Geist completes stellar career

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June 21, 2008

By T.J. Turrisi The Meadville Tribune Sat Jun 21, 2008, 12:28 AM EDT

Meadville senior distance runner Andrew Geist is a man of few words. But his feet have a way of doing the talking.

Geist qualified for the state track meet for the second straight year in 2008. Last season, he made it as part of the District 10 champion 4x800-meter relay team.

This year, Geist became a district champion in the 1,600-meter run and finished 13th in the state with a time of 4:24.76 in the preliminaries. The heartbreaker was that he missed the final heat in Shippensburg by 0.33 second.

“Just missing it is a tough one, but it’s even tougher when you miss it by that amount,” Meadville coach Carl Roznowski said. “I tell the kids, it’s a game of inches where you either make it or you don’t.”

During the season, Geist participated in the 800- and 1,600-meter runs, as well as the 4x800-meter relay.

He led the pack of Class AAA boys distance runners all year in both cross country and track. The district championship sticks in Geist’s mind as his best moment on the track in 2008.

“Probably winning districts,” he said. “The first two laps were slow, and then I kind of just went out in front after that. I thought the pace was too slow, so I sped up.

“I heard the crowd telling the kid behind me to catch me, so I just kicked it with all I had until the end.”

Geist clocked in at 4:26.64, nearly five seconds in front of second-place finisher Carl Kallgren of McDowell (4:31.40) to win the 1,600 run.

He had to run the 800 shortly thereafter, and the final lap of the mile took its toll on Geist’s legs.

“I was trying to go for a record, but I didn’t really come close,” Geist said. “Districts I tried, but I was kind of dead from the mile.”

Adding the 800 as a senior was not only something new, but a completely different kind of training. Pace is not as important in a two-lapper, he said.

“It’s kind of hard because you have to do more speed stuff for that,” Geist said. “I am not quite as used to doing the speed workouts. My legs were dead.”

He did, however, set the stadium record in the 800 with a 2:02.00 on May 6 at Bender Field.

According to Geist, at states, the extremely large field is what may have kept him from making the finals.

“The reason why I think I didn’t get it was because I got pushed back twice,” he said. “Most of the time I had to go out to Lane 3 or 4 to run back up to the front. That really tired me out.”

For Roznowski, Geist’s most memorable moment actually came much earlier in the season.

“What comes to my mind was at Hickory, the way he was running,” Roznowski said. “It was a beautiful day, and he was running very well with some top athletes. It was early in the season and he was showing good progression to becoming even better.

“There was a lot of AA teams that had runners with similar speed. That kind of good competition brings out the best in all of us.”

Geist placed first in the 800 at the Hickory Invitational on April 19. He did not run the 1,600 at that meet.

Although the loss of a leader such as Geist is tough for the Meadville program, Roznowski knows Geist’s legacy will live on for now.

“Some of the younger kids are looking at what Andrew did and accomplished,” Roznowski said. “They’re coming up, and they want to be like him.

“We have a couple eighth-graders who will be ninth-graders in the cross country season. They look at Andrew as being a top runner they want to aspire to.”

Geist is looking into attending Edinboro University but has decided to take a year off before enrolling.

T.J. Turrisi can be reached at 724-6370, ext. 276, or by e-mail at tjturrisi@meadvilletribune.com.

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