High school In May 2009, Verzbicas won the Pan American Triathlon Confederation Junior Championships. In September 2009, Verzbicas won the
Duathlon World Junior Championships. In December 2009, he won the
Foot Locker Cross Country Championships in a time of 15:08. In June 2010, Verzbicas won the 2010 Adidas High School Boys' Dream Mile in New York City in a time of 4:04. In the fall of 2010, Verzbicas finished 4th in the ITU World Junior Triathlon Championships. Shortly afterwards, Verzbicas won the 2010 IHSA Class 3A state championship in the 3 mile run with a time of 13:53.7, only 3 seconds off the state record held by world cross country champion and three time Olympian
Craig Virgin. In December 2010, he won the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships a second time, this time in a time of 14:59 as well as the Nike Cross Nationals invitational in a time of 15:59 becoming the first runner to win both FLCC and NXN in the same year and the third to win FLCC in consecutive years. In an interview following his
2010 FLCC victory, Verzbicas stated that after high school he would pursue either running or triathlon, not both, and that his decision would be based primarily on his running performance during the remainder of his senior year. In February 2011, Verzbicas signed a
national letter of intent to run for the
University of Oregon beginning in the fall of 2011. Verzbicas told the
Chicago Tribune he had a passion for running which he didn't have for triathlon. In March 2011, at the
New Balance Indoor National meet, Verzbicas won the 5000 meters (14:06), the 2 mile (8:40), and the mile (4:10) becoming the first high school runner to win all three events at the national meet. His 5000-meter time of 14:06 stood as the high school indoor national record until February 11, 2012 when Edward Cheserek ran a 13:57 at the 105th
Millrose Games. In June 2011 at the
Prefontaine Classic in
Eugene, Oregon, Verzbicas set a national high school record in the 2 mile with a time of 8:29.46, breaking the old record of 8:34.23 set by
German Fernandez in 2008. One week after setting the 2 mile record, Verzbicas won the 2011 Adidas High School
Boys' Dream Mile in New York City in a time of 3:59.71 joining
Jim Ryun,
Tim Danielson,
Marty Liquori, and
Alan Webb as the only American high school runners to break four minutes in the mile. At the time, his 3:59.71 set a new
Lithuanian mile outdoor record. Following the 2011 Track season, Verzbicas planned a brief return to triathlon in an attempt to win the
World Junior Championships in honor of his friend and teammate Kevin McDowell who was undergoing chemotherapy following a diagnosis of
Hodgkin's lymphoma. In July 2011, Verzbicas won the
Pan American Triathlon Confederation Junior Championships and in September 2011 went on to win the
ITU World Junior Championships in
Beijing.
Collegiate In November 2011, after running in only two cross country races for the University of Oregon, Verzbicas announced that he would be leaving the school to pursue a career in triathlon with the hopes of making a future US Olympic team. The timing of his decision was controversial as he left the cross country team just before a critical national qualifying race. In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, Verzbicas stated that his earlier comments regarding his lack of passion for triathlon had been made before he was a world champion and that he believed he could make more of an impact on the sport of triathlon than he could on running. ==Professional triathlon career==