went on to two more years of stardom for the Manalapan Braves, topped by his two indoor national records, then his 1:48.66 outdoor 800 and 4:03.49 mile last spring, with heaps of gold medals and major media attention along the way.
As the curtain rang down on the NCAA Championships last Saturday night, Bob and Robby Andrews happened upon John McDonnell, the great (and now retired) Arkansas coach whose array of NCAA team titles tops any coach’s in national history.
They got to talking - first about New Jersey, where McDonnell had once been a dominating road runner and in 1964 was the first winner of the Asbury Park Polar Bear 5K race.
And then about the young man who’d just won the NCAA 800 meters.
“You’re going to be an Olympian,” predicted McDonnell.
That ultimate compliment was received with respectful thanks.
Robby Andrews, the new NCAA champion, has always known he can only run one race at a time.