What is the softest current high school boys record?

kessler's is in continental tour TF. surely you see how that works out different. for starters, paced. also, my general impression is kids track only occasionally does someone that fast flash full speed, and rarely in a meet with the quality to push them. they might not have to push to win a normal weekly meet. at least at our state there is a countervailing response when all the good kids show up together -- kind of like the olympics -- it's often a slow match style race. go out easy, kick for it. no, for a record what you need is a high talent race that pushes you the whole way.

ok, you could use a pro race then. go chase adults. what you're missing re 800 vs. 1500/3000 is one is regularly held and the other it's basically get invited to a pro meet. not college since that might affect eligibility. pro. you probably only get access to 1500/3000 for being a wunderkind. those of doing normal HS TF never saw a 1500 HS race, even with my school going to like 3 different meets at serious D1 colleges. vs. the kid can run 800 any week and there is thus likely some snootiness about it. why the prospect kid at 1:46. why not the collegian at 1:45? it should be the same at the near-mile stuff but for some reason they are fascinated with fitting in kids running sub 4. maybe because 800 is run as lanes but 1500 may be a busy waterfall.

fwiw it looks like they turned flatt into a relay runner as a frosh and so his SB open 8 was 1:50.

1600, not as a mile split

Does Asinga's still count as the HS record?

Michael Carter's Shot Put record. It was a good record at the time but we just haven't had any good shot putters challenge it. Training a top athlete with a good spin technique should net the HS record.

I’d completely disagree. Carter’s shot record is stronger than maybe any distance record on the books.

The HS Hammer record could be on the soft side I suppose. But skewed as so few get the opportunity to throw the implement.

The 3k-5k all seem weak. A 3:39 guywho is a distance guy should be running low 8:20s. Never tried. Hobbs never really have it a shot. 28:32 is sort of weak but you need special cases for kids to run a 10k in HS. Same thing with the steeple.

And while the 800 probably should have been broken, we are talkings fractions of a section.

pretty much all the distance relays are weak cause NP didn’t go for them.

The 200m is a bit weak just cause someone went pro at 17😂

Carter's record might not go down in any of our lifetimes. It has already lasted for 44 years and nobody has even come close, not even Carter himself. When people say a performance is "Beamon-esque" they should probably say it was "Carter-esque" instead.

Many years ago, I was officiating the Shot Put at Nike Outdoor Nationals at NC A&T University. When we set up the event, we marked the national record. The shot put landing area had a concrete curb at its far end to stop rolling shots. Carter's mark was on the grass area beyond the curb - out of the landing area. This is a facility that has hosted NCAA Regionals and the landing area could not contain Carter's throw. At the time, the World Record was around 75-10.

All-time list
1) Carter 81-3.5
2) Crouser 77-2.75
3) Carter 77-0
4) Geist 76-10.5
5) Carter 76-9.5
6) Carter 76-4
7) Noon 76-2
8) Geist 76-0
9) Carter 75-11.75
10) Crouser 75-11.5

That's so F**ING insane to think about

44.69 is pretty insane but it would have gone down if covid had never happened. Justin Robinson ran 44.84 as a junior, 43.7 split the following summer, and still ran 44.91 (the fastest time in 2020) despite the world around him shutting down.

Either way, it will likely go down in the next 2 years, between Quincy Wilson and Jonathan Simms.

at 400 or 800 (or even 100 or 200) a HS speedster gets blended in with the college talent -- usually to their detriment -- in terms of inviting a wild card to a pro event that might push them harder to do an unusually fast kid time. unless you're knighton or fahnbulleh and literally doing a pro time in HS. that you're basically all but pro already. otherwise there is usually a cohort of slightly faster college kids who compete for that nod instead. and so we usually see some kid from LSU or UH.

vs. to me there is some magnetic thing about a kid running a <4 mile where we squeeze them into a waterfall start race even if there are similar college kids. kessler is unusual in being able to outrun the college kids but he also did so circularly because he was given the chance to run a race that's rarely ever done for HS kids.

also, like i said, i think some are ignoring that what often happens when you get a bunch of fast runners together, particularly in a non-pro circuit heat-rounds national or global meet, is you run a controlled, slow, match race for the advancement slots, and when the final arrives it's not full juice. you see this in the pros too. particularly as the race goes longer, the records are often one-off DL type races, with a pacer and a loaded field, who have to run one time, and not world heat meets.

The softest records are the ones that were broken recently and by a minimal amount. That means that there are likely to be athletes capable of breaking them, with the training and equipment to break them, and events where they can be broken.

Nothing is softer than Austin Tamagno's Mt. Sac course record, especially with competition

Can you fathom how far 81' 3 1/2" (24.78 m) is?

The boys marathon record is only 2:22:51. Not sure if it qualifies as a serious event for high schoolers. Some national class distance runner doing mileage since middle school might be able to break it. Other than that, I think its the 3000 steeple. The steeplechase is a little weaker than the 2 mile and 3000. A footlocker or nxn champ might be able to take it down in open competition.

Just for context, Verzbicas ran sub-4 in a high-school only race, with little competition, poor pacing, and bad weather. The 8:29 2-mile is pretty good--probably better than the 5k, though not as good as Webb's mile or Kessler's 3:34.

The question was about high school records.

(With your logic, I’m guessing you’re one of the people that think Ryun is the greatest ever, and would be running 3:24 in today’s shoes on the new tracks with wave lights.)

Ryun was great, but Centro has a gold medal!

You are not very bright. You are making assumptions without merit. I simply pointed out that Jim Ryun, without today’s advances, and one year removed from HS, ran over 2 seconds faster than today’s HS record for 800m. Centro is not germane to this at all, and Ryun was great but I do not believe he could have run the crazy times you are fantasizing about.

The 800m for sure!

The record should be in the 1:45 mid-range. The U.S. produces several 45x quarters milers and sub-4 milers. Both of these categories should have produced more 1:46x runners.

800 or 5000

Jakob ran 13:02 while he was 18yo. I think the HS record should be 13:20-13:25.