Austin Tamagno Sets Freshman 1600 National Record

i've seen this talented, motivated, hard-working young man running for a number of years, and coach against him in the same league, so i figured i'd chime in.

on the positive side: he does NOT look physically mature beyond his years, so i'd guess there is still an upside here.

on the negative side: it's worth noting the state freshman record he broke (i think 4:12?) was set by none other than blake haney, the junior who beat him to win state. though haney's h.s. career is not over, i'd be willing to be that many bet on him improving by more than 5 seconds over the last two years. that's not a criticism of haney; it just goes to show how difficult it is, and how much has to go right for you to improve even a little bit.

on the positive side: tamagno looks like he is willing AND able to learn, steadily improving throughout the season (i beat him in an 8k in february! needless to say i can't beat him now), and navigating his way through an incredibly tough league/southern section finals through state finals gauntlet.

on the negative side: not so much a negative, but it is also worth noting that in his two best races, he enjoyed near-perfect conditions--not necessarily weather, mind you, but he just had to follow. he has yet to show he can do what haney did at state, or what corcoran did at oc champs, and that is control--and win--a race (5th at southern section masters, 2nd in his division 3 finals race--where he tried to lead, 3rd in the very tough century league finals, where five league finalists made the state meet and three made the finals!). in time, can he figure these things out? i sure wouldn't bet against him...

He should call Al Sal. Sub-4:00 as a sophomore.

Seems like he has tons of upside. I wonder how his training looks since it is only 40 miles a week and if they do ancillary training. Anyone know how long he has been with his current coach?

So the HS Frosh 1600m record held at 4:14 for over 40 years without being broken. It's been lowered three times in just the last few years, Tamagno breaks it last week, and now........it's broken again in the MN State Meet? Tamagno only gets to hold that amazing record for one week? Unbelievable.

Bump

current pr seems to be 3:41 1500m in April. That's about a 3:58-59 mile.

zxvxzcv wrote:

current pr seems to be 3:41 1500m in April. That's about a 3:58-59 mile.

Yes, he's still improving.

Has not broken 4 minutes for the mile though.

Age group runner, started training hard too early so his improvements have leveled off and will come slowly. Running isn't swimming, starting early doesn't help an athlete reach their full potential.

Far Out West wrote:

Age group runner, started training hard too early so his improvements have leveled off and will come slowly. Running isn't swimming, starting early doesn't help an athlete reach their full potential.

Everyone who is a 4min miler has improvements come slow, or not at all.

He is perhaps closer to his ceiling than another equally talented runner but the ceiling doesn't move because he trained as a kid. If anything, whatever aerobic work he has done has made him better not somehow worse.

ghio wrote:

Has not broken 4 minutes for the mile though.

Undeniably true, though he has run the equivalent of a sub-4 in the open 1500 this spring. For what it's worth, his 3:41.33 1500 is an estimated 3:58.97 mile, according to MileSplit.

The fact that Tamagno hasn't broken 4:00 yet, despite a stellar 1500 this spring, shows that he is just another casualty, of sorts, in a sport whose governing bodies must pretend that the 1500-vs-mile issue does not exist. (And add 1600 to the mix, too, in races like the 4x1600 at the Penn Relays.)

Garrett O'Toole at Princeton is another who has an excellent 1500 best, at below-4:00 pace (two such races, actually, in 2016), but who's best open mile time is still 4:01.89 (from 2014, before college). Not counting this weekend, he hasn't run an outdoor open mile since 2014 and has been off his game this spring at 1500. Sure hope he bags his sub-4 eventually.

Tamagno's sub-4 should come...soon...barring injury. He's not entered in the Bowerman Mile (for the cream of the crop milers) at the Pre Classic, and the Pre Classic website doesn't have an entry list yet for the International Mile in the same meet. I hope he's in that IM race for a second year in a row. Gotta get that monkey off of his back by dipping below 4!