Zac Ornelas of Cedar Park finished second last night in the steeplechase at the Nike Outdoor Nationals in North Carolina. Ornelas, the defending champ from Vista Ridge HS, ran 5:53.87 to just fall short of the winning time of 5:53.12 set by Alex Deir of New York in the 2000-meter steeple.

Meanwhile, on Friday night, Chelsey Sveinsson, the junior-to-be from the Greenhill School in Addison, put on a phenomal display of front-running. In the 2-mile, Sveinsson, who won the Congress Avenue Mile two weeks ago, took the elite field out in 5:10.02 for the first mile. But in the second mile, Sveinsson lowered the boom with a 4:54.83 to win by more than 15 seconds in 10:04.85. Sveinsson is technically still a sophomore and her time was the fastest ever run by a soph and the third best ever for a high schooler in the 2-mile and seventh all time on the combined 3200/2-mile list.

"I wanted a fast time,” she said.  “I felt like the pace was too slow.” 

But Sveinsson saved her best for last. On Saturday night, Sveinsson blew away the field in the mile by running 4:40.24 to win by more than 11 seconds. In the process, Sveinsson broke the sophomore national mark by more than two seconds.