It’s hard to know exactly what thoughts flooded the mind of Royal sophomore Michael Cybulski those final 50 meters of his 3,200-meter race last Saturday at the 2005 CIF State Track and Field Championships—especially after the sight of two-time defending 1,600 champion Mark Matusak finally faded into the background, leaving the young runner an unabated path to the finish line in front of thousands of screaming fans at Sacramento City College’s Hughes Stadium.

BORN TO RUN—Royal High’s Michael Cybulski competes in the Marmonte League Track Championships in May. Teammate Dylan Jaedtke, right, brings up the rearThe race was comparable to a middleweight championship bout between the seasoned pro and the hungry newcomer, and when the dust had settled, it was Matusak who couldn’t survive the contender’s final blow. In fact, the Loyola senior nearly walked across the finish line, a full four seconds behind the blazing Cybulski.

“The biggest feeling of relief came when I broke (Matusak), when he basically gave in,” Cybulski said. “When I did, the crowd got so loud, and I knew I had him. They wanted to see the underdog win, and when I crossed the finish line, everyone was cheering for me. It was an incredible moment, and it all kind of sunk in right then.” What sunk in was the fact that at 15 years old he was the fastest two-miler in the nation’s most populous state—an accomplishment difficult to comprehend, considering the staggering number of athletes that compete in high school track in California.

“At the beginning of the season I would’ve never pictured myself being up there with the top guys in the state,” said Cybulski, who transferred from Chaminade High in the Valley over the summer to run for the Highlanders’ highly-touted distance program.

“But I just kept focused on improving my times, and when I was up against the best competition, I ran my best.” Cybulski’s state-winning time of 9 minutes, 0.252 seconds bettered his previous best (a 9:07 he ran at the Masters) by five seconds, and thrilled scores of track fans who had hoped to see the lanky youngster pull off the upset over the older and more accomplished senior.

What they probably didn’t know was that the two had battled it out in 2004 in Misson League competition when Cybulski still ran for Chaminade.

“It was the first time I ever beat him,” Cybulski said of the state final race. “I guess my time had come.” Likely the day’s most thrilling race, the sophomore held off both Matusak and West Covina’s Diego Mercado in the final lap— digging deeper and deeper each time the older runners looked like they might sprint ahead of the newcomer.

“With 200 to go I thought, ‘It’s over. I’m going to lose,’” said Cybulski, who saw Matusak gaining ground. “He started sprinting faster but something––I don’t know what––made me go with him. I thought to myself, ‘I didn’t run 400 miles this season to lose it around the final turn.’” Following his monumental accomplishment, which followed up a cross-country state championship in the fall, Cybulski said he has about a month of rest and relaxation before he and his fellow distance-running teammates start hitting the rolling surfaces of Simi Valley again.

With a state championship under his belt, Cybulski said he’s ready for new heights.

“My goal now is for the crosscountry team to win a national championship, and in track, I’d like to break the national high school record in the two-mile,” Cybulski said.

The record, set in 2000 by Dathan Ritzenhein of Rockford, Md., stands at 8:41.

“It’s a big goal, but after this past week, I have a feeling anything’s possible,” he said.