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Senior and reigning Far East champion Andrew Quallio of Zama American, shown here running in last month's Zama American Invitational at Camp Zama, shattered during Saturday's Kanto Plain Association of Secondary Schools championshiip meet the 22-year-old Tama Hills Recreation Center 2.9-mile course record. Quallio clocked a 14 minutes, 29.9 seconds, 23.1 seconds better than Bill Manning of Robert D. Edgren in 1986.

Senior and reigning Far East champion Andrew Quallio of Zama American, shown here running in last month's Zama American Invitational at Camp Zama, shattered during Saturday's Kanto Plain Association of Secondary Schools championshiip meet the 22-year-old Tama Hills Recreation Center 2.9-mile course record. Quallio clocked a 14 minutes, 29.9 seconds, 23.1 seconds better than Bill Manning of Robert D. Edgren in 1986. (Richard L. Rodgers/Special to Stars and Stripes)

TAMA HILLS RECREATION CENTER, Japan — Even after running the Pacific’s fastest time this season a week earlier, Andrew Quallio told his Zama American coach, Mitch Moellendick, that he wasn’t satisfied.

He vowed to do better — and he succeeded, resoundingly. In Saturday’s Kanto Plain Association of Secondary Schools finals, the Zama American senior shattered a 22-year-old Tama Hills cross-country course record by 23 seconds.

"Unbelievable. There aren’t enough adjectives to describe it," Moellendick said after Quallio scorched the 2.9-mile boys course in 14 minutes, 29.9 seconds, demolishing the old mark of 14:53 set in 1986 by Bill Manning of Robert D. Edgren.

He also broke the Kanto Plain record of 15:03 set in the 1990s by Brent Wright of Christian Academy In Japan.

It’s yet another achievement in an ever-growing stack for Quallio, also a two-time DODDS-Japan cross-country champion and Kanto Plain mile and two-mile champion.

And it came a week after Quallio ran a 15:25 on the 3.1-mile Yasaka Dam course at Iwakuni, where a year earlier he’d run a 15:09.

"I knew he wasn’t happy with his time at Iwakuni," Moellendick said. "To watch him push himself like that (on Saturday), it was really neat to see."

Quallio was pushed for about the first 1 ¼ miles by eventual fourth-place finisher Soren Rasmussen of American School In Japan. But after passing Tama’s "Gut Hill" at the 1 ½-mile mark, Quallio pulled away.

"He looked strong at the finish. He didn’t look dead at all," Moellendick said.

Quallio joined Manning as the only boys runners to break the 15-minute barrier.

ASIJ won both the boys and girls team titles in Saturday’s Kanto meet.

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