south dakota wrote:
I think Tinman is a very good coach. But the claim that Hunter is a normal/good/unexceptional talent, and the associated idea that all of his success is due to his great coach, and supportive family, and complete buy-in to the program... I don't buy it at all. Hunter is clearly very, very talented, more talented than almost any other US HS runner. And, yes, he is well-coached too, and everything else. But ff every FL finalist was somehow hypothetically world-class coached too, then (I think) Drew still wins the race, maybe not by twelve seconds, but don't pretend he would be fifteenth. If they all really believe that, fine, maybe it's good psychological ammunition, but certainly not right. So, certainly a great coach, but don't pretend that stumbling upon a sub4 HS miler was inevitable.
You are right. Hunter ran 8:16.31 at the Penn Relays as a sophomore. That is about the same a 8:56.0y and 8:52.9 for 3200m. So he has Rudy Chapa and Bill McChesney type talent. Looking into it a little closer I see that he ran 8:53.81 for 2nd at NBN outdoor as a soph.
I don't know if that is a 10th-grade record or an age-16 record, but I do know that very few people in the last 60 years have broken 9:00 for 2M as a soph. Relatively few people in any grade have run 8:53y.
So what we have here is a guy that ran 8:53y as a soph and 8:43y as a junior, and looks well on his way to the 8:30s as a senior. It looks like he will also run sub-4 indoors and out.
There has never been someone with this collection of times in each grade. Jim Ryun had a better collection of times from each grade for the mile (4:07, 3:59.0, 3:55.3) and was a better miler, but did not have the 2M ability that Hunter has. Not to mention the XC ability.
I am not even sure Lindgren could have run 8:53 as a soph. Considering he ran 8:06i and 8:40.0i as a senior I doubt he could have.
Nobody else has run sub-8 indoors, or as fast for the indoor mile, or 8:43 as a junior. Based on all of this (and he hasn't even completed indoors yet) he is that greatest talent the US has ever seen.