Post Track Season

Tanner didn't like taking second at state.  It left a bad taste in his mouth, so when Marcus Dickson (a BYU recruit from White River) asked Tanner if he wanted to run in the Border Dual meet with him the following weekend Tanner accepted. The top runners from Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana would be there.

Marcus, who is a very talented runner, told Tanner he would pace him.  Marcus was gunning to break the state record in the 800m.  If Tanner stuck with him he could top the first place time at the state meet and take what was rightfully his, a state title.

Tanner (443) and Marcus Dickson (464) at the Border Dual

Before the meet Tanner was a ball of nerves.  Marcus told him he was going to run the first lap in 53 seconds.  Tanner wasn't sure that was the race he wanted to run, but he trusted Marcus and stuck to him like glue, then decided in the last 100m he wasn't going to take second to Marcus either.  Tanner turned up the speed, overtook Marcus and placed first breaking the Washington state high school record and becoming the fastest high school 800m runner in the nation for 2012.  We didn't even know what he had done until someone in the stands told us what a remarkable run it was.  In 1:48.74 Tanner's life changed. 


 To see an article about this event see:  http://espn.go.com/blog/high-school/track-and-xc/post/_/id/3739/sork-dickson-crash-washington-800-record

Here is a video of the race:  http://youtube.ng/watch?v=LgRzwPKvg4w&feature=relmfu

The second we got home the phone was ringing - coaches were calling to see if Tanner had decided on a college yet and had scholarship offers for him.  Luckily BYU was one of those calls.  The star 800m runner from BYU had seen a post about the race by Marcus and called the BYU coach and told him he better get on the phone with Tanner and get him signed.  That he did.  The coach also encouraged Tanner to go to the Junior National Championships in Indiana and compete for a spot on the Junior USA team that would compete in the World Junior Championships in Barcelona, Spain in July.

Tanner signing his letter of intent for BYU

That gave us a lot to think about.  Tanner was set to start BYU the same weekend the National meet was held, and if he did make it on the US team he would be missing a lot of his summer term to go to Barcelona to compete.  After lots of prayers we decided this was an opportunity we needed to make happen for Tanner.

Tanner Sork (left) surges to the finish line to take the victory in the 800 in 1:49.10 at the Portland Track Festival.

We entered Tanner in another race, The Portland Track Festival, this time he would run against college and pro runners to see how he could do and if Barcelona was within his grasp.  He didn't disappoint.  He ran another sub 1:50 800m, taking first against seasoned runners.

Here is the link to this race: http://www.runnerspace.com/eprofile.php?event_id=139&do=videos&video_id=71084

If there was any doubt in our minds, there wasn't anymore.  We definitely needed to send him to Indiana for the Junior USA National Championships.