WEST WINDSOR: Pirates treasure sub-5:00 mile club

WW-P South runs to record year

By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
   Glen Bortolus didn’t get to run in a lot of varsity races for the West Windsor-Plainsboro South boys track and field team, but he holds a special spot on the team.
   In the team’s final time trial of the spring, the sophomore became the 30th and final Pirate runner to break 5:00 for 1,600 meters this year.
   ”That’s really important for me,” Bortolus said. “I’ve been working on track and cross country since freshman year. This is the prime thing we all shoot for. When you join, you see all the big varsity kids breaking 5. It’s really great. I’m glad to join a lot of my teammates on that list. It’s pretty amazing that we have 30.”
   The 30 members of WW-P South’s Sub-5 Club are believed to put the Pirates among the nation’s best. Only two others schools on a Dyestat.com posting have as many sub-5:00 milers. The Pirates have 55 distance runners in their program. WW-P North is a strong distance school that counts 17 sub-five milers among its 30 distance runners, including six freshmen.
   ”At the end of the year, one school in Minnesota had 34, but they were counting an eighth-grader,” said Pirates distance coach Kurt Wayton. “There’s a school in Illinois with 31, but they have 4,700 students.
   ”We had 18 last year. That seemed like a lot. You want to get a little better every year. Our goal was 25. We got to a month to go in the season, and I realized we’d be a lot better than 25, so 30 was our new goal. Last year, our goal was 20 so you never know. It’s fantastic. Five minutes is not an elite time, but if you can break five minutes, you have some good training and some good ability.”
   Bortolus is reserved about his ability, but quick to credit his teammates and coaches for helping him to train to reach a milestone mark. In the final time trial, Niv Marmareddy pushed the early pace. He nearly became No. 31 but finished painstakingly close in 5:00.2. Jeffrey Chen finished just ahead of Bortolus to also join the club that day.
   ”I had a bunch of great guys around me,” Bortolus said. “It’s really their effort that helped push me over. On a team with a lot of talent, all your teammates try to push you to get that sub-five. I’m thankful for the guys that helped me and they’ve helped a lot of other kids in the school.”
   Bortolus was a freshman when Wayton saw him in the hallway and asked him to join the cross country team.
   ”At the beginning, I was a scrawny little freshman. I was intimidated,” Bortolus said. “Once I joined cross country, I found I really liked it.”
   He finished his freshman year with a personal record of 5:18 in the mile. His lowered his best considerably over the final four months before finally cracking five minutes.
   ”I came pretty close a number of times this spring,” he said. “In winter, I got down to 5:05. That’s around when I knew I could probably break it in the spring.
   ”It just shows if you really want something, you can move along,” he said. “I’m just really glad to be a part of this exclusive club.”
   While the Pirates have more than 50 distance runners on their team, they can only enter seven athletes per event in dual meets. Wayton began holding time trials as a way to give his less experienced runners a chance to compete, and the five-minute goal was a logical target.
   ”All the kids, they’re there to improve,” Wayton said. “They’re there to achieve. For a lot of our guys, that’s a five-minute mile.
   ”The more you have under five, the deeper your team is, and the larger the pool you have to pull from for cross country and track. Guys like Jeffrey Chen or Glen Bortolus, I’m not sure they’d be close if there wasn’t that added incentive.”
   Bortolus agrees that the goal helped give him motivation. He just wanted to get in the club by senior year, but was able to get there two years earlier.
   ”I was pretty confident,” he said. “It’s basically the coaching behind me is what made it for me. I wouldn’t be able to get near five without Coach Wayton. He’s an amazing coach and he was amazing athlete. He’s made me a better man. It’s not just the running thing.”
   Wayton is thrilled to see the way that his team has embraced the goal, and the camaraderie it builds among the Pirates.
   ”From top to bottom, even our 4:10 miler — from Sam Macaluso down to our 7-minute milers, everybody was on board with it,” Wayton said. “Everybody’s cheering everybody along.
   ”You try out for track and not everyone gets to race. But you learn your limits. You learn to separate your mind. You learn to push yourself.”
   Wayton is encouraged not just by the sheer numbers that have made the club, but even with his runners that have not yet hit the mark and are nowhere close to Macaluso, who finished second in the state in the 1,600 meters at the Meet of Champions.
   ”Joey Camaratta, this kid, he had a tough time breaking seven when he came out,” Wayton said. “He ran 5:21 this spring. It’s solid. It’s not just the kids that get under five that are into it. Everyone on the team gets caught up in it.
   ”When your reality can look your potential in the eye, it’s so rare. I’m as proud of Joey Camaratta taking more than a minute off as Sam Macaluso running 4:10.”
   The five-minute mile is subtly encouraged as the club adds more and more members, even when it’s not openly discussed.
   ”It’s sort of intimidating,” Bortolus said. “It’s also motivating. Every couple weeks, you see some guys do it. You see how amazing it is for them. You see them move on and get better.
   ”I have a friend that just broke 5:00 this year. Now he’s running 4:40s. I just hope I’ll be able to advance as an athlete like that.”
   Bortolus is heading into his summer training with a new vigor. He has hit one big goal for his running career, but it’s just a start.
   ”Personally, I believe that’ll give me strength to work toward other goals,” he said. “I want to get down my cross country times and my mile time. I know I’ve gone and done something special. Not a lot of people get to do that. It makes me stronger going into next season.”
   The Sub-5 Club has all the Pirates looking forward to next year, and the chance to see how many they can induct. Bortolus will be back, and he’s hoping to have plenty of company after getting in with his final shot this year to give the Pirates 30 strong.
   ”We use that as bragging rights,” Bortolus said. “There’s only one school in Minnesota that’s tied with us. This is a pretty big thing. We’re one of the top distance schools. Being a part of that is something great. Being one of the 30, and that being the best in the nation, it makes me think I’m part of something important.”