3. Milligan pulls off a huge double
State College's Alex Milligan dropped an incredible 1600 not long after anchoring the winning 4x800 (Photo by Don Rich)
Alex Milligan of State College came in as an underdog in the AAA 1600 meter final on Saturday afternoon. It wasn't for lack of talent, but rather because Milligan wasn't far removed from running the anchor leg on the winning State College 4x800. He split a 1:52 to help his team set a new US#1 of 7:37.25 for state gold earlier in the day on Saturday.
Many of the heavy hitters in the 1600 field came into the race fresh. Downingtown West's Josh Hoey was the favorite after winning at the Penn Relays and at District 1. Seneca Valley's Mike Kolor was a strong threat as well. There were talented milers elsewhere in the field, and most of them coming into Saturday's race fresh.
But Milligan prevailed, running over six seconds faster than his previous PR, and winning in a time of 4:10.17. Those surprise first place points proved to be critical in the team race as well. Milligan played a major role in State College's one point win over Downingtown West for the AAA team championship.