Top 3 Best High School Distance Runners From Each State

Good picks for Indiana. I would maybe move Chapa to the top of the list, as I'm pretty sure he ran that 10k time as a high schooler. I also think Nef Aria (Lawrence North HS, Stanford University) deserves a look. Mudd's track times are spectacular, but Nef was a beast in XC (and also the 3200m).

For Pennsylvania, consider Paul Vandegrift. 1:48 and 4:03. Went to William & Mary.

History12 wrote:

My top 3 best high school runners ever from each state, No Real order, yes this took me a few days, as for Most Marks I converted them to 1600, 3200 Times. Some states were pretty weak as I just put the 800 state record if that was the case.

New Jersey

Craig Forys - 4:07 1600, 8:41 3200, Ran at Michigan

Edward Cheserek - 4:00 1600, 8:36 3200, Ran at Oregon

Devin Hart - 4:07 1600, 8:50 3200, Runs at Stanford

Replace Devin Hart with Joe Rosa...Rosa's stats:

2 miles in 8:44

3200m in 8:48

1 mile in 4:07

New Hampshire- Matt Downin and John Mortimer going 1-2 at Footlocker puts them 1-2 on my list. Performance on the biggest stage matters.

The other 3 are absolutely in the discussion but you could pick from a wide range of good runners. Dean Kimball had the 3200 m record in 1977 and kept it until Thorne broke it. Thorne had epic races v Guor Majak (now Mariel). Pat Moulton, Zack Wright, Russell Browne, Eric Jenkins are few more to add to the list.

Jeff Nelson should be on the California list. His 8:36 2M former HS record is worth 1095 points according to the IAAF Scoring Tables which is superior to Danielson's mile (1082 points) and Young's 3k (1079 points).

Hawaii

Kaeo Kruse - 4:14 1600, 9:11 3200, Runs at Harvard

Michael Chin - 1:53 800, 4:20 1600, Runs at Western Oregon

Connor Lehl - 4:19 1600, 15:33 5K, Runs at Santa Clara

None of the above should be on the list.

Joey Bunch ran 1:51 for the 800.

Kurt Mench ran 4:09 for the mile.

Steve Ferber ran 9:20 for 2M.

All state records at the time and superior to the above marks.

Also, two other guys who made Olympic teams, set ARs, even ranked #1 in the world. Duncan MacDonald set the AR at 5,000 and made an Olympic team. Henry Marsh set the AR for the steeple, made three Olympic teams and ranked #1 in the world three times. Unfortunately, there's no record of their high school accomplishments.

Caleb Kalappa's time is a wheelchair 3200.

Not the same race but you can see him race in the wheelchair section.

http://www.jcrawford.net/4adist3comp.html

Mostlytru wrote:

Ever heard of Adam Goucher or Garry Bjorklund?

The OP is using HS track times, not XC results.

Your list has zero historical perspective. For instance in 1970 at the Golden West Meet the top 3 runners in the mile were 1) 4:06.0 Tony Colon NY 2) 4:06.3 Kurt Mench HI 3) 4:06.6 Bob Wheeler MD.

You can find links to the HS National lists for each year here.

http://archive.dyestat.com/ATHLETICS/TRACK/stateres.htm#1970

If this includes post HS, Nick Symmonds should top the Idaho list.

Fun list to read, thanks for doing this.

Also:

Robby Andrews NJ

Mark Nenow ND

I don't know where his times would rank now but Bob Kennedy in Ohio had a top 3 career if you're judging by sheer domination.

Washington

Gerry Lindgren - 4:00 1600, 13:44 5K, Ran at Washington State

James Mwaura - 8:45 3200, 14:00 5K, Runs at Gonzaga

Caleb Kalappa - 4:11 1600, 8:35 3200, No college found

Replace Caleb Kalappa with Rick Riley: 8:48.3 two mile (national record), 14:00.2 5k, went on to become first sub-4 miler at WSU.

Massachusetts

no way Ratcliffe t

Alberto Salazar wayland

Andy Powell

Mark Coogan

franklin Sanchez

Chris Barnicle even though he doesn’t respect the sport cause of running stoned in Olympic trials

Franklin Sanchez

Art Dulong

Bob Hodge

Lynn Jennings

Could go on

Being a larger state in terms of population Ohio has had many very good runners both in high school and beyond. I said that so no one thinks I am putting Horter down in any way but he is probably not Ohio top 10 using high school standards alone and using post-HS, probably not to 25-30.

what about rungum wrote:

Also:

Robby Andrews NJ

Mark Nenow ND

I did not realize that ND had a Mark Nenow also. Quite a coincidence considering that is not a particularly common name. The future AR holder was a wrestler who started competitive running very late in HS and did win a Minnesota State Cross Country title but I think he graduated with maybe a 9:17 or so under his belt, nothing to indicate he'd be the U.S. record holder at 10000m.

Cruz Culpepper is a great runner, but I would not put him in a top 3 (maybe not even a top 10) for CO.

Adam Goucher, Brent Vaughn, John McGuire, Paul Roberts, Cerake Geberkidane, amongst others

fromtheboards wrote:

You definitely put a lot of work in, but I know the people from these states will have more of a personal opinion.

and with that...Devin Hart's a good runner but he's not top 3 all time NJ

Marty Mf'in Liquori should be on here. 3:59.8 in the mile.

His DMR team set the old 10:05 Penn DMR meet record with his 4:03 anchor, and later that day anchored for second place in the 4x800 with a 1:49.5. He was a pretty good xc runner on the 2.5 courses. 2x xc state champ. He also held the Van Cortlandt Park 2.5 mile record. Joe Rosa and Ches would later set course records here.

I'd say NJ's top 3 would be Liquori, Ches, Rosa or Foyrs but the state has had so many amazing runners over the years. Hudson, Keino, DiJoseph, Byrne, Ludwikowski, Andrews, Hallinan etc

Agreed, and I'd add Robbie Andrews (1:48.66/4:03.49) along side Mary Liquori (3:59.8) and Edward Cheserek (1:49.98/4:03.29/8:53.65)

This is a great list across states. I'd have loved to see what years everyone was as well, but a ton of work was already put into this. History12, great job.

History12 wrote:

Vermont

Tyler Marshall - 4:14 1600, 9:11 3200, Runs at Vermont

Rishabh Prakash - 4:13 1600, 9:05 3200, Runs at Cornell

Daniel Grosvenor - 9:17 3200, 14:58 5K, Ran at Yale

I follow VT pretty closely, had never heard of this guy. Turns out he's from Burlington, Mass not Burlington, vt.