North Babylon's Moran wins 3,200

ITHACA -- Kris Moran's kick with 400 meters to go in the 3,200 caught everyone by complete surprise.

Even Moran himself.

"I can't even really remember anything about the race," the North Babylon junior said afterward. "It still hasn't hit me yet."

Moran's kick with 400 meters to go lifted him to the state championship in the 3,200 Saturday at the state indoor track championships at Cornell University. The junior won in 9:08.57, 2.85 seconds ahead of second.

Moran's final 400-meter split was a blistering 63.1 seconds as he took the lead with two laps to go and cruised to the win.

"I'm in complete disbelief," Moran said. "This is unreal."

Moran stayed toward the back of the pack for most of the race as Chaminade's Thomas Awad and Fayetteville-Manilus' Nick Ryan went back-and-forth for the lead.

The lead pack tightened up with about 800 meters to go, and Moran -- who was in fourth at the time -- saw his chance.

"I just wanted to get a good time for nationals," he said. "But they weren't pulling away from me, so it was my race to lose."

Moran started his surge approaching two laps to go and never looked back, opening up as much as a 35-meter lead on the rest of the field.

"I was just running away from everyone," he said. "I felt great. I didn't even really feel like I was going that fast."

North Babylon coach Tom Duffy said that late-race kicks are nothing new for Moran, but even this one was unexpected.

"He's got speed," Duffy said. "He just had a little something extra at the end this time."