Athlete of the Week: Serra's Scott Fitzpatrick

The relay team continued its trajectory toward becoming the best in program history, capturing gold in the boys’ seeded 4x400 relay with a time of 3 minutes, 20.06 seconds, placing them 2.2 seconds shy of Serra’s all-time record in the event.

“It felt great because we didn’t really know what to expect going in,” Fitzpatrick said. “I didn’t want to say we wouldn’t get first, but I don’t know if we thought we’d do that well.”

This is how big a surprise the Serra quartet of Fitzpatrick, Dylan Eaton, Tyler Mak and Anthony Ovalle were in winning the event. The seeded event is something of a silver bracket, a pool of teams selected after the top eight teams in the meet are slated for the invitational race. Had the quartet of Padres run in the 4x400 invitational heat, their time would have landed them in third-place, ahead of the likes of Clayton Valley-Concord, Harvard Westlake-Los Angeles, Chandler-Arizona and De La Salle-Concord.

The highlight of the event was Fitzpatrick — the Daily Journal Athlete of the Week — for a tremendous burst on his anchor leg. When the senior took the baton, he was in third place, approximately 10 meters back, but caught up to Loyola junior Mason Ratkovich and Maria Carrillo junior Tyler Van Arden to emerge the winner from a dogfight along the penultimate straightaway.

Fitzpatrick said running from behind was partially strategic, and credited his teammates for setting him up for the win.

“They put me in a good position to win,” Fitzpatrick said. “So, I figured I better do my best to win.”

Fitzpatrick runner earned a share of the program record in the 4x400 relay as a sophomore, when he and three seniors — Noriega Moffett, Jeremiah Testa and Armon Plummer — ran it in 3:17.96. The anchor leg of that team was a fiery competitor in Plummer, who is now excelling in the event at Fresno Pacific University.

Serra head coach Jim Marheineke said Fitzpatrick has long been a good one. But the fire he displayed in finishing Saturday was a long time coming.

“For me, all of a sudden, even though he’s the most quiet, unassuming person, Saturday showed his overwhelming amount of confidence,” Marheineke said.

Plummer actually had something to do with breathing that fire into the new generation when Fresno Pacific and Serra were both in the house for the Stanford Invitational two weeks ago. The annual meet features both a collegiate and a high school portion. And Plummer, noticing the Padres were lacking intensity, took it upon himself to offer a pep talk and a prayer.

“He came over and just pulled those guys together and started chirping on those guys to get it going,” Marheineke said.

The words from his former teammate made all the difference to Fitzpatrick.

“I previously had a really bad performance,” Fitzpatrick said. “My energy was affecting other teammates. It was really bad. He came and said a prayer with us … and after that we ran really well.”

The only non-senior in Serra’s current 4x400 lineup is Eaton, a sophomore, who was promoted from the junior-varsity team after senior Brandon Carbullido suffered a hamstring injury in early March.

Carbullido recalled arriving at the Serra track as a freshman, along with Fitzpatrick, as the two quickly looked up to Plummer and the older cast of Padres.

“We were the little freshmen on the team,” Carbullido said. “We didn’t want to ruffle any feathers.”

Now, Plummer — who Fitzpatrick said has always been like an older brother to him — stays in constant communication with both Fitzpatrick and Cardullido via social media, text and the occasional Knute Rockne moment.

With Carbullido due back Wednesday for Serra’s West Catholic Athletic League dual meet with Mitty, the Padres will look to re-establish its regular lineup, though Marheineke said the team has a depth of six runners this season, and he has yet to solidify a permanent foursome.

The success enjoyed Saturday in Arcadia, though, has the team far ahead of where it was last season. The current senior group of Fitzpatrick, Carbullido, Mak and Ovalle ran nearly exclusively as a team in 2017, and by this time last year had topped out at approximately 3:30 in the 4x400, 10 seconds off Saturday’s pace.

“It’s definitely good for this part of the season,” Fitzpatrick said of the time of 3:20.06.

Now, the team is looking to improve on it.

“We’re definitely shooting for the record,” Carbullido said. “We’re trying to get the old runners nervous.”