Meet Results | All-Time 3200 MD Rankings
On Friday night, Centennial distance standout and Colorado commit Antonio Camacho-Bucks ran 8:58 and won the 3200 at the Glenn D. Loucks Games in Whiteplains New York. This performance ranks as the third-best 3200 ever from a Maryland athlete behind Matt Joblonski (Loyola Blakefield) and Dalton Hengst (McDonogh). Matt Centrowitz (Broadneck, 8:41), Graham Brazell (Atholton, 8:56), and Solomon Haile (Sherwood 8:56) have run faster for a full 2 miles. These athletes are some of the all-time greats that have come through Maryland and Camacho-Bucks has put his name right there with him.
Camacho-Bucks paced the race brilliantly, running his first 4 laps in 1:06, 1:08, 1:06, and 1:07 for the first mile, coming through in 4:29. He made a great move around the halfway mark moving up to the chase pack. His next three laps were 1:09, 1:10, and 1:11 as both he and the pack slowed down slightly. During this 7th lap, he fell back from 3rd to 6th place coming through 2800 at 8:00 and looked to have to settle for a time slightly over 9:00. But as anyone who has seen Camacho-Bucks race knows he has a deadly kick and he showed that. With about 350 to go, he started to move up and never stopped, running 57.5 for the last lap and winning at the line!
Speaking with Camacho-Bucks after the race he was ecstatic to go under the 9:00 barrier. "I'm really excited to be able to break 9. It's definitely been a goal of mine for a while now, and I am excited to have done it."
Camacho-Bucks described his game plan as trying to use the least amount of energy for the first half of the race, "I knew there was going to be a lot of strong competition so I wanted to stay relaxed as long as possible and follow the guys and close in when I felt comfortable."
Describing his 57.5 last lap and his mindset during that time, Camacho-Bucks stated, "I was coming up on 400 to go, I was looking at the clock and I see 8 flat and I was like I really want to break 9, so I gotta run 60, gotta start to close and squeeze it down...I kept picking guys off and kept on finding the next guy and kept on moving forward...With 200 to go, I kept accelerating and kept fighting down the final stretch...I just wanted to keep driving home and stay strong till the end.
He did just that, running 8:58.32, out-leaning a falling Aiden Cox from Coe Brown Academy by .03 seconds for the win.
