Tyrone Gorze of Crater finishes standout high school career with few regrets: ‘It’s been an amazing, fast four years’

By René Ferrán | Photo by Brynn Kleinke 

EUGENE — It was a deja vu weekend for one of the nation’s top high school distance runners. 

On Friday, there was Crater senior Tyrone Gorze, taking aim at the state record in the Class 5A boys 3,000 meters at the OSAA track and field state championships, coming up less than a second shy of taking it down.

The next day, Gorze found himself dueling with one of the Northwest’s leading middle distance standouts on the final lap of the 1,500, trying to muster the energy for one last blistering lap in a Comets singlet. 

And like last year, Gorze came up just short, as Wilsonville senior Carter Cutting pulled away on the homestretch to deny the University of Washington signee the distance double.

“You know, yesterday was a really good day,” Gorze said, reflecting on his weekend. “Then, today was also a pretty good day. I mean, it’s tough to get second, but I still came away with a PR, and I can’t complain too much.”

For Cutting, a BYU signee, outdueling a runner like Gorze — the national record-holder in the high school indoor 5,000 — at Hayward Field was a significant moment.

“I mean, what other meet gives you the gun bullet from the starter?” he said, fingering the envelope holding the shell from the race’s start. “No venue is better than this in the nation. It’s a lot of fun racing in this environment against Tyrone. Just the atmosphere, the people here are true track fans, and to be racing with some of the best runners in the nation is just pretty special.”

Gorze did something very special in Friday’s 3K, breaking away from Milwaukie’s Logan Law midway through the race to take a shot at Olympic champion Galen Rupp’s 19-year-old state record of 8 minutes, 3.67 seconds.

With two laps remaining, he appeared on pace to do so, but in his mind, a 65.1 penultimate lap sealed his fate. He finished with a 63.1 final 400 meters, leaving him 93-hundredths of a second short — his 8:04.60 putting him between Rupp and another runner you might have heard of (Steve Prefontaine) in No. 2 in state history and No. 8 all-time nationally. 

“I feel like I could have closed out with a 60 or a sub-60, was hoping for a little faster, but I’m still satisfied with how I did,” Gorze said. “To win was the most important, but then PR, then Rupp, then sub-8 (minutes). To think about it, I can’t be too upset.”

Gorze considered Friday’s race “a better effort” than the 13:45.81 over 5K he ran this month at the On Running Track Fest in California, then compared Friday’s race with the 8:05.17 he ran indoors in January. 

“It’s kind of different racing,” he explained. “In my indoor 3K, I was running with collegians and pros, so I got dragged along. It was almost like a time trial. Today, people are looking to you to lead the race, so definitely a different pressure. I like getting into high school races. I don’t like how some people aren’t racing high schoolers at all. That takes the joy out of competing and winning.”

That segues into Saturday’s duel with Cutting. The duo broke away from Law on the bell lap, racing virtually side-by-side as they entered the first curve. Cutting opened a slight lead, knowing that Gorze would want to start his kick sooner rather than later.

“Every time Tyrone got on me, I just surged a little bit, because he’s that type of runner and really strong,” Cutting said. “I just knew if I could hold him off on that final bend that I could outpush him.”

As they rounded the final curve to the homestretch, he had a brief flashback to the Oregon Relays, when Roosevelt’s William Heslam caught him, “and I was like, I’m not going to let that happen again,” Cutting said. “Like, give everything I have — I don’t care if I collapse at the finish line. I just don’t want to get beaten in the last 100, so that was kind of a little fuel to my fire.”

Cutting didn’t collapse, finishing in 3:47.18 to move to No. 5 on the all-time state list. He had plenty in reserve for the 800 later in the afternoon, taking the lead from the get-go and smashing the meet record by almost two seconds, winning in 1:50.82.

“Honestly, I might have actually felt better before the 800 than I did the 1,500,” Cutting said. “I was going for a 1:49. I just didn’t get out as fast as I wanted, but I mean, the state meet has kind of been the goal all season, so it came around nicely.”

Gorze watched the 800 from the stands, cheering on three of his teammates, having completed his high school career with a personal-best 3:48.67 that is No. 9 on the all-time list and few regrets.

“It was still a good race,” he said. “I felt like I could have been running 3:45. But it’s cool that you get to come to state, you get to run fast times. It’s a really neat experience.”

For all the individual accolades he’s accumulated — All-American in cross country, back-to-back state titles in cross country and the 3,000, qualifying for the U.S. team for the World U-20 championships — Gorze said he is most proud of being a member of Crater’s back-to-back state champion cross country program.

“It’s cool to do individual things, but to win state two times in cross country was a really neat experience,” he said. “I’ve had a lot of success, with the ups and definitely a lot of downs, but it’s been an amazing, fast four years. To finish this high school career off today, it’s hard to say right now after the race. I’m sure I’ll feel a little sad later, but it’s been a really exciting, fun experience.”