STATE CHAMPION: Granite City's Andrew O'Keefe Brings Home Gold in 1,600 Meters at State

CHARLESTON – Granite City High distance runner Andrew O’Keefe won the Class 3A 1,600 meter race at the IHSA boys state track meet on Saturday at O’Brien Stadium on the campus of Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, coming in with a time of 4:13.50.

O’Keefe became the first Warriors’ track athlete to win an IHSA state title since Brad Miles won the shot put in 1973, the fifth title overall for the Granite program. It was redemption of sorts for O’Keefe, who was nipped at the wire in last year’s race.

“Oh, yeah, I feel great,” O’Keefe said in a post-race interview. “I was pretty confident coming into the race. I tried not to be, like, cocky or anything like that, but the past year, like today, getting beat like that, and everyone was always asking me if that was going to drive me to do better this year, and I was like ‘yeah, it obviously has.’ This year, I was going to do everything I could to get back to this moment, and come out on top.”

As he did in 2018, O’Keefe pumped his fist in victory near the end of the race, but this year, he had already built up nearly a five-second lead on the rest of the field.

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“This year, maybe just a little bit of a fist that last year, everyone was making fun of me for, but last year, it was just absolute joy, like, I thought I had done it. But even when I grabbed second, I was joyous. And this year, like kind of like pumping into that,” O’Keefe said with a laugh.

O’Keefe came back from an Iron deficiency that hampered him during the cross-country season in the fall, and he was able to get back to work and be ready for the race.

“It feels really good,” O’Keefe said. “Running’s a crazy sport, and I just got back to work. It takes years for endurance, and coming back and trusting in God that everything would work out for today. And for the rest of my life, I’m running, and I thank God for this so much.”

Colin Feeney also contributed to this story.

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