Albin Mullan was in Scripps National Spelling Bee contest in middle school. But you need context on what happened. He went to a NJIT in an 7-Year BS/MD Program. Being an Indian kid, he was probably told to stop "playing games and focus on your career/education." Done.
THANK YOU for all this hard work! It was fascinating!
I never lost a race in 8th grade (660y was the longest event for 7th and 8th graders in the mid 1960s in NY State and schools in our area stayed local for competition.)
The only other undefeated 660 runner in the area got detention the day of our one scheduled race against each other. He's coming to my house tomorrow and we'll watch the Millrose Games together. I'd always tell the kids I coached that they probably had more in common with their competitors than their non-running/jumping/throwing classmates.
Why do you assume it requires a lot of excess time? Someone highly organized could just compile a table of the best 50 middle school kids one year (would probably take less than an hour using sites that rank performances by school level). And then 4 years later, or however many years later, they pick one day to spend 2 hours searching for any updates on those kids. In any event, the total time would be less than 5 hours of one day...
Great info! You sure have put in a lot of work into this!
Height wise, McArthur looked like a college student in 8th grade. He ran at NXN with his team both in 8th and 9th grade. He wasn’t close to winning the state meet senior year because others who caught up to him / surpassed him used to be way shorter than him in 8th and 9th grade
Watch him the last couple years since my team is in Gwinnett. Such a talent and not really sure what happened. He'd pop a good one and then go back to just not being himself. He'd start the races great, pushing the pace and then the last couple laps kind of falter. Not sure what happened there but wish it wasn't this way
when you are a kid things are different. you can run and train and do well.
when young adulthood comes, there are options, like getting a job and making money, going to school and actually focusing on say medicine, science, or other persuits, sports.
a sensible person would not choose to pursue running beyond a fun pastime.
that is why quitting or having the sport "taken away" is probably a great day if you go on to better things.
if you really passionate and obsessed about it, and are really good at it,
myself i was the local protegee, and kind of got obsessed with it. accolades are nice, I liked hard tough challenging workouts probably most.
by 21, I soberly saw that making the olympic team was too speculative, I had never beaten the guys on the team in a workout. and the guys on the team, they were barely making a living. and the whole point of running was to get into a good university, which i was already in.
it took a couple of years to quit working out, with the terrible 70 hour run up 2500 ft. elevation. where you felt tranquil and accomplished afterward.
but the reality is that hard energy is much better spent on a real life and real job .
so i look back, getting high on the highs, and low on the lows.
Great info! You sure have put in a lot of work into this!
Height wise, McArthur looked like a college student in 8th grade. He ran at NXN with his team both in 8th and 9th grade. He wasn’t close to winning the state meet senior year because others who caught up to him / surpassed him used to be way shorter than him in 8th and 9th grade
Watch him the last couple years since my team is in Gwinnett. Such a talent and not really sure what happened. He'd pop a good one and then go back to just not being himself. He'd start the races great, pushing the pace and then the last couple laps kind of falter. Not sure what happened there but wish it wasn't this way
McArthur finally took a small step forward in his sophomore year at NC State. After HS PR's of 1:55 and 4:11 he ran a 1:50.6 and 4:04.6 last weekend at Clemson.
Still nowhere close to the top guys in this class which was the point of this thread, but an encouraging step forward nonetheless.
Where did you get the lists from? Amazing data but is it 1600 times from one year?
Yeah, if it’s athletic.net, you may need to double check that there were no mixups between 1500 and 1600. It’s not uncommon for results at the top to be full of errors.
25. Manny Putz class of 2025 (4:36.92 equivalent - rural WI): Won XC states 3 times in a row, won the 1600 and 3200 his junior year, and came 2nd at NXR twice in a row. 5k best of 14:32. He's a senior this year and recently committed to University of Wisconsin. 24. Carter Cutting (4:36.83 - suburban Portland, OR): Moved briefly to Utah then back to Oregon again, where he came 3rd at XC states. Won state in the 800 and 1500 his senior year with a 1:50 and 3:47. Committed to BYU, took a redshirt season and just broke 4 in the mile last weekend. 23. Will McCoy (4:36.57 - suburban San Diego and Sacramento, CA): Didn't beat this mark - or even break 5 again - until his junior year, when he ran 4:34. Focused on the 800 after that. Committed to American River College in town, stuck at 2:01. Didn't run this past season. 22. Colton Thress (4:36.53 - rural central OH): Finally broke out his senior year when he ran a 15:38 5k. Specializes in the 800, committed to Ashland University and runs a personal best of 1:50. 21. Quintin Lowe (4:36.48 - suburban Chicago, IL): won his competitive conference in XC his senior year, came 4th at state in the 800 that year with a 1:53. Committed to Purdue University and has run decently. 20. Micah Blomker class of 2024 (4:36.14 - suburban Kansas City, KS): won XC states sophomore year and again senior year, 5k PR of 14:49. Committed to University of Tulsa and is currently taking a redshirt season. 19. Steven McCartney (4:36.00 equivalent - suburban Atlanta, GA): never beat his 5k PR of 15:48 from freshman year. Committed to Charleston Southern University, redshirted, finished top-10 in conference in the 1500. Raced infrequently this XC season. 18. Alexander Lodewick (4:35.51 equivalent - suburban Bay Area, CA): won CIF North Coast XC section his senior year (for D3 - together with Badcock in D1) and logged a 3200m PR of 9:13 that spring. Committed to UC Berkeley but has raced infrequently. 17. Aidan Cox (4:35.30 equivalent - southeast NH): Won XC states in 10th and 11th grade, won the 1500/1600 and 3000/3200 at indoor and outdoor state championships in 12th grade. His greatest achievement might be at RunningLane Nationals in 2021 though, where he ran 14:18 - faster than anyone on this list in high school - placed 7th, and beat every non-senior other than the Newbury Park boys. Committed to UVA and hasn't raced much (redshirt, then maybe injury) but logged an impressive 14:10 5k on the track. 16. Braydon Honsinger (4:35.21 - rural eastern MI): This was the fastest mark set in any middle school regular season. Improved slowly, but eventually ran 15:34 for the 5k his senior year and placed 3rd at state in the 800 with a 1:54. Committed to Saginaw Valley State University. 15. William "Billy" Carlton (4:34.70 equivalent - suburban Atlanta, GA): Never beat his 5k PR of 15:37 from freshman year. Nevertheless, won the 800 and 1600 at his competitive county championships two years in a row. Committed to Georgia Tech, took a redshirt season and logged a 3:52 1500 and 24:33 8k. 14. Broen Holman class of 2025 (4:34.56 equivalent - Sierra Nevada, CA): I don't know if anyone has ever run this fast as a 6th grader. Won Sac-Joaquin D4 section three times in a row, placed 2nd at D4 state championships this year, broke 14 in the 3-mile at Woodbridge, and placed 5th in the Arcadia seeded 3200 with an 8:54. Recently announced his commitment to Northern Arizona University. 13. Jared Khalil (4:34.10 equivalent - southeast NH): Though he's a fabulous runner, Khalil's primary sport has always been basketball, for which he has forgone the former to play at Plymouth State University, a D3 school, close to home. 12. Alex Leath (4:33.50 equivalent - Birmingham, AL): Became big mid-distance guy. XC performance was decent. Won the 800 at all four championships (indoor and outdoor) from junior to senior year, and the 1600 at three of them. Committed to University of Virginia with Aidan Cox and improved his 800 to 1:47, fast enough to take him to nationals. 11. Zack Munson (4:33.50 equivalent - Bellingham, WA): Won XC states senior year, came 6th at NXR Northwest. Won all three distance events at track states that spring. Committed to Northern Arizona University, redshirted, logged a 13:55 track 5k and 23:24 8k. 10. Jared Fortenberry (4:33.40 equivalent - suburban Atlanta, GA): Improved his times to 4:15 and 15:14. Placed 2nd at states his senior year. Committed to University of Maine and has run decent but not amazing. 9. Reese Vannerson (4:32.82 equivalent - Houston, TX): Broke 15 his senior year, won back-to-back UIL 6A races (maybe the most competitive state championship out there) with a 4:08 1600 and 8:49 3200. Has found major success in triathlons. 8. Ty Garrett (4:32.46 equivalent - IN to CO and back again): He is the only XC runner in the entire class of '23 to place top 5 in two different states. Committed to Wake Forest University, redshirted (is now a fellow freshman of phenom Jojo Jourdon), has run alright. 7. Marcus Reilly class of 2024 (4:32.13 - central MA): The fastest on this list who would've returned if not for COVID. 3-time podium finisher at XC states, has run a 4:03 full mile twice. Committed to University of Michigan, currently a redshirt. 6. Hunter Jones (4:32.00 - rural northern MI): Went on a rampage senior year, winning every single meet he ran up to NXR Midwest and Footlocker Midwest on consecutive weekends, the former in 14:21. (May have also set a record for most XC meets run in one season: 16.) Won the 2-mile and 5000m at Nike Indoor Nationals that winter. Also committed to Wake Forest but did not redshirt. 5. Zack Gilbertson (4:31.00 equivalent - southern NC): Went nearly undefeated senior year and won state. 1600 PR of 4:07. Committed to University of Mississippi but has only run one race. 4. Bryce Stachewicz (4:30.49 - suburban Minneapolis, MN): Improved considerably toward the end of high school, won state in the 1600 senior year following an undefeated season. Committed to University of Wisconsin and built on his times, running a 4:02 full mile, 23:57 8k, and recently an 8:08 3000m on the indoor track. 3. Nathan Lopez (4:28.70 - suburban Boston, MA): 3-time state XC podium finisher, won state in the 1600 once and the 3200 twice, the latter with an 8:59 senior year. Committed to University of Michigan and continues to improve, shaving off 90 seconds from last year's 8k. 2. Drew Costelow (4:26.29 - IN to CO as well... I'm curious to know why both moved at once): won both the 800 and 1600 at Colorado states two years in a row, reaching 1:50 in the former at Arcadia. Committed to CU Boulder, took a redshirt season. 1. Elliott McArthur (4:22.40- suburban Minneapolis, MN): I don't think anyone paid much attention because it was from a high school meet, but McArthur was in fact the fastest middle-school aged runner in 2019. Stayed pretty consistently in the mid-4:10s all through high school. Committed to NC State, took a redshirt season. Broke 25 in his first 8k. - What strikes me is how few of the runners setting the top marks today are part of this list. No Lex and no Leo. No Aaron Sahlman. No Tyrone Gorze. No Rocky Hansen, no Carson Noecker, no Connor Burns, no Kole Mathison (barely), no Simeon Birnbaum, no Kevin Sanchez. And it wasn't just I couldn't find any results for them. They just weren't as good!... Similarly it's amazing how there are so many athletes at the top of the ranks who just disappear off the radar. To all the young high school runners out there who feel like everyone has a headstart on you, just remember it means less than you may think. The whole playing field can change in just a couple years. Keep at it!
I agree with the snarky poster that you have way too much time on your hands, but that's what it takes to produce such thorough research like this. Effort isn't for everyone. That's why guys like you (and me) provide such a valuable service to the rest of us. I love the data, but also the additional commentary on each athlete. Bravo! A+ for you.
The only issue I have is the presentation. What you put up was a wall of data which loses it's visual appeal on first glance. For example, I marked up your data with simple bold type on the name of each entry. See how much more appealing your hard work becomes?
This post was edited 25 seconds after it was posted.
Perhaps what stands out to me most is how successful the kids on this list are. I've never thought of Middle School success as a strong predictor, but in the age of year-round and travel sports, maybe it's not as surprising that kids are already specializing at that age.
A kid named Cole Hocker ran 4:30 in middle school. He made it all the way to the very top of the mountain. So much for the theory that running fast in middle school is a bad thing.
PS Some kid named Jacob in Norway ran faster than anyone in middle school and was training like a professional athlete from age 8 onward.
Keep telling kids, "play other sports, don't specialize, don't do higher mileage, start late" and with that advice, 99% of kids won't be good enough to ever walk onto a D1 college program.
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