Santoro Smashes 800m Record in Winning Arcadia Heat, Six More 'PRs' Set in California

Senior Arthur Santoro continued his assault on the JCP record books by winning his heat of the prestigious Arcadia Invitational on Saturday, April 8th, in a blazing 1:54.86.  The time is currently number 2 in the state of Illinois and is over 2 seconds faster than the previous school record.  Santoro moved out of a tight box 200 meters into the crowded race, and pulled away from the field with 300 meters left to earn himself a gold medal for winning the heat.  Santoro now owns the school record outdoors in the 200, 400 and 800 meter runs and is a member of the school record 4x800 meter relay.

On Friday Santoro anchored the 4x1600 meter relay team to a 7th place finish with a personal best 4:24 clocking.  Jeremy Brown led off the team with a huge PR in 4:31, followed by Daniel Garcia-Rico (4:38) and Zach Benes (4:33).  The Eagle quartet were the first to run this event in Jones history and have set a tough record to break. 

Senior Jeremy Adams ran a gutsy race in the 3200, clocking 9:30.74.  The Distance Medley Relay team of Zach Benes, Arthur Santoro, Jeremy Brown and Jeremy Adams ran a #2 all time 10:49.99.

The Eagles also saw great performances a few miles away at the South Pasadena Tiger Invite, taking advantage of the cool nighttime weather to run fast two mile races.  Senior Eric Wong ran a gutsy race to shave 6 seconds off his 3200m PR, running 9:50.00.  Junior Nicholas Rappe became the third Jones runner to break the 10 minute barrier, using a strong finishing kick to run 9:54.  Junior Ruben Coronel improved his PR to 10:14.03. Sophomore AJ Fundator ran 10:30.15.

After two days of hard racing the runners ran nearly 3,000 feet of elevation up Mount Wilson in Sierra Madre California, before flying back to Chicago.