Is this a fast 800/1600 for an eighth grade boy?

It's not too bad. At that age, much depends on the physical maturity of the kid and how much actual training he's put in.

Wound't have placed in the top 6 in my middle school conference (that would have taken ~5:10 and ~2:15, more or less. Obviously not competitive at the state or national level. Probably makes him one of the better 2-3 runners on his team at his school. Training background?

No way to tell how it projects to potential for high school. Too many variables.

Good news is that the kid really has no training. Does all sports (soccer, baseball and football) and is fit. Might get to a track practice once a week, at best. Middle school track is neglected where he lives in favor of baseball. So, he wins all of his meets.

I ran just about the same times in 8th grade and ended up as a 4:30/9:40 guy. So above average, but by no means great.

Then again, middle school times don't really predict high school times. All this tells you is that he probably has some talent.

25 years ago an 8 grader named Webster clocked 1:58 and I remember anothher NYState kid running a 4:30mile mid 1990s

Its solid. Is he a prodigy? No. Its up to him whether he wants to be fast or not.

He has dropped about 20 sec on his 1600 and 10 sec on his 800 this season. Most of the drop came from better pacing. The kid is built like a runner, but may get tall in high school. I think he could be pretty good. There are some good coaches in the area who have helped kids get Div. I scholarships. I am trying to get him some coaching over the summer so he will do well in XC when he isn't the big fish in the small pond anymore.

I think the big problem is that the kid thinks he is a natural and won't need to train hard. I am trying to get an idea of where his talent fits in with other kids since the middle school talent pool is shallow in his area.

Female 8 graders Nichole Blood ran 5;03ish in 02 and Shola Lynch ran 2:07.14 in 1983.

I ran times very similar to that in 8th grade (2:30, 5:17) and in High School I ran 1:56, 4:20, 9:25, 15:40, I just broke 15 in the 5k last weekend as a college freshmen so I'd say he can still run some solid times.

Middle school times don't mean a whole lot. I consistently ran <5:00 and <2:15 in 8th grade and dominated. There was always at least one kid around 5:15-5:20 though. I went on to run 4:13 in high school, but a lot of successful runners I know were running 5:30s in middle school. Some kids develop early and don't improve much in high school.

To answer the question of how good those times are, they're good, but not great. A kid running those times could develop into a 4:10 HS miler or a 4:50 HS miler. Seriously.