Michigan Native earns Revenge for 2007 Ogden Mile defeat

Pavicic Leads Under-4 Club

By JIM ELLIOTT, W.Va. Sports Editor
Anthony Pavicic raised his arms, and yelled in jubilation as he broke the tape, his hair trailing behind, the result only the wind of a sub 4-minute mile can produce. He’d waited 365 days for this. And nobody, not Dane Moreland of Lake Nebageman, Wisc., not Pat McGuire of Charlottesville, Va., was going to take it away.

Pavicic, who finished second in last year’s Ogden Mile race to Eric Putnam of Portsmouth, Ohio, found an extra gear on the last quarter mile of what is considered one of the fastest one-mile strips in America on his way to winning the race in a blistering time of 3:54.3.

‘‘The whole reason I came here was to win it. It was such a close race last year,’’ Pavicic said of his battle with Putnam. ‘‘There were three of us neck-and-neck for about a quarter mile. Then down the hill, I just broke free a little bit.’’

Moreland, a graduate student and assistant cross country coach at West Virginia University, finished second (3:56.9), and McGuire, the last of the 55 participants in the race to break the 4-minute mark, finished third (3:58.7).

Heather Wayt, Wheeling Central’s girls’ cross country coach, was the first female finisher at 4:53.3, while Sarasota, Fla.’s, David O’Meara, a man who was running the third leg of what will be a summer-long quest to complete 20, 1-mile races throughout the United States, won the Men’s Masters in a time of 4:28.9. Mary Chabala won the Women’s Master in a time of 7:36.6.

Still, this day, this race, belonged to Pavicic, a Michigan high school track coach who can’t wait to get back to the Sterling Heights area and tell his track athletes the story of how he’s run sub 4-minute miles in back-to-back years in Wheeling, W.Va.

Moreland, running alongside Pavicic and McGuire for much of the race, said by the time they’d turned the corner on 14th Street onto the home stretch, there was no way he was going to catch Pavicic.

‘‘He just put on a surge, and I couldn’t hang onto him,’’ Moreland said. ‘‘My legs were junk.’’

Pavicic, who shaved 4 seconds off his time from last year in the event, said he knows that feeling.

‘‘I think what he experienced this year is what I experienced last year,’’ Pavicic said. ‘‘I kinda knew what to expect, especially that last quarter. And I just had to keep turning my legs. I started my workouts a little bit earlier this year to get ready for this, and it obviously paid off.’’

Moreland gave it all he had when the start/finish line finally came into view, ‘‘for like 3 seconds there, but my legs were just seizing up,’’ he said. ‘‘The downhill does damage on your quads. Tears them apart.’’

O’Meara, 45, meanwhile, has been running all over the country and he’s seen just about every kind of terrain there is.

Still, he said the Ogden Mile course was ‘‘unusual.’’

Wanting to save his legs for a run Monday in Boardman, Ohio, O’Meara, was faster during the second half of his run (2:15 to 2:13).

‘‘I took off at the 800,’’ he said. ‘‘I just kinda glided down (Wheeling Hill). But everyone should run their (personal record) on this course.’’

Finishing fourth overall was Colin Gundling of Murrysville, Pa., and the first local finisher — in fifth place — was 17-year-old Russell Mulley, a Wheeling Park track runner.