Top 25 High School Distance Boys Runners of All Time

There is another point to consider. Suppose Birnbaum advances in the Senior race prelim, without running the World Standard? He could still try and make top 3 in a kicker’s-race final, and then try and run the World Standard before the qualification window closes on July 30.

Ryan Deak is a top ten, fo show! Show some respect where respect is due.

Casey Clinger...I had a problem with that one as well. Not sure he would even be on the honorable mention list.

Good list!

Thanks for not simply going off of performance lists and not having recency bias.

In the mile it is Ryan vs Birnbaum, 2 mile it is Birnbsum/lukas/Young. xc Ritz no question.

Nobody is beating Ryun in the mile, nobody is beating Lukas in the 3200, and nobody is beating Ritz at xc

I haven’t been around forever but I’m 40 (graduated HS the same year as Hall, Webb & Ritz) and in my view there’s no one quite like Verzbikas. Won back to back Foot Lockers and a NXN handily, sometimes even walking across the finish line. Broke 4 and 8:30 at will and completely dominated in multiple national track meets. Not number one all time but if you have him outside your top 5 you’re likely underestimating him.

Webb doesn’t get a spot in the mile? Fernandez doesn’t get a spot in your 2 mile? Lukas doesn’t get to line up against Webb in XC? Birnbaum is impressive right now but don’t lose perspective man.

So did his brother Aaron (1:48), AND beat Simeon at NXN in course record time against the best field ever.

Troutman is a good one he was incredible. Also missing Bob Kennedy footlocker champ went onto to win NCAA as freshman so gotta believe he would be top 25 all time

Grant fishers hs years are weirdly underrated by letsrun. I mean he's a highschool sub 4 runner(ran 4:02 as a junior) he won two footlockers, was undefeated in xc for his entire junior and senior seasons(19 straight wins). And won two dream miles.

Much better list in my opinion. Not going to get into the Ryun debate. Love King Ches but I HAVE to put CS somewhere before him. I'd make a list but 5-10 is always the hardest to rank in my opinion.

I think if you are the absolute best at one discipline you can probably be top 5 worthy but the runner need to be at the very least somewhat relative to all-time peers in other events. Which is why I can never rank Ryun number one unless we are only talking about the mile/1500&800. But all 3 of the first guys I think you could argue could be number one.
I'd probably say
1. Webb - overall ultra talented. My favorite runner of all time. Could run all time marks in any distance event over 20 years ago.
Staple performance: 3:53

1b. LV - skipped a year and still won like 8 national titles including 3 xc titles all while being world class or world junior class in another sport. Just one of the most dominant runners I've seen in HS. Ran 14:18 as a freshman if I remember correctly.
Staple performance: 8:29

1c. Ryun - faster than almost everyone to this day like 60+ years ago lol. Not even getting into world rankings because that's like comparing bill Russell to lebron james but you guys love propping up his world status like kids these days would be racing Yared Nuguse and Jakob Or even remotely. If this was about mid d he's most likely number 1.

4. German Fernandez - world class for his age in HS. No xc title though but for the recency bias bus. All 3 of the youngs and countless others haven't matched his 14:24. Not even taking lightly into account the better equipment and training improvements of today.

Staple: 8:34/4:00 1600m in 2 hrs. No one from 2023 is doing that solo without super spikes and wave lights.

5. Drew Hunter - footlocker

7:59/3:57

sub 4 indoors twice and one outdoors

Staple: in my opinion beating fisher. Showed his promise. Because fisher was already arguably top 10.

6. Colin Sahlman - really good kicker against his peers lol. Everything I like about Birnbaum but with xc performance to go with it.

approached GFs record

Led the fastest us HS xc team ever

14:03 @ runninglane against so many future sub 4 guys

3:56

Staple: Runninglane win? Or pre

7. Dathan Ritz - probably already triggered people putting him this low. I would argue we don't know that he'd beat Fernandez or Verzbicas at XC for sure but he beat one of my top 3 picks in webb handily and has two xc titles. Not going to even attempt to compare the running lane 14:03 vs his state meet.

4:05 8:41 3200m and 13:44 in the early 2000s. Got to be worth more these days

Staple: close to bekele the 🐐 at world xc or destroying Webb and Hall at Footlocker

8. Leo Young - 3:39 approached Fernandez's course record

Would totally have put lex here instead but he has a winning record against him.

Staple: world xc u20 top 20

Staple#2 : dominant against 13:34 national record holder brother

9. Birnbaum - 3:56 8:34 no xc title though

Staple: 8:34 closing in 55. That's tough

10. Fisher - sub 4 & 2 footlocker titles

undertrained in my opinion. Would literally not seem tired compared to his rivals. Watch his footlocker wins. They are impressive.

Claim to fame: two footlockers with sub 4

11ish - lex young or Rudy chapa13:34 vs 28:32 alot of guys on this list don't come close to those times.

Somehow forgot Gerry Lindgren. And that is the only person on this list I've actually talked to before lol. He's definitely top 10. Everything you could say about Ritz can probably be said here in terms of ability but he also ran 8:40 indoors. Would probably bump Ritz and everyone else down one. Had the highschool records 3000m -10k when he graduated. He is one of the 4 on this list I'd say would be challenging Ritz in xc.

Two hard to rank more. Alot of the individuals can be interchangeable 1 or two spots up or down. Again I actually think LV is the best overall but I won't argue against the top 3.

Although Leo didn’t run a 5k. I do think he would’ve run faster than 13:55.

However, to Derrick’s credit .. he ran his 5k solo in a high school race. Last 3200 8:48 and last 800 2:05.

He got mono shortly after and ended his season.

He also lost exactly one race on the track across his junior and senior years — iirc a single second place finish in of the postseason invitationals against the already sun-4 Drew Hunter.

Fisher gets super underrated — probably in part bc recency bias has FL >>> NXN — but he was clearly and unequivocally the best hs distance runner in the country for 2 straight years. He didn’t run as fast as some of the other guys on this list, but he was completely and totally dominant.

All depends on what you value / consider most important (times / wins / etc), but I wouldn’t argue with him being anywhere from 5 - 10 spots higher on the list.

And how old was the "freshman" Cheserek?

I think it's time for Letsrun to run a bracket, like they did for Greatest All-time American Runners. There have been quite a few of these forum debates about high-school runners over the years, suggesting there's enough interest.

Good idea. For me, there's a big gap between Ryun and Lindgren and everyone else. Those two guys were competing against and beating the best in the world as HSchoolers. Forget time trials, look as races.

You’re overthinking this. He has no chance of making the team.

You said he’s not even getting out of the semifinal, so we’ll just have to wait and see.