Hand him the Foot Locker crown now- Drew Hunter runs 14:20 - 34 seconds faster than he did last year

You guys are piranhas. The normal age for a high school senior is August 97-July 98, with the bulk of seniors turning 18 during the school year. He did that. 4 months on another kid, when they both started training the same year (actually a year later for Hunter, considering his freshman year training sucked), DOES NOT MAKE A DIFFERENCE. If some kid were born when Hunter was instead of March, that would not make him the favorite for footlocker, or a high school record threat. Get over it.

Come on guys. Now we're pulling out the age argument for athletes that are at the "old end" of the "normal range"?

Great run by Hunter.

The fact is he will be 18 yrs. and 9 mos. old when he graduates and many kids graduate as young as 17 yrs. and 6 mos.

He is a bit older than the old end of the normal range.

This likely gives him a bit of an advantage over other class of 2016 runners (note that many others his age graduated with the class of 2015).

Nobody is accusing him of any kind of age cheating (well, unless he was held back at one time).

I was 16 for majority of the 1st semester of my senior year

I know a lot of people from Maryland that didn't turn 18 until November-January of their FR year in college but that was the norm for them

Did it suck the fact that their was guys I was racing in my class a year old than me? Yes, but I just went along w/ it because there's nothing I can change about it, it is what it is...

Matt Maton is well over a year older than Grant Fisher, he still has to put up with him, it's funny how they both ran the same exact mile time, but in the case of age, I'd give Grant the upper hand

Seeing as we've had several collegiate FR go sub-4 in the mile INDOORS, it really doesn't make Maton all that special, seeing as several collegiate SO have went 23:27 in the 8k, it really doesn't make Maton all that special

Y'all crazy it would be one thing if Drew was held back a year and was 20 but this man Will always be 18 his senior year of high school, as is typical. Grow up and accept that Drew is simply better than you were as a high schooler and has benefitted from exceptional, difficult, and uninterrupted training, and a good dose of talent.

Too much is made of when he turned 18. So he's on the early side of the bell curve when he turned 18. Big deal. As a parent, I would much rather my kid be one of the older kids in his grade vs. being one of the youngest, and that's based on my desire to have a more emotionally mature kid for his grade. Having said all that, my kid is one of the youngest in his grade (May birthday) and won a state championship as a junior less than one month after he turned 17. Sooooo, it's all a bunch of BS at the end of the day. Every kid's a little different in terms of physical maturity compared to other kids in their same class. Hunter is a helluva talent. Has he committed to a college yet?

Since I was the one who asked about age, let me explain why.

My birthday is Sept. 18th. I turned 17 at the start of my senior year. I was NOT unusually young - at least back then (many years ago). I had a teammate who was born in early September of the same year, so slightly older than I, but was a junior. I beat him consistently by 40 seconds. I was 9th in State XC, qualifying as an individual. He did not come close. But the next year, as an 18 year old senior he was 8th. And, given what I ran as a college freshman, if I had still been in high school, I would have had a good shot at winning State.

Before anyone attacks me for sour grapes or whining, I am NOT saying woe is me! After all, there were doubtless a bunch of other 17 year old seniors who would also have benefited from another year. But I am saying the indisputable: An additional year does make a difference.

As I stated in my first post, Hunter is clearly a great runner. But as an 18 year old senior he may well join company with Ryun and Webb as an all-time legend. A status his super 17 year old achievements nevertheless would not have earned him.

FYI: Ryun turned 18 on April 29th of his senior year; Webb on Jan. 13th.

Pretty pathetic that all these recent top HS runners are age cheats. Yes, even if it is "legal" age cheating it's still age cheating. Lukas, Maton, Ches, this kid..... Total scam artists.

What aboutery wrote:

He is a bit older than the old end of the normal range.

).

No he is not. How dense do you have to be to not understand that? It has already been explained that the "normal" range for a senior right now is from August 97 to august 98 with one state having a jan 1 cutoff. If he was older than the normal range, he would have had to been born in July 97 or earlier.

The majority of states use sep 1 as the cut off date.

To put is simply, he is one of the older kids in his class. In most states, he could even be one year older and still be eligible to compete in high school.

I've read alot of dumb stuff on this site, but these complaints about his age is among the dumbest. Most kids start their senior year at 17, some 18, and the majority graduate at 18, as Hunter will. He's within the legal age range, and any anecdotes anyone has about how they were a 16 year old senior or there friends all graduated at 17 don't change the fact that Hunter's age is legal and not all that abnormal.

This guy's 6 months older than the average probably, but he outkicked Justyn Knight as a sophomore and he beat Grant Fisher from the front as a 17 year old junior. He is legit.

Won't win the real national title, NXN

Dyestat Rumor wrote:

Won't win the real national title, NXN

Because Tanner Anderson is a better runner than Grant Fisher. Oh wait, 8:43 beats 8:58, 3:59 beats 4:09?, and Anderson's college results, while fantastic, aren't any better than Fisher's debut.

Because Kai Wilmot is a better runner than Grant Fisher? Fisher's college debut: 23:33. Wilmot's: 27:00. In all seriousness, Wilmot is a talent and I hope he has an excellent college career, and I think he can, but he was not better than Fisher in high school, and is not now.

Because Sam Wharton is a better runner than Edward Cheserek? No.

Because Futsum is better than Cheserek? Not yet...

Because Verzbicas is better than Verzbicas? Wait a second...

Because Craig Lutz is better than Verzbicas? Not in high school, and who knows what might have happened in college.

I think I've made my point. The footlocker national champion is THE top xc runner in the country. For what its worth, Hunter hasn't decided which one he'll do. It probably depends on where his rivals will be running. He'll pick the best race.

Dyestat Rumor wrote:

Won't bow down to Nike

I turned 18 December of my freshmen year of college so he would have been 15 months older than me in high school. But we do things differently up here in Canada.

I think for someone as good as him it doesn't really matter, but for some people that extra year can get them a much better scholarship to a better school... So yes it does make a difference.

Do you think Drew could match this performance on a cold night in Stoke?

Weird that this has devolved into an age debate, but I'll add my 2 cents. As someone who didn't turn 18 until the July after senior year of high school, I always had a chip on my shoulder about being younger than most of the guys I was running against. There was even a guy on my college team who was a month older than me despite being a class behind me. And I always thought (and still do) that I could have gotten a better scholarship and/or gone to a better program with an extra 8+ months to develop during high school. So, I suppose I feel that I am "closer" to this supposed issue than most people.

I think that people who are saying that Hunter's relative age doesn't give him a slight edge are kidding themselves. Of course it does. HOWEVER, any suggestion that he is somehow an "age cheat" is equally ridiculous. He just happens to have a bit of an advantage relative to most people in his class. There has to be a date cutoff somewhere, and no matter where you set it, there will always be winners and losers. It's not anyone's fault, and it's not worth crying about.

Another Sucker wrote:

Another Dumb Ass wrote:

He is a NORMAL aged senior. Drop the age debate all of you people that just can't rationally believe a HS kid can run fast without doping or age cheating.

In a few minutes his mom will start posting on this thread defending his age as normal too.

He's a year or more older than many high school seniors.

If VA cut-off was 9/1/97 for the class of 2015 as another posted stated, then he missed being in last year's class by 5 days. IN many states the cut-off is 12/31. He is nearly 16 months older than some kids in the class of 2016 from those states.

No need to try to psycho analyze those who do post facts that run counter to your feelings.

This is quite simple and factual.

100% false. Most states are sept 1st, very few are as late as December 1st. You are an f'tard who should be banned from posting, and the sport in general.

Another Canadian here - Ontario. In our high schools, your classes are (almost) exclusively composed of people in your year of birth. I didn't realize it was different elsewhere.

I had a mid-December birthday. My parents chose to hold me back before the 1st grade, so I was about 2 weeks overage for my grade. It was the butt of many jokes. :)

In my region, people with the same YOB as Drew are generally now out of high school. If Drew were currently in grade 12 here, he'd be 2.5 months older than "normal". That being said, the high school athletics federation (OFSAA) doesn't care up to that point. Normal-aged kids regularly take "victory lap" 5th years, and it's not considered a major issue, so who cares about an extra month or two? From my perspective, Drew is a little older than usual but it's no black mark on his performances; I'd have said the same thing about Maton.