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Tyrone Gorze of Crater a double qualifier for Under-20 world track championships: ‘The hard work is paying off’

“Racing at the national level was always my interest throughout the season.”

By René Ferrán 

Following Tyrone Gorze’s victory in the Class 5A 3,000 meters at last month’s OSAA state track and field championships, the rising Crater senior said he still had “lots of room for improvement” as he eyed a busy summer ahead. 

Safe to say that after earning a second spot on Team USA for the Under-20 world championships Saturday evening with a second-place finish in the 3K at the U.S. U-20 Outdoor Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene, Gorze has made that improvement?

“Yeah, for sure,” he said by text after completing the paperwork for his trip to Cali, Colombia, in early August for the World U-20s. “To qualify for this meet at this level definitely shows that the hard work is paying off.”

Gorze prepped for the U-20 national meet by running the sixth-fastest 10K time by a high schooler at the Portland Track Festival in early June.

“Racing at the national level was always my interest throughout the season,” Gorze said. “At the start of the season, I hadn’t fully decided my post-state season, but I was definitely interested in racing at a national meet. The U-20s came up at the best time, and I am truly grateful I got the opportunity to race here.”

On Thursday night, he opened the meet by winning the 5,000 meters, building a five-second lead at the midway point before holding on to win in 14 minutes, 8.08 seconds.

Less than 48 hours later, Gorze showed that the 5K hadn’t completely sapped his energy. He started the 3K slowly, sitting last after one lap, and was still in seventh at the midway point.

That’s when Gorze began making his move. With 1,000 meters to go, he’d moved up to fourth, then surged to the lead with a lap to go, locked in a three-way battle with Georgetown freshman Lucas Guerra and James Wischusen, a rising junior from New Jersey.

Guerra nosed ahead as the trio entered the final curve and exited it a second ahead of Gorze, eventually pulling away to win in 8:19.36. Gorze and Wischusen were side-by-side entering the homestretch before Gorze put on a withering kick to put him away, taking second in 8:21.03 (Wischusen’s time was 8:23.28).

“It was definitely not easy to race both the 5K and 3K,” Gorze said. “But I felt ready to race in both, and I showed that I was ready.”

Gorze’s teammate at Crater, rising sophomore Josiah Tostenson, finished sixth in the 3,000 in 8:38.53. Tostenson also ran in Thursday’s 5K, placing 12th in 14:40.08.

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