Drew Hunter Breaks American High School Indoor (and Outdoor) 3000 Meter Record With 7:59:33 Clocking

by LetsRun.com
January 30, 2016

Drew Hunter, a senior at Loudoun Valley (Va.) High School, has run the fastest 3000 in American high school history indoors or out as he ran 7:59.33 today to finish 5th in the men’s 3000 at the Camel City Elite Races at the JDL Fast Track in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The race was won by Garrett Heath in 7:48.48.

Hunter’s time of 7:59.33  crushed Gerry Lindgren‘s American HS indoor record of 8:06.3 which had stood since 1964 and just edged  German Fernandez‘s American 3000 outdoor record of 7:59.83 from 2008. It also betters the best indoor high school time ever run in America, 8:05.46 by Kenya’s Edward Cheserek en route to a 8:39.15 two-mile at the Millrose Games in 2013.

The only significant HS times that Hunter failed to break today are the converted 3000 marks from the outdoor US and American 2-mile bests. The best outdoor 2-mile run by a high schooler in US history was Lithuanian Lukas Verzbicas’s 8:29.46 2-mile in 2011, which equates to 7:51.67 according to a LetsRun.com/JohnKellogg conversion. The outdoor American HS 2 mile mark belongs to German Fernandez at 8:34.40, which is equivalent to 7:56.24.

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Drew Hunter celebrating his win over Grant Fisher at the Brooks PR meet last year. Photo by John Jefferson, courtesy of Brooks Running. Drew Hunter celebrating his win over Grant Fisher at the Brooks PR meet last year. Photo by John Jefferson, courtesy of Brooks Running.

While Hunter’s time of 7:59.33 is clearly slower than 7:56.24, it needs to be remembered that today’s run was done on a flat track. According to the NCAA conversion of .9885 , Hunters 7:59.33 would convert to 7:53.82 for NCAA qualifying purposes.

This is a flash recap. More coverage coming soon from Winston-Salem.

Our full recap of the meet is here with an interview with Drew.

Talk about Hunter’s run on our fan forum: *Drew MF Hunter  *Andrew Hunter Over/Under 8:05.46 this Saturday?  *Official 2016 Camel City Elite Discussion Thread.

Results:

Men 3000 Meter Run Camel City E
================================================================================
    Name                    Year School                  Seed     Finals  Points
================================================================================
  1 Heath, Garrett               Brooks Beasts        7:45.00    7:48.48  
           30.792 (30.792)          1:02.140 (31.349)          1:33.868 (31.729)
         2:05.895 (32.027)          2:37.822 (31.927)          3:09.882 (32.060)
         3:41.806 (31.925)          4:13.761 (31.955)        5:18.394 (1:04.634)
         5:50.471 (32.077)          6:21.721 (31.250)          6:52.595 (30.875)
         7:21.203 (28.609)          7:48.473 (27.270)
  2 Lalang, Lawi                 Nike                 7:50.00    7:50.07  
        30.613 (30.613)  1:01.897 (31.284)  1:33.635 (31.739)  2:05.613 (31.979)
      2:37.625 (32.012)  3:09.684 (32.060)  3:41.613 (31.929)  4:13.470 (31.858)
      4:46.043 (32.574)  5:18.173 (32.130)  5:50.199 (32.026)  6:21.494 (31.295)
      6:52.398 (30.904)  7:21.993 (29.595)  7:50.063 (28.070)
  3 Vargas, Luis                 NC State                        7:54.26  
        31.583 (31.583)  1:03.045 (31.462)  1:34.910 (31.865)  2:06.964 (32.055)
      2:38.977 (32.013)  3:10.996 (32.020)  3:42.558 (31.563)  4:14.441 (31.883)
      4:47.000 (32.560)  5:19.284 (32.285)  5:51.073 (31.790)  6:22.325 (31.252)
      6:53.771 (31.446)  7:25.047 (31.276)  7:54.255 (29.209)
  4 Fink, Willy                  Eastern Mich         7:57.14    7:56.04  
        30.821 (30.821)  1:02.391 (31.570)  1:34.153 (31.763)  2:06.221 (32.068)
      2:38.066 (31.845)  3:10.127 (32.061)  3:42.069 (31.943)  4:14.019 (31.950)
      4:46.533 (32.514)  5:18.641 (32.109)  5:50.803 (32.163)  6:22.044 (31.241)
      6:53.234 (31.190)  7:24.743 (31.510)  7:56.039 (31.296)
  5 Hunter, Drew                 Unattached           8:06.00    7:59.33  
        31.535 (31.535)  1:03.525 (31.990)  1:35.222 (31.697)  2:07.171 (31.950)
      2:39.229 (32.059)  3:11.317 (32.088)  3:42.820 (31.504)  4:14.638 (31.819)
      4:47.270 (32.632)  5:19.567 (32.297)  5:51.715 (32.149)  6:23.498 (31.783)
      6:56.378 (32.881)  7:29.949 (33.571)  7:59.325 (29.376)
  6 Thomson, Jacob               Kentucky             8:03.39    8:05.07  
        31.382 (31.382)  1:02.880 (31.499)  1:34.723 (31.844)  2:06.823 (32.100)
      2:38.787 (31.965)  3:11.032 (32.245)  3:43.175 (32.144)  4:15.992 (32.817)
      4:48.951 (32.960)  5:22.816 (33.865)  5:56.386 (33.570)  6:29.598 (33.213)
      7:02.472 (32.874)  7:33.025 (30.554)  8:05.068 (32.044)
  7 Atchoo, Michael              NJNY TC              7:54.75    8:16.20  
        31.078 (31.078)  1:02.520 (31.443)  1:34.344 (31.825)  2:06.423 (32.080)
      2:38.282 (31.859)  3:10.323 (32.042)  3:42.264 (31.941)  4:14.238 (31.975)
      4:46.296 (32.058)  5:19.124 (32.829)  5:51.974 (32.850)  6:26.281 (34.307)
      7:02.548 (36.267)  7:39.227 (36.680)  8:16.199 (36.973)
  8 Derrick, Mark                North Carolina       8:06.76    8:19.39  
        31.278 (31.278)  1:03.288 (32.010)  1:35.362 (32.075)  2:07.447 (32.085)
      2:39.769 (32.323)  3:12.713 (32.944)  3:46.325 (33.613)  4:20.595 (34.270)
      4:54.658 (34.063)  5:29.232 (34.575)  6:04.095 (34.864)  6:38.974 (34.880)
      7:13.427 (34.453)  7:46.354 (32.928)  8:19.384 (33.030)
  9 Steagall, Austin             Mount Olive                     8:20.59  
        31.793 (31.793)  1:03.770 (31.978)  1:35.821 (32.051)  2:07.838 (32.018)
      2:40.133 (32.295)  3:12.983 (32.850)  3:46.537 (33.555)  4:20.761 (34.225)
      4:54.899 (34.139)  5:29.383 (34.485)  6:04.329 (34.946)  6:39.073 (34.745)
      7:13.747 (34.674)  7:47.563 (33.817)  8:20.585 (33.022)
 -- Hammond, Michael             VT Elite             7:59.99        DNF  
        30.361 (30.361)  1:01.538 (31.177)  1:33.273 (31.735)  2:05.118 (31.846)
      2:37.431 (32.313)  3:09.440 (32.010)  3:41.379 (31.940)  4:13.322 (31.943)

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