Ever the perfectionist, Crater's Tyrone Gorze not satisfied even after setting 5A state meet record in boys 3,000
By René Ferrán
One might call Crater junior Tyrone Gorze a perfectionist.
After all, Gorze had just run a Class 5A meet record in winning the boys 3,000 meters Friday morning at the OSAA track and field championships at Hayward Field in Eugene.
Gorze, however, said there “definitely is a lot of room for improvement” after he fell short of matching the personal best he ran at last month’s Oregon Relays, winning in 8 minutes, 17.26 seconds.
“Maybe start out a little faster the first mile, but it wasn’t ideal today. It was a little windy on the backstretch,” he said. “Overall, it was a good race, and winning is definitely more important, but I was shooting obviously for a PR. I’ll take this win, but there’s lots of room for improvement.”
Gorze ran that personal-best 8:11.60 in a loaded field that included many of the runners who took the track following his race for the 6A race. He was asked if he’d wanted to post a time that would beat them.
“They’re different races,” he said. “Seeing all those guys get faster times, it’s like, I wish I was in the same race. So, it’s cool to watch them run, but then I’ll do my own race.”
That’ll be the case again Saturday afternoon, when the 5A 1,500 will run before the 6A's. Gorze said he feels he can improve upon the 3:50.31 he ran en route to a 4:08.24 mile at the Jesuit Twilight Relays, and then he has ambitious summer plans.
“I would like another 5K, for sure,” Gorze said. “I was close to breaking 14 (minutes) that last race (an elite all-comers meet two weeks ago in California), so I definitely want another chance at that. And I definitely want another shot at this race or a 2-mile.”
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