You would be forgiven for not having faith in Robby Andrews. 

 

For a guy that was trying to qualify for his first World Championship team by finishing in the top three at the USA Track and Field Championships, being undecided about which event to run just a week before USA's didn't exactly instill a lot of confidence. Andrews was so on the fence about choosing the 800 or the 1500 that he took an unconventional approach to pick between the two: he asked his Twitter followers to decide.

After Andrews' unbelievable runner up finish in Saturday's USATF 1500 final, which included an epic last 100 meters that saw him go from go from seventh to second, Andrews should be thanking those followers for pointing him in the right direction. The New Jersey kid whose speed was the stuff of legend as a high schooler and later at the University of Virginia, but who had struggled for the last two years is heading to Beijing, a reality that was at best uncertain entering 2015. 

Andrews (far left, in purple) kicked from 7th to 2nd in the last 100 meters

“I came in with no expectations,” he said afterwards. “You could have argued that I didn’t even belong in the final, ‘I should’ve run the 800’. I was just coming in and I was just going to run as hard as I could.” 

 

For Andrews, his lack of confidence heading into this past weekend came on the heels of two sub-par seasons in 2013 and 2014. 

 

Andrews did not advance out of the first round of the 800 at the 2013 USATF Championships, and then had surgery for a ruptured hernia that July. In August of that year, Andrews left his longtime coach Jason Vigilante, who had helped him win two NCAA 800 titles at Virginia in 2010 and 2011 and guided him to a 5th place finish in the 1500 at the 2012 Olympic Trials, and joined the New Jersey New York Track Club coached by the legendary Frank Gagliano. 

 

Under Gagliano, Andrews ran better in 2014, but still not up to his full ability. He ran 1:46 on six occasions last season and ultimately finished a distant 6th in the 800 at the USATF Championships after getting tangled up with a fallen Charles Jock in the first lap. At the end of summer, Andrews left NJNY to finish up his degree at Virginia which he had yet to complete after leaving school early to go pro in 2012. Upon returning to New Jersey after graduation in December, he decided to go back to what worked so well for him in the past. 

 

On January 9th, Andrews announced he would be returning to Jason Vigilante, now coaching at Princeton. In addition, the 24-year-old would be under the watchful eye of his father, Bob Andrews, Sr., who had coached him as a prep at Manalapan High in New Jersey.

 

Back under the guidance of Vigilante and his father, Andrews has been resurgent in 2015.  

 

Andrews got an instant return on his investment by winning the USATF indoor 1,000 meter title in March. Since then, the former World junior bronze medalist anchored Team USA to gold in the World Relays 4x800 in May and ran a 3:57 PB to win the Adrian Martinez mile earlier this month. Suddenly the kid who ran 1:44 as a 20-year-old was looking like himself again heading into the biggest meet of the year. 

It’s the familiarity that Andrews has with his two mentors that he credited for setting him up to succeed like he did on Saturday. “NJNY, they’re an incredible group, Coach Gags (Gagliano) I will love him forever, and it’s a selfish sport you know, I gotta do what’s best for me and Vig knows me better than anybody except for my Dad probably,” Andrews said after the race. "I get to work with my Dad when Vig is out doing Princeton stuff, so I think I have a great system going."

 

It’s a testament to Andrews’ talent that his pro career up to this point has been considered underwhelming. Many figured that the kid nick-named “Italian Stallion” would experience instantaneous success upon leaving Virginia, where he had famously recorded two of the most memorable finishes in NCAA 800 meter history. 

 

As just a freshman at UVA, Andrews went from last to first in the final 400 meters to win the 2010 NCAA indoor title, and did it again as a sophomore outdoors in 2011, running 1:44.71 in Des Moines, which is still fourth best in NCAA history. Andrews’ first season as a pro went well in 2012, as he ran a 3:34.78 personal best in the 1500 in May of that year, and ultimately finished 5th in the 1500 at the 2012 Olympic Trials. The next two years, however, would test his resolve. 

At the 2011 NCAA 800, Andrews came from last to first in the final 200 meters 

“I’ve come a long way in the last few years, and I feel like I’m really coming into my own now. Hopefully I can make a splash at the next stage,” he said. 

 

Now fully healthy and back in the system that helped produce those epic victories in college, Andrews’ performance in Eugene was like a blast from the past, a reminder that no gap is too big for the “Stallion” to close. Even with Andrews checking off a huge box by finishing top three at USA’s, he knows there is still work to be done. 

 

“I mean, I lost to Centro (Matt Centrowitz) by over a second, and that’s not too great. We’ll tweak some things for the next stage, for sure. Definitely not content.” 

 

The “next stage” that Andrews keeps referring to is of course the IAAF World Championships this August in Beijing, which he won’t officially qualify for until he achieves the IAAF standard of 3:36.20. He has until August 9th to achieve that mark, and he’ll take his first shot this Thursday at the Portland Summer Twilight, where he’ll face Oregon superstar Edward Cheserek, among others. After running 3:38.75 in Saturday’s final by going through 800 in 2:04-mid, Andrews appears plenty fit to run under 3:36.20, even though he hasn’t run that fast since 2012. 

 

Andrews isn’t quite where he wants to be just yet, but with the help of Vig and “Coach Bob”, he’s well on his way. Big things could be in store later this summer for the 24-year-old if he can duplicate the type of closing speed he showed at USA’s, speed we haven’t seen for three years.

 

Among the list of things to be tweaked as Andrews heads into the biggest summer of his career will be just the thing that set him up for his epic finish on Saturday: running from behind. Noting that the gap he had to close in Eugene just might be the largest of his career, Andrews had a good idea what his coach would say about it. 

 

“Vig is going to kill me,” he joked.