SPOKANE, WA - There hasn't been anything to look forward to on the weekend for the last two months in Washington. For some of us, it was just to survive Saturday and Sunday and get back to school and work on Monday.
Ian Barville, a student at University High School, had his senior track and field season taken away like everyone else due to the Coronavirus Pandemic that has impacted the state of Washington and the rest of the country.
With the season being cancelled, Barville still managed to get some workouts in and train this spring, hoping to throw in a couple of time trials at the end of May.
"I'm just looking forward to when we can do an all-comers race this summer." said Barville in an interview on Wednesday.
But he couldn't wait for the summer.
Barville had been getting together with a couple of his teammates to help him push his efforts in these time trials, while social distancing of course.
The University senior ran an 800-meter time trial in the first week of May running a time of 1:56, which would have earned him a fifth place finish at the 4A State Track and Field Championships last spring.
About a week ago, Barville was contacting a few guys from around the Spokane area to see if they wanted to meet at a track for a 1,600-meter time trial and quite a few runners responded, including the 2019 4A state cross country champion and Gonzaga University committ, Lewis & Clark's Wil Smith.
"Couple of weeks ago, I have been thinking of running some fast times, and my coach brought up running a fast time trial this weekend," said Smith.
"I knew Ian was thinking about time trialing as well, so I reached out to him and that's kind of how it all started."
Barville had also reached out to his own former teammate Travis Hicks, and Chiawana's Austin Bachman and Eastmont's Jarred Barnes.
When word got around there was going to be a race in Spokane, Kamiakin's own Isaac Teeples, the 2019 3A state cross country state champion, Grayson Wilcott and Drew Barnes immediately messaged Barville about joining in.
"When I first heard about this, my first thought was 'Can we hop into it?'," said Teeples.
"Once we figured it out that we could, we were all super pumped because I obviously haven't seen anybody all season and was looking forward racing some new faces."
And the Eastside 1,600 Classic was born.
A total of 14 runners met up at a track in Spokane for the historic race on Saturday, May 23, and Kennewick High School graduate and current Spokane Falls Community College runner, Johan Correa, went on to win in a time of 4 minutes, 14.43 seconds.
The 2018 3A state cross country champion took an early lead for the first 200 meters before sitting behind Teeples as they came across their first lap in 62 seconds.
As Teeples began to increase his lead on lap two, Correa settled back with the rest of the pack and would come through the halfway point of the race at 2:08-2:09.
"The first couple of laps I was really relaxed," said Correa.
"Once Isaac went past me, I wasn't trying to force the pace or anything like that. I wasn't really shooting for a time either because I just wanted to see where I was going to be."
The leader would change again as Lewis & Clark's Smith went up front going into lap three.
Just like he did at the state cross country meet in Pasco after mile two, Smith made a quick surge on the backstretch straightaway, giving himself a 10 meter gap from Teeples and Correa.
However that lead wouldn't last very long.
Coming around under 500 meters to go, Correa sat on Smith going into the final lap up until 300 meters to go when he took off using that speed he is known for.
"I just kept telling myself to stay relaxed and not lose control," said Correa on his final lap efforts.
"The last 300 meters I kept telling myself 'I need to go now.' I passed Wil (Smith) and I just hauled it through the last 200 meters. It was a good race and it was fun to help these guys out."
Teeples made his way back up on the final lap to finish second overall in a new personal best time of 4:15.7.
Eastmont's Barnes made a late comeback in the final 200 meters after being in sixth place for most of the race and finished in third with a seven second personal best time of 4:16.4.
Barnes, who was 11th at the 4A state cross country championships running a personal best time of 15:27.9, was really looking forward to his final season of track and getting back to the state meet for the first time since his sophomore year, so this was the perfect opportunity to showcase the work he has put in.
"It was a lot of fun and it was great to get out here and race," said Barnes.
"My goal was to hang with the top racers for the first 1,000 meters and see what I could do with the finish and it turned out a lot better for me than expected."
Smith was fourth running a time of 4:16.9.
Chiawana's Bachman ran a personal best time of 4:21 placing fifth, followed by University graduate and Spokane Falls runner Hicks in sixth running 4:24.6 and University's Barville in seventh running 4:27.2.
Central Valley graduate and Western Washington University runner Joey Nicholls rounded out the top eight running 4:28.3.
Race footage can be found below here:
Unofficial Results:
1. Johan Correa - 4:14.4
2. Isaac Teeples - 4:15.7
3. Jarred Barnes - 4:16.4
4. Wil Smith - 4:16.9
5. Austin Bachman - 4:21
6. Travis Hicks - 4:24.6
7. Ian Barville - 4:27.2
8. Joey Nicholls - 4:28.3
9. Ben Sonneland - 4:28.3
10. Jake McIntyre - 4:34
11. Grayson Wilcott - 4:34.4
12. Jon Hansen - 4:39.4
13. Drew Larson - 4:40.5
14. Lukas Brown - 4:44.6