Leo MF Young!!! - 3:39.39!!!!

16yo Cameron Myers - 3:38.02 / 3:55.44, stay calm boys.

“Ryun ran 3:39.0 in ‘64, as a HS junior.”

When you consider this, you realize what an incredible exception he was at the time. As track & field has grown in this country and the gene pool expanded 100 fold, percentage wise he was so far ahead of the rest it staggers the imagination. 36 years for anyone to run faster is a long long time considering the full number of intense competitions during that period. Many have said it was that “Stable Mid Western Bread & Butter Upbringing” that allowed someone with his gifts to emerge. Sociologically there is some evidence for this, but many now have run faster in less than ideal conditions. The ‘4 Brothers’ - (The 21st Century ‘Running Musketeers’) are all keying off one another and talk shop constantly, train and hangout together as a dynamic Wolfpack of talent. Ryan never had any of this and trained mostly on his own on a dirt track with his coach hand-timing everything. Isolated, would any of the brothers do nearly as well? There is “strength in community” no doubt, but the really profound exceptional talent that Ryun was, will always stand the test of time.

You can be impressed by two people at once, its not hard. Especially when you consider the 1,500m is not Leos main event

QFE. We can uplift multiple good performances. Just because somebody runs faster doesn’t mean we should disparage another good performance.

I assume this was on a cinder track, right?

you could not possibly be a bigger tool, saying we can’t be excited for one kids because another is faster. next year when cameron is 17 and runs 3.32 i’m going to tell everyone, stay calm, jakob ran 3.31.

Does anyone have more info on this:

3:39.88 **Ferenc Kovacs’ (Woodberry Forest, Virginia) 2022

A sophomore?

That kid is an international transplant or something. He’s around 18-19 years old. He’s a very good runner.

That converts to 3:56.9. Newbury Park is leaving a huge impact on the all-time top ten lists for the 1500 through 5000m, which is no coincidence, not with, by the end of this year, five different guys on those lists, Nico at 7:56, Lex at 7:57/13:44 (and likely to be in the low 13:30s given his trajectory after injury this year), Leo at 3:39 and likely very fast at 3k-5k, and Aaron likely well under 4 and 8 after his 3:43 in April.

So 3:41.8 sans super shoes according to Nick Willis’ one time estimation of 0.6 sec per lap? Still pretty damn good.

Correct.

Ferenc was 36th at Footlocker in '21. Over the summer, he ran 1:49, 3:39; and an 8:52 steeplechase. He plans to attend Harvard.

There is now a high schooler running 3:39 and a ton of college dudes in the 3:35-3:38 range. And yet there isn't some large number of pros running 3:33 and faster. To me it shows that the spikes aren't making people way faster, it's just that the new generation of runners going through college are really fast. If you're at the top of the NCAA you're actually competitive on the world level. Go back 10-15 years when top NCAA guys were 'only' around 3:39 or 3:40 and there were still guys on the world level running 3:29-3:31 just like today. But now the top NCAA guys are not far off from the top guys in the world.

As a HS junior.

Which is why I have said that only 2 athletes, Ryun and Gerry Lindgren, really belong in the conversation about the greatest high school middle distance or distance runner. The fact that both of them still rank very high on the all-time HS lists in their respective events Is an indication of just how otherworldly they were. Lex Young ran 13:44 for 5000 m with modern tracks, super shoes and modern training methods. Lindgren ran the same almost 60 years ago with none of that.

Jim Ryun ran 3:39.0 his junior year in HS on a cinder track in the old shoes

Do you mean American high schoolers only because so many others have run faster

ohh cute all the young twins fans love to pump up them but wont let anyone else get the spotlight