Community

Memory of young runner races on

By IZZY GOULD, Times Staff Writer
Published September 22, 2007

Beneath two carved angels, a wooden urn with Zak Lukas' ashes sits on the fireplace mantle in the Lukas' family room. It is next to a photo of Zak and his sister Katee.
	[RON THOMPSON | Times]

ADVERTISEMENT [Lukas Family] Zak Lukas (center) raced on the cross country team for Hernando High. A cross country race - the Zak Lukas Invitational - has been held for the past four years keeping his memory alive. Zak Lukas and a friend died of hypothermea in Dec. 2002 after their waverunner's engine stalled and they drifted out into the Gulf. [Times photo: XXXX]

BROOKSVILLE - A short hallway leads to Zak Lukas' bedroom, the walls covered with framed photographs of brother and sister growing up.

They're toddlers at Halloween, Katee as Batman, Zak as Superman. In another frame, Zak flashes a tough-guy look for his Little League portrait.

The door to Zak's room is closed and Katee rarely goes inside. Zak's personal belongings are perfectly preserved as if he will be home soon.

A red Chicago Bulls jersey hangs on the far wall. A pair of Asics running shoes sits covered in dirt from his last run.

"It's still the same," said his mom, Karen. "His clothes are still hanging in the closet."

Zak and his friend Jason Lewis died in the Gulf of Mexico on Dec. 8, 2002. His memory is kept alive not just in his home on Christian Circle, but in a major cross country race each year.

Today is the fifth running of the Zak Lukas Invitational where more than 400 high school runners from throughout the region will converge at 8 a.m. at Hernando High.

"It's very hard, especially the day of the race," Karen said. "I don't think it ever goes away."

This race, once known as the Red Mule Invitational, has gone on annually in some form or fashion for the better part of 30 years. A cold December day in 2002 changed its name forever.

"Zak loved cross country," Karen said. "To me it shows how many people really loved Zak. I'm honored. It still keeps Zak's memory alive to me."

Details are not exact, but the tragedy occurred when Zak's personal watercraft passed over an unmarked crab trap. A fisherman found the boys the next day floating in 60-degree water. Officials ruled both boys died from hypothermia.

Karen and Katee believe the boys stayed with the watercraft hoping people would search for them. They believe the boys fell asleep overnight and their lives ended peacefully.

No one knows for sure.

"I feel such guilt," Karen said. "People have asked me how I let him go out there on such a chilly day. Well, he was 16. He had just bought a Jet Ski. How could you not? He died doing something he wanted to do. If I could replay the whole day I would do it totally over."

Zak's friends met Aug. 11 at a local Applebee's to celebrate what would have been his 21st birthday. Karen helped toast her son and then listened as his friends shared stories about the boy who wanted to follow his sister to the University of South Florida where both would study sports medicine and probably share an apartment. Karen still wears his 2004 class ring around her neck and often wonders where he'd be today.

"I always wonder what he would look like," Karen said. "I see his friends and wonder what he would be doing. It's hard."

In his final season, Zak helped Hernando win unexpected conference and district titles and ran with his team to a ninth-place finish in the Class 2A state meet in Tampa.

Zak's death had a profound impact on many in the running community. Longtime Hernando coach Ernie Chatman gave a eulogy before some 800 people jammed inside Faith Presbyterian Church and announced he would rename the Red Mule Invitational.

Shortly before the first Zak Lucas Invitational, Mitchell High School star runner Jeff Masterson visited his father at Bayonet Point Hospital, where he was in the final stages of cancer. Masterson met Karen, who works there in respiratory care. Masterson had been researching legendary distance runner Steve Prefontaine and learned that Karen's son Zak had been nicknamed "Pre" by close friends.

Jeff and Karen shared hugs and tears.

Masterson cruised to an easy first-place finish in that first Zak Lukas Invitational and Mitchell won the team trophy, which it promptly handed over to Zak's family.

It still sits in Zak's bedroom.

Izzy Gould can be reached at izzygould@gmail.com or 727 580-5315.

[Last modified September 21, 2007, 22:47:15]