Athlete of the Week: Serra’s Tyler Mak

Mak’s performance at the CIF Track and Field State Championships was a surefire recipe for Daily Journal Athlete of the Week honors. And with this publication’s final weekly honor of the 2017-18 season, it celebrates a senior who put himself among the all-time Central Coast Section greats in not just one, but two events.

The senior’s shining moment was in Saturday’s state championship finals at Buchanan High School in Clovis. One night after setting the Serra all-time record in the boys’ 300 hurdles with a time of 37.79 seconds, he bettered it in the finals with a trailblazing time of 37.5, earning a third-place finish on the state championship stage.

“It was pretty special,” Serra head coach Jim Marheineke said. “Between breaking a really long-standing school record and taking third in the state, that’s a pretty special day.”

It was the first of two spots Mak claimed in the Serra record books.

Teaming in the boys’ 4x400 relay, Mak also helped make history as the quartet of he, Anthony Ovalle, Nate Sanchez and Scott Fitzpatrick bested the program record by over two seconds with a time of 3 minutes, 15.91 seconds, and in doing so recorded the fifth-best time in CCS history.

The 4x400 team ran into bad luck in Saturday’s finals. With Serra on another record pace, Sanchez during the third leg got knocked to the ground by another runner whose team was disqualified for the infraction. The Serra 4x400 team ultimately settled for eighth place and a time of 3:19.39.

“It’s really a bummer,” Marheineke said.

But Serra’s overall showing was certainly cause for celebration.

The last time a Serra runner finished in third-place or better at state? According to Marheineke — in his 18th year running the program — it was Stan Ross in the boys’ 1,600, when he notched the second-best time in CCS history with a third-place finish in 1977.

That’s the year the first “Star Wars” movie was released. It has taken nine more “Star Wars” installments for Mak to ascend as high among the state track stars. And all this in Mak’s first full season of varsity track.

While he was born in San Mateo County, Mak relocated to Sydney, Australia where he lived through middle school. It was then he started running track, but when he returned to the U.S. as a high school sophomore, he opted to give rowing crew a try at Serra. It wasn’t until midway through his junior year he switched from crew back to track.

“The last two years — not even two full seasons — has just been a whirlwind,” Marheineke said.

At the start of this season, hurdling wasn’t even on his radar. He started the year sprinting, trying his legs at the 100, 200 and 400, in addition to relays. It wasn’t until an April 11 dual meet against Mitty he gave the 300 hurdles a shot.

Mak finished second in the 300 hurdles that day, getting outlasted by another hurdles newbie, Mitty senior Philip McCabe, who was competing in the only hurdles event he’d run all year. Mak stuck with it though, and improved from his time of 41.94 seconds that day to a sub-40-second time not even a month later. And that timeframe includes a groin injury that kept him from competing in any events for the last two weeks of April.

“He’s been dropping time ever since,” Marheineke said. “It was pretty amazing.”

After capturing the West Catholic Athletic League title in the 300 hurdles May 11, he went on to top the podium at the CCS championships May 25. And once again he scored some serious style points, getting tripped up on the second-to-last hurdle and essentially tackling the final two hurdles en route to victory.

“When he ran at CCS finals … he basically crushed the last two hurdles,” Marheineke said. “He was way out front, and absolutely crushed the last two hurdles, that kind of opened our eyes.”

Then Mak’s performance at the state finals opened everyone’s eyes. Looking to pursue a collegiate career as a decathlete when he attends Purdue University next season, he’s proven this season he’s got the chops for varied events.

His legacy at Serra though will be from his perfecting the one. In setting the new program second — previously set by Doug Smith in 1981 — Mak recorded the 14th best time in the 300 hurdles in CCS history, and the best of this century.

“He ran a really great race in the 300 hurdles at the finals,” Marheineke said. “He didn’t hit any hurdles and just ran a really strong race.”