James Hogue 2.0: Sub-4 miler and Texas grad Brendan Hebert illegally runs Texas state HS xc meet, finishes 2nd.

Civil cases have been filled and won for less clear negative actions than this case.

A grown man dressing up as a school boy and competing against high school kids is new ground.

Don’t sweep away the treat of civil law cases just because you personally don’t agree with them.

Anyone can file a civil lawsuit, and a judge and jury won’t have much sympathy for a grown man of 23 dressing up like school boy and competing in a sanctioned school event.

Kids in that race could also sue for emotional stress:

forbes.com

Suing For Emotional Distress: How and When to Sue

Jeffrey Johnson

Everyone’s experienced emotional distress, but it’s not always something you can sue for. This article will explain how the law handles emotional distress and the steps necessary to file a lawsuit. Here's what you need to kno...

Open link

Can you armchair lawyers get bent. I want to hear from an armchair psychologist. Or even the kid himself. Why? What was he hoping to accomplish? Lost some frat boy wager? Is this a disturbing case of Peter Pan Syndrome gone nuclear?

He obvi did it to help his local homeboy, Sanchez. Successfully, I might add. Sanchez probably doesn't win otherwise. Homeboy claims to not be in on it, but it'll come out sometime.

You are wrong. I talked to Brendan right after the race for about 15 minutes. He said he didn't now Kevin but wanted to get in a good race. I also talked to Kevin's dad and told him about Brendan. He called Kevin and asked if he had ever heard of him. Kevin thought he was just another runner. He had a number and Lake Travis uniform. Kevin won for the second year in a row, this time by a large margin. He was also state champion in the 3200 last year as a junior. You should think before you post.

You are wrong. Kevin doesn't know him, and I talked to Brendan right after the race for about 15 minutes. He said he didn't know Kevin but wanted to get in a good race. Kevin needs no help, this was his second win in a row and it wasn't close. Think before you post

Brendan was planning on running for UCLA next year. I bet that train is off the tracks now.

I talked to him at length and he was very polite, didn't seem to understand that he had done anything wrong. Just wanted to run a hard race. He was planning on running for UCLA next year when he does his Masters degree. He said he did not know Kevin but knew he was fast and wanted to run to get the 'pit of the stomach' pain from a good race. He also wanted to tattoo number 628 on his chest as he was the 628th American to run a sub 4 mile. I looked it up, he is actually number 629.

He is actually really fast, just wanted to run a fast race. He is planning on running the Turkey Trot in Austin. He has run a 3:59:96 mile this year. Nice guy, just doesn't seem to understand this was not a good idea.

Sorry, Ken, but your story sounds like you're selling cut-rate insurance. You talked to Brendan for 15min after the race, and the only thing you got was that he was looking for a good race? Seems like a little more would have been discussed in 15 minutes.

And, if Kevin doesn't know Brendan, why is he choosing to act so guilty?

No need to respond. Good for you for sticking up for your homie. He's a good runner, and I wish the best for him regardless of this mess.

That Kevin kid won by a large margin because a 23 year old sub 4 minute mile runner took out the pace at a level far beyond what high school runners can run.

He ruined the race and tainted the results for everyone including the winner.

Branden is on record, recorded, stating that he knows Kevin and was helping him in the race.

Did Branden help the Kevin kid cheat or was this an act of individual idiocy?

Where can we listen to this recording?

Brendan is an amateur

The recorded interview that contains Branden saying he knows Kevin is here (just before the middle):

Appreciated.

We can agree that he says he knows Kevin. He does not say that he ran it to help Kevin, but I can generally agree that there seems to be an implication of that.

We should note that Kevin's take is very different, saying:

"I know he started the race and he finished the race. I didn't know anything about him. I didn't know who he was, probably until 10 minutes after the finish, when everyone really started talking about it."
"I'm not entirely sure what the circumstances around it were, I just know it happened and it's stupid. I don't know what will happen from here."
"Honestly, in my eyes, it doesn't take anything away from it. I was talking to my coaches. They were super angry. They said, 'You don't need a pacer to win state. You did your thing.' He was being stupid in the race. I didn't know who he was. I saw him. He's stupid. I told myself, 'I'll reel him in eventually. I'll win my back to back state.' I don't know. It's a whole thing. Hopefully it won't disappoint. My team got second and we're all super happy. It's a little wacky, but we're still very happy with everything. We'll put that past us."

The only thing in his response that I find odd is that his coaches introduced the word "pacer."

That's because in the immediate aftermath of people trying to figure it out, one of the rumors was that the guy jumped in to 'pace' Kevin.

It was just people trying to figure it out. They had no idea who the old guy was.

They need to rerun the race! The winner, if he knew about the fast illegal pacemaker there to tear the race open, cheated!

Brendan said he knows Kevin and ran the race to help Kevin.

Void the results and rerun the race!

Some kids in that race probably ran their last ever cross country race and could have finished higher with a race that went out at high school runner pace, not grown man pace.

If I was ranked second, and planned to get 2nd behind Kevin and here is this tall older looking guy, I might panic a bit and do something unnatural. How do the other runners feel? The ones that finished 2-10 or so? Anyone way off their ranking that chased hard and faded? Obviously very stupid and shocking, I don't condone this behavior at all, but having no skin in the game, this is pretty funny. Will be interesting if he does indeed run for UCLA next year.