Zach Wills a freshman from Mason,OH runs 9:16.81 to win districts.

I ran a 9:24 two mile in 9th grade - and I know how rare this is - in a race following the lead of a 12th grade 9 minute two miler. This was about thirty years ago. It seemed incomprehensible to me that Eric Hulst ran 9:04 - at 5"2 and 105 pounds, that 9:24 felt like a sprint for 8 laps. May Mr. Hulst rest in peace.

Sick. It took me 4 years to get there as a senior.

He won by 12 seconds. This kid is the future.

That's quite good, but I think it's a bit early to declare him the future. Lots of people have run that fast early and not ever gotten any better. Also, lot's of people have run much slower early and ended up having great college and post-collegiate careers. Anyway, great run from a young up and coming high school kid.

letsbehonest wrote:

Also, lot's of people have run much slower early and ended up having great college and post-collegiate careers..

Lots of people? Really?

I was at the race and I was very impressed. After the first few laps he just took off. He was also 3rd in cross country at state so it wasn't a huge surprise to see him run this fast. The thing about him though is that he is very old for his grade so his senior year of track he won't be able to compete. Still a very impressive solo run, though.

man i was so lame as a freshman, i clocked a solid 11:34 as a freshman. By my senior year i had run 9:53 but there were 4 guys in my league under 9:30 so I was way back. I sucked but ended up running 8:04 for 3k in college where they never really did much. I guess improvement is a funny thing.

Lots of people have run that fast early and not ever gotten any better...

I'd also like to hear of those 'lots' as I don't know any who have run a 9:16 as a freshman and didn't get any better.

Sage ran 9:15 as freshman at York!

yes-i would hazard to say that many of the guys running at ncaa regionals in a week did not run 9:16 as a freshman in high school. Personally, I ran 10:44 as a freshman. So, yes, I would say it's feasible that "lots of guys" have run slower as freshmen and done quite well for themselves.

Blondy wrote:

I'd also like to hear of those 'lots' as I don't know any who have run a 9:16 as a freshman and didn't get any better.

Soloman Haile will be a HS Freshman next year. I'll be he runs under 9:16!

The key word here is LOTS. There have obviously been frosh to run 9:16, I am referencing LOTS.

There only been Hulst that I'm aware of.

is this an all-time freshman record?

If he's doing 80+ miles per week, he probably won't improve much. If he's doing anything under 60, he's the future if he stys healthy.

two to three years from now, him vs Craig Lutz at Footlocker/NON

Craig's times:

1600 2008-03-14 4:21.30

3200 2008-04-02 9:14.09

Hulst ran 9:04 for 2 miles.

Get the hell out of Ohio if you want to be great youngman

Spellt rong wrote:

There only been Hulst that I'm aware of.

Stolen from:

Here is an all-time frosh 8-lap list. There could possibly be more frosh from the last half of the '70s.

On some of those lists the 2-mile list reaches 50 deep in the 9:10s(9:07 3200s) and I have literally

hundreds of names in the 9:12-9:15 range with unknown year in school. I suppose one or two could have been frosh.

Jack Shepard

ALL-TIME FROSH 3200/2M (outdoors only)

9:04.4y(9:01.3) Eric Hulst (Laguna Beach, Ca) '73

9:01.68m Sintayehu Taye' (Portland, Me/Ethiopia) '05

9:06.80m Rob Finnerty (Burnsville, Mn) '05

9:12.0y(9:08.8) Fred Carley (Ruckel Jr, Niceville, Fl) '79

9:09.78 Bryan Dameworth (Agoura, Agoura Hills, Ca) '87

9:10.46 Cajh Hafferty (Blanchet, Seattle, Wa) '85

9:14.4y(9:11.2) Juan Garcia (Redwood, Visalia, Ca) '72

9:11.99m Philip MacQuitty (Palo, Alto, Ca) '07

9:15.6y(9:12.4) Alan Scharsu (Fitch, Austintown, Oh) '75

9:16.0y(9:12.8) Frank Assumma (Kohl Jr, Rialto, Ca) '76

id like to point out that zach was hurt for most of the season running like 2-3 miles a day until about 4 weeks before this. So he is running 9:16 on hardly any training. he is rediculous.

P.S. i know him personaly.