Countdown to cross🤔
fast miles & what's to come, plus 77 days out but who's counting
HOKA FoM > 1904 World’s Fair
The HOKA Festival of Miles has become a high school distance staple since its debut back in 2008, garnering national attention since, as 25% of high schoolers have broken four for the first time at this meet. I mean, it’s no World’s Fair, but it’s still THE marquee event for track fans in the region. As far as we’re concerned, Kansas only has one sub-four high schooler in our state’s history, but considering we are one of just sixteen states to be on that list, I’ll take it. But hey, keep your head up! The first-ever American high schooler to break four minutes in the mile was none other than Jim Ryun, who did so multiple times while attending Wichita East, so that makes up for it! However, with the rate Kansans are progressing, I’m pretty confident we’ll become the fourth state with multiple sub-four high schoolers, and that could come as soon as 2024.
Clay Shively led the way for Kansans earlier this month, as he ran the fastest preparatory mile our state has seen since 1964. The Wichita-Trinity junior finished in 6th, less than a second and a half away from making history. What’s crazy about his race that evening is that he negative split the heck out of it. Coming through 800m in 2:02.24, he cranked the gas and closed in 1:59.23. Shively’s huge PR also cemented himself as the fastest boy in the junior class in the nation by more than two seconds. In fact, he’s the fastest non-senior in the country, and will be coming into the 2024 track season at the top of the list. Shively’s junior campaign came to an end yesterday (06/14) at the Brooks PR Invitational in Seattle, WA, where he came in 5th, after doing a bulk of the work for the first 800m. Following some contact at the front of the pack with 150m to go, Shively was able to hang on and still run 4:07.17.
Shawnee Mission East’s Wyatt Haughton finished 9th in 4:06.35 in the same race, running under 4:10 in the 1600m/Mile for the third time this season. Fellow Lancer Caden Peters competed in the Spewak Training HS Boys Elite Development Mile earlier in the evening, where he finished 10th in 4:13.99. Both college-bound seniors will complete their high school careers this week in Eugene, OR at Nike Outdoor Nationals.
There was also a lot of movement in the all-time 800m lists for the state, as both St. Thomas Aquinas’ Alex Waldie and Olathe West’s Bree Newport had big PR’s and shot way up the list! Waldie, who has really only been running the 800m since last year, and in his two seasons he worked his way up to #4 all-time, and became just the fourth high schooler in state history to break 1:50, doing so in St. Louis where he took 3rd in 1:49.97. Newport also had herself a breakthrough race, lowering PR to 2:10.67 as a junior, which just so happens to be the 5th fastest in state history.
Kansas also had stellar representation in the professional field, with Scott City and Fort Hays State alum Brett Meyer nearly winning his second Festival of Miles title. Meyer was the only one to go with the pacer, and held a very solid lead through about 1500m. But Olin Hacker of NAZ Elite went from 60’s for each of his first three laps to a blistering 55.19 in his final 400m, which I don’t think anyone could have held off. Meyer crossed in 3:57.06 for the fastest time for the 2023 season.
'Cats own the KC Metro Mile
The KC Metro Mile has skyrocketed up my list of “Things you like to see” for a multitude of reasons, but most importantly because it’s just a fifteen minute drive for me, which should always be the top priority when planning a meet! I guess it’s also really good for the sport blah-blah-blah.
But seriously, it’s simply great for the growth of the sport not only in our state, but in the region. It’s also squeezed itself into one of the most opportune windows of the month, a week after HOKA Festival of Miles, and a week prior to the many national meets across the country. In just its second year, A LOT more athletes traveled in from around the state to take part in the deep field on both the girl’s and boy’s sides.
In its first year, there were just twelve in-state high schoolers in the High School Elite and Men/Women’s Elite fields, with just a single state champion from a few weeks prior toeing the line. This year, there were A LOT more high school athletes, including four 2023 individual state champions and more all-state athletes than I could count! It also continues to draw in a strong number of Kansas alumni, which you guessed it, is incredibly good for the sport!
There were twelve races total throughout the evening, with a lot of great performances in each and every one. Some of the highlights include …
Soon to be Tonganoxie freshman Parker Welsh won the Middle School Boy’s Elite Mile in 4:46.52, crossing six seconds ahead of the the field.
Paige Mullen (SMNW) held off the quartet of Olathe West Owls (Bree Newport, Kate Miller, Charis Robinson, Kalyn Willingham), winning in 5:00.06.
Andrew Cooper of Shawnee Mission South won the High School Boy’s Elite Mile in 4:34.30, just edging out Ian O’Neal (SMNW)in 4:34.49.
Noah Stevenson kept the KC Metro Mile title in the Wildcat family, (Travis Hodge won in 2022) winning in 4:08.07, a meet record. Tonganoxie’s Eli Gilmore was the runner-up in 4:14.57.
The end of track & field means a lot more downtime and fewer topics for me to write about. But, that extra time does open the door for more possibilities for interviews with athletes and coaches, and the ball is already rolling for a few of those. Next week I’m going to recap every collegiate national championship that happened throughout the last month, along with notable performances from the high school national meets taking place through this weekend. I was hoping to do that this week, but I moved over the weekend and I underestimated how long everything was going to take, so I appreciate you bearing with me!
Recently, The Lead Pack has been going to your inbox a tad inconsistently, but I’m hoping to get in a good routine in the coming weeks as we await the 2023 cross country season! In the meantime, go check out The BackTrack Podcast with Matt Goeckel and myself, which typically goes out every Wednesday. This week’s episode will be a little behind, but should be out tomorrow at the latest! We have. our very first guest this week, as Olathe West Head Coach Kelsey Carbajo joined us and gave us incredible insight as to how Olathe West has been able to become the top dogs in the state!
As always, thank you for tuning into this week after week and supporting what we are trying to do!
Til’ next week.
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