Holy Smokes High School Frosh 4:17 miler!!

Yeah its entirely case dependent. I grew 4 inches between age 14 and late age 15 and only 2 more after that. In the same time my mile time improved 35 seconds and my 2 mile time improved 1 minute and 20 seconds. But I also doubled my mileage from 25 a week to 50 a week right after my freshman year.

I've seen great talents in high school run under 4:30 as freshman and barely under 4:20 as seniors. But a true 14 year old freshman running 4:17 is rare.

I've always noticed on average the biggest physical changes in males occur during a growth spurt between 14 and 16 and not much changes for the majority after that.

Frank 1234 wrote:

The record holder is Sintayehu Taye of Portland H.S. in Maine, 4:09.69 set in 2005.

Yep.

This kid's time is generally a US Top-3 frosh time.

For reference, here is a list of the freshman that have gone under 4:20 for 1600m (or the equivalents) in the last four years:

2012 Sub-4:20 frosh (8):

4:15.7c Shane Streich MN (3:58.17m)

4:16.68 James Burke NY

4:17.27 Joey Duerr MN

4:17.61 Marco Pompilj NY

4:18.41 Patrick McDermott WA

4:18.85 Tanner Anderson WA

4:19.2c Jean-Baptiste Tooley OR (4:01.38m)

4:19.25 Matthew Novak VA

2011 Sub-4:20 frosh (3):

4:12.34 Blake Haney CA

4:17.4c Bailey Roth GA (3:59.68m)

4:18.06 Bradley Dohner TX

2010 Sub-4:20 frosh (7):

4:13.6c Jacob Burcham WV (4:15.10y)

4:16.0c Samuel Prakel OH (4:17.46y)

4:17.01 Andrew Gardner WA

4:18.37 Trevor Gilley TX

4:19.0c Noah Findlay AR (4:20.55y)

4:19.2c Jake Leingang ND (4:20.72y)

4:19.3c Jacob Thomson KY (4:20.80y)

2009 Sub-4:20 frosh (5):

4:18.09 Brad Kintner MO

4:19.07 Justin Brinkley TX

4:19.28 CJ Albertson CA

4:19.36 Nathan Weitz WA

4:19.6c Mark Blackmon SC (4:21.12y)

So far in 2013, there have been two (this kid and fellow Californian Phillip Rocha), though with the season just beginning (or yet to begin) for pretty much the entire nation, you can be sure that number is going to go up soon enough.

Based on this list, sub 4:20 as a fresh is not that indicative of future dominance.

Samiamamam wrote:

Based on this list, sub 4:20 as a fresh is not that indicative of future dominance.

It's more indicative than I would've thought. About 2/3 of those guys became state champions or footlocker all Americans.

2012 ran intermediate boys div 15-16 y/o. Rocha and Ogden youth boys div. 13-14 y/o

Samiamamam wrote:

Based on this list, sub 4:20 as a fresh is not that indicative of future dominance.

Only the 2009 group has graduated, but...

Kintner and Blackmon fell off the map, but the other three in that group were all sub-4:10 or sub-9:10.

Brinkley was the least improved of the group, but he ran 1:52.65, 3:54.40 for 1500m, and 4:09.36 for 1600m.

Albertson ran 9:08.92 as a sophomore, but got injured and only managed 4:11.92 as a junior and 4:12.29y as a senior.

Weitz also suffered an injury, or was sick towards the end of his junior year (I forget which), but ended up at 4:05.60 for 1600 and 8:56.84 for 3200m. He also ran 14:33.68 for a 3.06 mile course in cross (Sundodger) and was third at FLN.

Of the 2010 group? That's most of this year's national elites.

Thomson ... I don't think I need to mention what he's done?

Leingang ... I don't think I need to mention what he's done?

Findlay hasn't really improved.

Gilley has been one of the key scorers on a very good SLC XC squad, and ran 4:08.24y to win Brooks PR a few weeks ago, and also has run 1:52.99 for 800m.

Gardner has run 4:10.10y, 8:59.83 for 3200, and was a three time FLN All-American including a fourth and a sixth place finsh.

Prakel ran 4:10.33 last year and 15:16 for a (fairly fast) 5k in XC this fall

Burcham ... I don't think I need to mention what he's done?

So, I'm with "Pre is my favorite" on this one -- I didn't expect so many of these freshmen standouts to have continued running as well as they have.

puberty is forkin' amazing, bre

According to USATF Tamagno has been running since 2008. Ogden and Rocha coincidently started at the same time 2010. Rocha I believe is the younger of the three but, still a very talented trio to watch out for!

There will be another winner at Century League it won't be Corcoran, Goins, or Tamagno. Ask the guy who wins the century league 1600m or 3200m this year and see if he visits Letsrun.com.

Those three have it locked up. Calling Corccoran in the 1600m,

Goins in the 3200m. only other person who could challenge is Janneck at 4:24, but that's a long way off.

He has been running competitively for a few years now, he ran for a running club in Southern California. The club is notorious for running intervals, and running them very hard, with kids at a very young age. Many of the kids burn out by senior year or college but some continue on to do well(ex: Dustin Fay-UCLA). The kid that ran 4:19, Philip Rocha, also ran at the same running club and now runs for Arcadia. All I know is that many of the kid in the running club do not run much mileage, but really hammer workouts. It will be interesting to see how Rocha will do in the upcoming years going from a low mileage-high intensity running club to a high high mileage Arcadia team.

Not quite :)

League of the Century wrote:

Those three have it locked up. Calling Corccoran in the 1600m,

Goins in the 3200m. only other person who could challenge is Janneck at 4:24, but that's a long way off.

League of the Century wrote:

Those three have it locked up. Calling Corccoran in the 1600m,

Goins in the 3200m. only other person who could challenge is Janneck at 4:24, but that's a long way off.

Janneck pls.

HopefulOlympian wrote:

There will be another winner at Century League it won't be Corcoran, Goins, or Tamagno. Ask the guy who wins the century league 1600m or 3200m this year and see if he visits Letsrun.com.

but those three are "student-athletes", which is a big difference from an "athlete" who isn't able to hold up their end of the "student" portion of the bargain. it would be fun to see the kid being referenced get his grades up, though, and make for a fourth legit contender in the league. until then, the league belongs to these three.

grade police wrote:

HopefulOlympian wrote:

There will be another winner at Century League it won't be Corcoran, Goins, or Tamagno. Ask the guy who wins the century league 1600m or 3200m this year and see if he visits Letsrun.com.

but those three are "student-athletes", which is a big difference from an "athlete" who isn't able to hold up their end of the "student" portion of the bargain. it would be fun to see the kid being referenced get his grades up, though, and make for a fourth legit contender in the league. until then, the league belongs to these three.

Who are you talking about? Theres a kid from el modena that runs sub15 5k unattached. Is that him? Or janneck?

Not an American example, but related: Sully ran a 3:54.31 1500m as a HS frosh. Is that ~4:11 for a mile?

That may also be the OFSAA meet record as opposed to his fastest time as a freshman. Some stats geek will know.

Didn't AJ Acosta run about that as a frosh? Ended up being a Footlocker winner, pretty close to 4flat in hs, a NCAA champ, and a 3:36/3:53 guy.

I would say anything under 4:40 as a frosh is pretty stellar and would be a leading indicator of big things to come, assuming said individual started running as a freshman (obviously if he's been loging 40-50 miles a week since 7th grade, that makes a massive difference).

kid at el modena is the only other potential threat in the league.

Burritos College wrote:

grade police wrote:

but those three are "student-athletes", which is a big difference from an "athlete" who isn't able to hold up their end of the "student" portion of the bargain. it would be fun to see the kid being referenced get his grades up, though, and make for a fourth legit contender in the league. until then, the league belongs to these three.

Who are you talking about? Theres a kid from el modena that runs sub15 5k unattached. Is that him? Or janneck?

grade police wrote:

kid at el modena is the only other potential threat in the league.

Burritos College wrote:

Who are you talking about? Theres a kid from el modena that runs sub15 5k unattached. Is that him? Or janneck?

Yeah i think we are referring to the same person. Who are you?