Scales' late surge lifts Bells to historic win

Bellarmine Prep joins Long Beach Poly and John Muir as only California teams to win Championship of America titles with come-from-behind victory in boys DMR

By Erik Boal, DyeStat Editor

Bellarmine Prep, the oldest high school in the Western United States, knew it had the talent to make history, but the Championship of America boys distance medley relay Friday at the 123rd Penn Relays was all about trust, tenacity and toughness.

After an early stumble by Meika Beaudoin-Rousseau resulted in Bellarmine passing the baton in eighth place after the 1,200-meter leg, Tommy Rocha, Ben Micallef and Alex Scales rallied the Bells to a thrilling victory in 10 minutes, 6.10 seconds, holding off Carlisle PA in 10:06.45 at Franklin Field.

Bellarmine, which made the trip from San Jose, became the first California team to win the boys high school DMR since the event was first contested in 1920. In addition, the Bells became the only team West of Ohio to capture the coveted wheel and championship watches awarded to the DMR winners.

"I want my kids to know about the history of the sport and this is the 'Great American Track Meet.' There are other great meets like Drake Relays, but to me, this is the pinnacle. To win here means a lot," Bellarmine coach Patrick McCrystle said. "It's unbelievable. To stand down here and to look at the stadium that we've only seen in pictures and on TV is incredible. And to have the kids go out and leave it all on the track and perform like that, there's no other way to do it.

"Obviously, if you're going to come all the way out here, it's to run like that."

Scales covered the final 1,600 in 4:09.45, the fastest split in the field, to rally past Carlisle anchor Sam Affolder in the past 600 meters. Isaac Kole opened in 3:04.32 to give Carlisle a significant advantage over Bellarmine after Beaudoin-Rousseau split 3:11.42, but it wasn't enough of a margin for Jared Griffie and Jack Wisner to protect Affolder, who closed in 4:13.04.

"The kick required a little more than I expected it to," said Scales, who didn't leave the infield for more than 40 minutes after the race because of exhaustion.

"I didn't want to give up that position because I felt like I'd be letting the team down. When he passed me on the third lap, I knew I couldn't let him get too far ahead because I felt like as long as I stayed close, I could beat him at the end."
Rocha split 50.41 to begin to cut into the deficit and Micallef brought Scales within striking distance after covering his 800 leg in 1:54.84.

"Everyone has their strong point. We're not all the same and we all train in completely different ways and we haven't had the same lineup every time, but whoever is on the line on that day are our best contenders," Micallef said. "You have 20 states coming here and they're all full of talent, but there are some years where a team comes because it's the best team they've ever had and this year was our opportunity and that's why this is so amazing. I'm really proud of what we accomplished."

Bellarmine, which has had six athletes compete this year in DMR victories at the Dublin Distance Fiesta, Stanford Invitational and Arcadia Invitational, became the first California boys team to win any Championship of America relay since Long Beach Poly captured the 4x800 title in 2011.

Poly has also won the boys 4x100 and 4x400, with Muir High of Pasadena securing back-to-back victories in the 4x400 in 1996-97.

"I'm very proud of them, what it means to here in this stadium at this meet and to run like that, it's by far and away the coolest thing I've been associated with as a coach," McCrystle said. "The only thing we knew is that people come to this track and run faster than they've ever run before, so we knew it wasn't going to be like Stanford where we were all by ourselves (running a Central Coast Section record 10:03.67).

"We had to compete and run smart and that's exactly what these guys did. They got the baton to Alex with just enough space for him to catch (Affolder). After Meika almost got knocked down in the first 200, we were a little bit handicapped, but the guys hung tough and Alex made it happen, which is awesome. When Scales gets going, he's like a train and he wasn't going to be denied."