Fredonia's Nick Guarino doubles as NCAA champ
VIDEOS: OWU Highlights video
1,500 preliminary post-race interview
1,500 final
1,500 post-race interview
800-meter final
800 post-race interview
STORIES: Flotrack.org Division III Spotlight
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DELAWARE, Ohio -- Nick Guarino accomplished a rare double at the NCAA Division III Track & Field championship meet Saturday at Ohio Wesleyan University.
In a span of 90 minutes, he won the men's 1,500 meters and the men's 800 meters. It was the first time a Fredonia State track and field athlete won two national titles at the same meet.
"Ecstatic is the way I'd describe it," said Guarino, a senior competing for the last time as a collegian. "I knew I had a shot at it but once I won the 1,500, it was, 'let's have fun, go out and see what I've got.' "
It turns out Guarino had plenty left for the 800 meters. With 100 meters to go, he and Ben Scheetz of Amherst were running shoulder to shoulder. Guarino outkicked Scheetz the rest of the way to cross the finish line in a new conference record time of 1:49.89. Scheetz was second in 1:50.79. The previous SUNYAC record was set in 1980 by former Blue Devil Neil Moore (1:50.26).
"The race set up just the way Nick wanted it to," Fredonia State head coach Tom Wilson said. "Scheetz was the No. 1 in the country coming into the race, Nick was No. 2. What's better than the No. 1 and No. 2 duking it out over the last 100 meters."
"It was my last 100 meters in college," Guarino said. "It was my last race, I wanted to go all out. He (Scheetz) was right there, so I gave it all I had."
The two wins gave Guarino five national titles -- in five attempts -- over the past two years. He's the only multiple national champ in the history of the men's program.
"Mentally it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be," he said. "I was a little tired the last two days (after preliminary races Thursday and Friday), but today I felt great, even after running the 1,500. It gave me a mental edge."
Guarino's winning 1,500-meter time was 3:53.43, a relatively mild performance for a runner attempting to double. The second-place finisher, Dan Sullivan of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, was clocked in 3:54.38.
Getting off to a good start, Guarino was second the first time past the grandstand, just off the right shoulder of the leader. The pack stayed bunched the next lap before Guarino gained a short lead. He opened a one-length lead, started the bell lap with 2:58 on the clock, then turned on the jets with 200 meters to go.
"That was a perfect race for him to double," Wilson said immediately after the first race. "No one pushed the pace. To do a 3:53 warms him up for the 800."
Willamette's Nick Symmonds was the most recent runner to double in the 1,500 and the 800. He won both races in 2003, 2005, and 2006. He has gone on to become one of the top half-milers in the U.S., with four national titles, and a berth on the 2008 Olympic team.
"I've never seen anything like this before in my track and field career," Wilson said of Guarino's performance Saturday. "It takes a lot of guts and a lot of hard work and a lot a trust in yourself to come back and win two races in 90 minutes."
The two wins also gave Fredonia State 20 points in the team standings, tied for ninth overall and ahead of all other SUNYAC schools with men competing at the national meet.
Guarino's twin brother, Josh Guarino, participated in the men's 3,000-meter steeplechase. After leading early in the first lap, Guarino fell back into the pack before clipping his heel on the steeple with 800 meters to go. He went down but eventually recovered to finish the race.
Josh Guarino was participating in his first NCAA meet, as was senior pole vaulter Broncho Rollins. After passing at the intial height, Rollins missed in all three attempts at 4.71 meters.
