Cardillo finishes third in national race
“When I got to the podium, I realized, look how far you’ve come these last four years,” said Tyler Cardillo, Shelter Island summer resident and All-American runner. “I could remember when I was a sophomore looking at runner’s magazines and reading these kids’ names, and here I am on the podium next to them. It was surreal.”
Charlotte High School senior Cardillo has come a long way since he started running, but standing on podiums and wearing medals must be a familiar experience by now. The Punta Gorda, Florida resident boasts a long list of running accomplishments, but he achieved his greatest on March 13, when he ran a personal best 4:13.48 mile in the New Balance Indoor National Championships at the New York Armory in Manhattan, placing third.
“I was nervous because it was my first time ever indoors,” Cardillo explained. Running the mile indoors meant competing on a 200 meter track, “a much more aggressive race,” Cardillo said. “I’m used to a 400 meter track and having more room to go on the outside and longer straightaways to pass.” He was also competing against the best of the milers who had been specializing in that distance all four years of high school, which was a source of intimidation, he said. “Everybody knew these big northeastern runners’ names and then there’s this little kid from Punta Gorda, Florida that nobody really knew.”
Cliff Clark, a family friend who had been training Cardillo since 8th grade, reassured the runner, telling him that he had nothing to lose but that he, too, deserved to be there. Though he wasn’t a seasoned miler, he qualified for the event the week before when he ran a personal best (3:57.02) at a 1500-meter event at his high school, which he won by more than 200 meters.
Though a little pre-race nervousness is hard to avoid, once the gun went off, Cardillo explained, “everything just shuts down. All you can hear is the people breathing in front of you and people calling out splits, but you really can’t hear any cheering — you get into that zone.” Cardillo came out strong but got boxed in by other runners. With just 200 meters to go he was in 10th place, he said, but started his kick and broke out of the pack. One runner saw Cardillo passing him and elbowed him in the chest, he said, but he kept his composure. He used the banked track in the final 100 meters and “sling-shotted” down it, he said, finishing third and earning himself All-American honors.
It was only Cardillo’s third time competing in the mile since his freshman year — he calls the shorter distances like the 400 meter and 800 meter his specialties. “I really enjoy the quick pace,” Cardillo explained.
He’s won countless victories in track meets in his career. In 2010 his 4×800 meter relay team won the Florida state championships with a time of 7:44.44, defending their title as the fastest 4×800 high school relay team in America.
He holds plenty of records at his school: the 5000 meter record (15:10), the mile record (4:13.48), the 4×800 relay record (7:44.44) and the 4×400 relay record (3:17). It’s a lot of records to keep track of. “I think I may have the 2-mile record, too, I don’t know what I ran this weekend, I have to look again and see what I ran,” he said. His time, 9:33.99, earned him a first place in the 2-mile at a March 20 invitational meet.
He’s always been a competitive kid, he says, but never really knew he could run until his physical education teacher signed him up for a Middle School cross country meet. He won. “My first time running and I won a state championship,” he said.
His performance caught the eye of Clark, who’s trained other champion Island runners like Janelle Kraus and Alexis Hamblett. He took Cardillo under his wing in 8th grade, training on the Island during summers while Cardillo worked at the South Ferry. Clark’s philosophy for training runners is to start slow, with relatively low mileage so as not to burn runners out or risk injury at the high school level, hoping for the runners to peak in college and beyond. “You have no idea how gently trained [Cardillo] is compared to some of the kids he’s racing against,” Clark explained.
Cardillo plans to attend the University of Florida where he’ll continue his running career and study orthopedic surgery.
Though he was elated with his third-place finish in the national competition, he knew he lost some time from getting boxed in. “As soon as I saw Coach Clark and my dad I just started shaking my head, because I knew I had a little left in me.” The sign of a true competitor, no doubt, with a long, successful career on the way. “The best is yet to come,” Clark said.
