National titles topped Andrews’ great season

Manalapan grad is picked as Male Athlete of the Year

BY TIM MORRIS Staff Writer

The U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials in June 2008 were a turning point for Robby Andrews. At that time Andrews was getting ready to begin his senior year at Manalapan High School.

ERIC SUCAR staff For the last two years, this was a familiar sight in New Jersey high school track — Manalapan High School's Robby Andrews ahead of the field and heading to the finish line to win a race. Andrews is the News Transcript Senior Male Athlete of the Year. ERIC SUCAR staff For the last two years, this was a familiar sight in New Jersey high school track — Manalapan High School’s Robby Andrews ahead of the field and heading to the finish line to win a race. Andrews is the News Transcript Senior Male Athlete of the Year. Attending the trials, which were held at the University of Oregon’s historic Hayward Field, with his father, Rob Sr., Andrews was moved by what he witnessed. Chief among the experience was watching Nick Symmonds’ rousing come-frombehind win in the 800-meter run that had Hayward Field rocking.

That provided Andrews with all of the motivation he would need for his final year of scholastic competition.

“I said to myself, I don’t want to lose anymore,” he recalled. “I want to do something special.”

Andrews’ year of competition from the fall of 2008 through the spring of 2009 included setting two indoor national records (800 and 1,000 meters) and winning two national championships at 800 meters (indoors and outdoors).

In recognition of his outstanding achievements during the 2008-09 school year, Andrews has been named by the News Transcript as its Senior Male Athlete of the Year.

Andrews put together one of the finest seasons ever by a Freehold Regional High School District runner, taking his place alongside Colts Neck High School’s Craig Forys and Manalapan High School’s Tom Fischer as one of the three best high school middle distance and distance runners in the area’s history. He will be furthering his running career at the University of Virginia this fall.To achieve such remarkable success required a long-term plan that started as soon as Andrews got home from Oregon in the summer of 2008.

For Andrews that meant putting in more miles during the summer and throughout the cross country season. He knew that would compromise his cross country season somewhat as he aimed for the indoor and outdoor track seasons.

Still, he had a great campaign in the fall, capturing his first cross country state championships (Central Jersey Group IV and state Group IV crowns) and finishing fifth at the NJSIAA Meet of Champions. He dipped under 16:00 at Holmdel Park (15:58), which is a significant benchmark for scholastic runners.

The cross country success was only the prelude for bigger things to come. Since he ran his stunning indoor 2:30 1,000 meters in 2008,Andrews had his eyes set on breaking that record.

First, however, came the Millrose Games in New York City and some payback. When Andrews said he was tired of losing, he was referring to his three agonizing second-place finishes in the previous year: a close second at the Millrose Games, a dramatic loss in the high school mile at the Penn Relays, and a runner-up to now-friend Brett Johnson of Ocean City in the 1,600 meters at the outdoor Meet of Champions.

Andrews put the “can’t win the big one” label to rest in a tactically superb mile race at the Millrose Games at Madison Square Garden. He timed his kick perfectly in destroying the field over the last 150 yards and winning in 4:17.42. It wasn’t a fast time, but it got the monkey off his back. Plus, Andrews was the first Shore Conference male to win the Millrose Games high school mile.

“Millrose was a great accomplishment, but it was not the goal,” Andrews said. “It was a big step and it gave me so much confidence. That pretty much set the mood for the 1,000. I was going to do what it takes and go for the record. I was prepared for it and had so much confidence.”

In a 1,000-meter race at the New York Armory, Andrews abandoned his sit-andkick strategy and ran from the front. After a slow first quarter, he blasted to the front and never looked back. In setting the national record for 1,000 meters with his time of 2:22.68, Andrews took a big step toward proving he was not a one-dimensional runner.

“I led for 600 of the 1,000 meters,” he noted. “I felt amazing during the race.”

Setting any national record is impressive, but Andrews knew it wasn’t just any record be had broken. The previous mark for 1,000 meters was set by Alan Webb, who went on to set the high school mile record that year.

Having pocketed the 1,000-meter record, there was more to come. Andrews won the Eastern States mile in 4:12.31 at the New York Armory before running the 800 meters at the National Scholastic Indoor Championships. There, he won his first national title and set his second national record. He became the first runner under 1:50 for 800 meters with his sizzling time of 1:49.21.

That performance set the stage for his equally impressive outdoor season in the spring of 2009, which began in earnest at the Penn Relays at Franklin Field in Philadelphia. Only this time he wasn’t back to avenge his loss in the mile; he gave up that opportunity in order to run with his Manalapan teammates on the distance medley relay team.

“They work hard,” he said of his teammates. “I wanted to give them a shot at success.”

Andrews came through with a 4:06.2 anchor 1,600 (eighth best in history) to bring the Braves from the middle of the pack to a third-place medal in the distance medley relay.

Freshman Anthony Menza, who ran the 400-meter leg for the distance medley relay team, commented on the inspiration that Andrews brought to the Manalapan team.

“I never met anyone like him before, with his determination and heart,” Menza said. “You always expect something great.”

“Something great” would be Andrews’ decision to drop down to run the 400-meter dash at the Shore Conference Championships and winning the crown.

June was a huge month for Andrews. He claimed his first outdoor NJSIAA Meet of Champions crown by winning the 800 in a meet record time of 1:48.66, the fastest time in New Jersey history and the swiftest time run in the country for 2009.

All spring, Andrews wanted to run a fast mile and that opportunity came in Oregon at the Portland Track Festival. He flew across the United States to take on some of the nation’s best milers and was rewarded with a second-place finish in 4:03.49. It was the second fastest mile ever run by a New Jersey high school runner, behind only the great Marty Liquori (who ran 3:59.8 in 1967).

There was still one final race in Andrews’ scholastic career: the Nike Outdoor Nationals in Greensboro, N.C., where the Manalapan performer would attempt to add the outdoor national title to his indoor national crown.

It had been a long season, but Andrews said he had one more race left in his legs and he did, kicking home in 1:50.05 to win the Nike Outdoor National 800-meter championship.

Throughout his rise to the top, Andrews has remained very humble and has kept everything in perspective.

“I always remembered where I came from,” he said.

When he set his first national record, he said, he woke up the next day in the same bedroom and was still the same person he was prior to setting the record. Andrews credits his father, a fine runner in his own right who ran for the University of Pennsylvania and is still a top-notch Masters runner competing with the Shore Athletic Club, with helping him to remain so modest.

“My dad talked about being humble but confident on the starting line,” he said.

Humble but confident proved to be a winning combination for Andrews during his high school career.

If the U.S. Olympic Trials were a turning point for his son, they were for coach Rob Andrews as well.

Andrews was never one to interfere with his son’s running, despite his 30 years of coaching experience in New York City schools. He encouraged his son to play basketball (which Robby Andrews did as a freshman and sophomore at Manalapan) and to have fun in high school.

Gradually Andrews became a volunteer coach at Manalapan, arranging the workouts for the cross country season and for the distance runners during the indoor and outdoor seasons. Of course, it was he who would arrange his son’s workouts as well. He thanked Manalapan head coach Jim Tweed for “making me part of the team.”

In Eugene, Ore., a coach had suggested to Rob that he should have someone else oversee Robby’s workouts because as a father he would not want to see his son struggle during workouts. He took the message to heart.

“I made sure that I didn’t shy away from the tough workouts,” Andrews said, adding that the key to coaching his son was trust.

His son agreed.

“In training I never really questioned him,” Robby said. “Sometimes it would get rough, but he never crossed the line. Health was always No. 1. He really understands me.”

Looking back on the past year, Andrews said his father “did all the right things. I’m so happy with the decision.”

The elder Andrews knew he had a student who wanted to learn.

“He was very, very eager to get better,” the father said. “He trusted me to get him on that track.”

It was the 1:52.56 800 meters that Andrews ran as a sophomore in finishing fourth at the 2007 outdoor Meet of Champions that solidified his track future.

He stopped playing basketball the next winter and ran indoor track for the first time during the winter of 2007. He ran his 2:30 1,000 meters just two weeks after the 2007 cross country season had ended.

Before the winter season was over, he had won the Meet of Champions 800-meter title and was on his way to stardom.

Father and son agree that the experience has brought the two of them closer together. Andrews said coaching Robby gave him more time with his son than he would have had and it enhanced their relationship.

“We tried to make track time track time, and not track time anything but track,” Rob said.

Andrews said that in addition to his own coaching experience in New York City, he consulted with area coaches and looked into the work of noted cross country coach Jack Daniels.

For Christmas, his wife, Mary, bought him a book by Peter Coe, which also influenced his coaching. Peter Coe was the father of Sebastian Coe, one of history’s greatest middle distance runners.

Sebastian Coe set 15 world records during his career, including the 1-mile mark three times, and is the only runner in Olympic history to win back-to-back gold medals at 1,500 meters (1980 and 1984). They, too, had a father-son coaching relationship that obviously worked.

One workout Andrews picked up from Peter Coe was what Robby would call “the magic workout.” It involved a series of sprints. He would start out with a 100-meter sprint at near race pace and jog back. He would then run 110 meters, adding one second to his 100-meter time.

He would continue at 10-meter intervals, adding one second each time, until he reached 200 meters. It was a taxing workout, but magic indeed. He ran that workout before every big race this season, including his two national record runs and his 4:03.49 mile.

Outside of the 1,000-meter record, the elder Andrews said that he and his son were not obsessed with time. The approach, he said, was not to set any real time, but to set a dream and let it happen.

In doing so, Robby Andrews had an unforgettable year in 2008-09.