Submitted by Beacon Academy
On Sunday, March 12, 2023 Beacon Academy Senior Julian Aske, made school history. The two-time All-State runner competed in the Emerging Elites 800M race at Nike Indoor Nationals held at the Armory Track and Field Center in New York City. His previous efforts in the 800M qualified him for this event.
Aske mentioned, “I really wanted to do Nike nationals in particular because I wanted to visit New York as I’m going to be running at NYU and I wanted to meet my coaches and see the facilities.”
At approximately 9:12 AM EST, he heard the starting pistol over the crowd and took off like he had done several times in his career. In typical Aske fashion, he took charge around the 400M mark. He finished first in the field of 57 Emerging Elites with a time of 1:56.17. The New York University commit brought a lot of excitement to our community, who followed along online.
Post race Aske stated, “I was super excited for the race, but I think I could have ran a lot harder when it came down to it. Winning the race was exhilarating and running at the armory was amazing, getting that experience was super cool and I can’t wait for the next four years of running at NYU!”
Aske never ran competitively prior to entering Beacon Academy. He started his career in athletics as a soccer player. Since then, he has finished fifth place (400M) in 2021 and runner-up (800M) in 2022 at the IHSA State Championships at Eastern Illinois University. He will be the second student-athlete to run at the collegiate level in school history. Currently, Beacon Alum Charlie Clary runs Cross Country and Track for Amherst College in Massachusetts.