Philip Cupial’s first state championship was the best and worst thing that could have happened to him.

The Downers Grove North distance standout took the IHSA track scene by storm in 2024 as a sophomore. Cupial won the 1,600-meter state championship, and also ran on the winning 4x800 relay.

But that early success also built up a tremendous amount of pressure. Coupled with the anxiety of college recruiting, Cupial was overwhelmed. He got sick leading up to the state meet his junior year, and didn’t make it out of 1,600 prelims.

“That 1,600 title left a curse on me. It gave me all that pressure for junior year,” Cupial said. “Not making finals junior year, it left a scar on me.”

Safe to say, it’s healed.

Capping off a dominant senior year that started with a cross country state championship last fall in a record time, Cupial won his second 1,600 state title in 4:10.65, a little over a second faster than his nearest pursuer. He also anchored the winning 4x800 relay.

Philip Cupial is the Suburban Life boys track and field Athlete of the Year.

“I thought about that moment, what happened junior year, a lot,” Cupial said. “This is the strongest I have ever been. I felt like I had a dominant performance in me. Super proud of how everything went. It went smoothly, I was healthy, it was meant to be.”

Cupial has carried on his sensational spring beyond state.

At the Magis Miles meet in Chicago, competing against college-age athletes, Cupial won the 1-mile race in 4 minutes, 0.41 seconds, a personal best.

“Going into the race I was pretty confident, I knew how fit I was, what I wanted to do, I knew there would be a pacer and [Mohamed Abdullahi] from DePaul would be racing. Going in the only objective was to win,” Cupial said.

“I pounced off the line, lanes felt great, each 200 split felt smooth and gave me more confidence. The last lap I closed super fast. It leaves me with more confidence.”

If anything, Cupial has a chip on his shoulder these days when it comes to elite-level races.

Despite his superb track season, despite running the 800 in 1:50, when he applied for the HOKA Festival of Miles in St. Louis he got a letter back that he didn’t qualify, passed up in favor of two other Illinois runners.

“I felt like I was being overlooked,” Cupial said. “I knew how fit I was. I like the feeling of being the underdog. Those opportunities are limited and I feel like I deserved it. Running four minutes flat for the mile on home soil, that speaks a lot.”

Next up for Cupial, who will run collegiately, is New Balance Nationals in Philadelphia, where he will run the 800 and 1,600.

“I don’t want to get mixed up in times. The main goal is to compete in the mile,” Cupial said. “For the 1,600 I want to go out there and compete. Whatever happens, happens.”

He recalls sophomore year, when his main focus was on the mile. Each race he kept getting faster from 4:21 indoors to 4:15 his first outdoor race to 4:12 in state prelims to 4:10 flat in the 4x800 at Nike Nationals.

“I just kept on improving,” he said. “I have so much self belief. I really believe in myself and that I can take this sport far.”

He has good reason for that belief.

State prelims, where he ran the third-fastest 1,600 time, was the only open race he did not win this spring. He won the 1,600 at conference, sectionals and state, the 3,200 at Distance Night at Palatine and the 800 at Metea Valley and Hinsdale Central invites.

Cupial credits much of that success to his coaches, and their belief in good training that left his legs destroyed but ready for anything.

“I felt so prepared for the state meet but all the other meets, too,” Cupial said. “Winning is such a big part of me. Every time I win it’s another way of showing myself that I am capable of crazy things.

“Keeping that momentum from the season and going into Magis against collegiate athletes gave me more motivation. It’s always the goal. No athlete goes into a race thinking I cannot win. It’s knowing I can win.”