WTW: Newbury Park Has 6 Guys at 9:02 Or Better, Abby Steiner Runs Fast Into A Big Wind, Athing Mu Slows Down & More

The Week That Was in Running, April 4 – 10, 2022

By Robert Johnson
April 11, 2022

Each week, we try to make the sport more fun to follow by putting the prior week’s action in perspective for you. Past editions of our Week That Was weekly recap can be found here. Got a tip, question or comment? Please call us at 844-LETSRUN (538-7786), email us, or post in our forum.  

****
Stat of the Week I / Putting Newbury Park’s Greatness and Arcadia Showing In Perspective

8:46.69 – average 3200 time for the top 5 Newbury Park boys at Saturday’s Arcadia Invitational
8:41.82 – average 3200 PB for Newbury Park’s five fastest boys
8:38.95 – average 3200 PB for Newbury Park’s five fastest boys if you count 3000 conversions

The stat of the week shows just how amazingly good the Newbury Park guys have been in 2021-2022. Only the greatest HS XC team in US history could have a five-man average of 8:46.69 in a 3200 (as well as the #1 and #2 times in Arcadia history), a sixth guy at 9:02 and come away a little disappointed, but that’s exactly what happened at Arcadia on Saturday night. By 1600 (4:18ish), it was pretty clear that Colin Sahlman wasn’t going to become the first high schooler to break 8:30 in a 3200 (Lukas Verzbicas did it in a 2 mile) and that Leo Young, who ran 8:39 in February and a 4:00 mile in his last race on March 26, was having an off night as he’s reportedly recently been a little bit sick.

Runner / Time at Arcadia / PB Prior To Arcadia

  1. Colin Sahlman – 8:34.99 /8:33.32
  2. Lex Young – 8:35.72 / 8:43.93 (although his 7:57.06 3k is worth a 8:32.33 3200)
  3. Aaron Sahlman – 8:48.28 / 9:25.07 (although his 8:01.72 3k is worth a 8:37.33)
  4. Daniel Appleford – 8:52.19 / 8:56.77
  5. Dev Doshi – 9:02.27/9:09.40
  6. Leo Young – 9:02.28 / 8:39.57 (4:00.77 mile)

Running fast in a high school-only race is difficult as you have to set the pace for yourself. The plan was for the Newbury Park guys to each take a lap early on, but the pace was all over the place as it went 61.1 – 67.7 – 65.2 – 64.6.

But here’s a scary thought that “dustdevil” brought up on the messageboard. Might Newbury Park be better in 2023 than 2022?

Of the six guys listed above, only Colin Sahlman and Daniel Appleford are seniors, meaning that Newbury Park’s third-best junior (Aaron Sahlman) has run 1:48/4:05/8:48. So who will be their #4 and #5? Well sophomore Dev Doshi was actually Newbury Park’s #5 on Saturday night as his 9:02.27 in the slow heat was .01 faster than Leo Young’s time. In XC, Doshi was Newbury Park’s #7 (5th returner) at Running Lane with junior Hector Martinez, who has run 9:10 this year but was a DNS at Arcadia, their #5.

Article continues below player.

At this point last year, Appleford (who ended up being Newbury Park’s #5 this year) had run 9:04.03 (he ended up running 8:56), but it’s also possible that Newbury Park picks up some transfers as well.

Looking ahead to the immediate future, it will be interesting to see if Newbury Park ends up running in the pro 4 x mile at the end of the month at Penn. If they do, watch out as they will once again have people to chase. Their 4 best PBs add up to 16:09.26, pretty darn good considering the collegiate record is 16:03.24 and the Penn Relays record is 16:04.54.

MB: Thoughts on Colin’s 8:34.99 and Lex’s 8:35.72. 

****
Freshman Sadie Engelhardt Runs Age-15 Mile World Record of 4:35.16

The Newbury Park guys weren’t the only ones to run fast at Arcadia. In girls’ action, superstar freshman Sadie Engelhardt of nearby Ventura High ran 4:35.16 to win the girls’ mile move to #5 on the US all-time HS mile list and set an age-15 world record. The previous age-15 world record was 4:36.0 set by Norway’s Gunvor Hilde way back in 1979 (age records here). 

Hilde’s athletics career highs all came at age 15, however, as a few weeks before the 4:36.0 mile she won European junior silver in the 1500 (4:11.84). That same year she also won the 800 at the Norwegian nationals in 2:04.8.

Hilde (r) running 2:04.8 back in the day at age 15. Image via https://eoil.no/post/59

After that, as reported on eiol.no, injuries derailed her career. 

I had big ambitions, and it was my dream to succeed as a runner. I was good at an early age, but in my late teens got ankle strain injuries that made it difficult to continue,” said Hilde.

Those injuries may have helped her find a future career as she’s now an Associate Professor in the Department of Physiotherapy at Oslo Metropolitan University. A paper of hers on “postpartum pelvic floor muscle training” gained accolades in 2013.

It’s worth noting that only one of the top five girls’ US high school milers ran their best high school time as a senior in HS — Dalia Frias, who did it last month (Frias won the girls’ 3200 at Arcadia on Saturday in 9:55.50).

US Top 5 HS Milers According to TFN
4:28.25i *Mary Cain (Bronxville, New York) 2013
4:32.15i *Alexa Efraimson (Camas, Washington) 2014
4:33.87 **Katelyn Tuohy (North Rockland, Thiells, New York) 2018
4:35.06 Dalia Frias (Mira Costa, Manhattan Beach, California) 2022
4:35.16 ***Sadie Englehard (Ventura High, California) 2022

***= Frosh **= Soph *= Jr

More: *Sadie Engelhardt 4:35.16 MILE!
*Post-race interview with Englehardt

****
Cade Flatt Runs 1:47.03

Over the weekend, Cade Flatt, a high school senior from Kentucky who will be running at Ole Miss next year, blitzed a 1:47.03 at Ole Miss’ Joe Walker Invitational, the fastest high school time by an American in 26 years.

Afterward, Flatt, whose previous best was the 1:48.86 he ran to win New Balance Indoors, said he’s not done yet as he tweeted out that he’s going to break Michael Granville’s national record of 1:46.45 in two months’ time.

A national record would be great.

I just really hope we get to see Cade Flatt race Will Sumner (who ran 1:48.14 indoors) at some point this year.

Considering Flatt made a video last week saying Conor McGregor was his inspiration as he’s a hard worker who helped make an unpopular sport super popular, Flatt should know that promoting big mano a mano matchups is great for PR.

###

The sprint action at the Jamaican high school championships (aka Champs) was amazing as usual last week.

****
Stat of the Week II

51.75- Athing Mu’s 400-meter time on Saturday at Texas A&M, in a race she won.
51.04 – slowest 400m time that Athing Mu ran at any point in 2021, including indoors and prelims.

****
Abdi Nageeye Comes Up Big In Rotterdam

The big winner in Rotterdam over the weekend was Olympic silver medallist Abdi Nageeye of the Netherlands. The hometown fans enjoyed seeing Nageeye win an exciting sprint finish over Ethiopia’s Leul Gebresilase in a Dutch record time of 2:04:56.

Nageeye has really improved a lot as a marathoner. This was marathon #15 of him for his career but his first win. He didn’t break 2:10 in his first five marathon attempts. We were initially going to write that Nageeye now has a PB worth of Olympic silver medal (his previous pb and NR was 2:06:17), but 2:04-high isn’t quite what it used to be. The runner-up in Rotterdam, 28-year-old Leul Gebresilase, has now run 2:04 five times in his career and only won once (2:04:31 in Valencia in 2018). His other 2:04s have seen him finish 2nd (2018 Dubai in 2:04:02), 5th (2021 Milan 2:04:31), and 3rd (2021 Amsterdam 2:04:12).

Tokyo Olympic bronze medallist Bashir Abdi of Belgium, Nageeye’s training partner who won last fall’s Rotterdam in 2:03:36 in October, was fourth in 2:05:23.

The Dutch record also fell in the women’s race as Nienke Brinkman ran 2:22:51 for 2nd in a race won by Haven Hailu of Ethiopia in 2:22:01.

****
Abby Steiner Puts Up The Best Windy (Headwind) Sprint Time Of The Week

In case you missed our recap of the inaugural USATF Bermuda Games — here it is — the name of the game was people ran quite slow in an absolute sense as every sprint race was run into a big headwind. But some of the winning times were impressive if you factor in the wind.

Winning Times in Bermuda Adjusted to a 0.0 Wind
Women’s 100 hurdles: 12.38 Jasmine Camacho-Quinn (12.67 -2.5 m/s)
Men’s 110 hurdles: 13.28 Shane Brathwaite (13.78 -3.8 m/s)
Women’s 200: 22.59 Anthonique Strachan (23.25 -5.0 m/s)
Men’s 200: 20.31 Steven Gardiner (20.79 -4.7 m/s)
Women’s 100: 10.95 Teahna Daniels (11.45 -5.2 m/s)
Men’s 100: 9.94 Jerome Blake (10.38 -5.6 m/s)

However, the most impressive sprint time from last week that was run into a headwind came in the collegiate ranks.

After running wind-legal 10.92 100 (+0.5), 2021 and 2022 NCAA indoor 200 champ Abby Steiner of Kentucky ran the 200 at LSU into a massive -5.6 headwind. The result? A 22.38 winning time.

22.38 is good for a collegiate 200. The collegiate record is 22.02 (Steiner ran 22.09 indoors) and only 20 women in the world ran 22.38 or faster last year. But 22.38 into a -5.6 headwind is insane. Depending on which wind calculator you use, it converts to between 21.56 and 21.65. 21.56 would make Steiner the third-fastest woman in history. Even a 21.65 would make her #7, just ahead of Allyson Felix‘s pb of 21.69.

Watch the race for yourself:

More: Abby Steiner 22.09
*Abby Steiner runs 10.92 wind legal

***
And Then There Were Six States Left

Ober the weekend, the Tinman Elite’s Sam Parsons ran the first sub-4 minute mile in the state of Delaware – 3:58.17 – and he did it on the new track at his high school (Tatnall). That means that there are now only six states left that haven’t seen a sub-4 mile run in them on a track — Hawaii, Mississippi, Nevada, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Wyoming.

MB: Which states have NOT had a sub 4 minute mile run on their soil?
MB: Sub-4 in Delaware!!!

****
Ryuji Miura Stays Hot

Last year Japan’s Ryuji Miura had quite a year. As a 19-year-old, he lowered the Japanese steeplechase record from 8:18.93 to 8:09.91 and made the Olympic final in the process, finishing 7th. This year, he seems to be picking up right where he left off as over the weekend, he blitzed a 3:36.59 1500, a nearly 10-second pb (previous pb of 3:46.29) and the #2 time in Japanese history (Kazuki Kawamura set the NR of 3:35.42 last year). He did so by coming from way behind in the last 100 to get the win over Hyuga Endo (3:36.69).

Race Video

***
RIP Mark Conover

1988 USA Olympic Trials Marathon Champion and Cal Poly Coach  Mark Conover Dies At 61“Mark crossed the finish line last night at 11:23 p.m.,” Kelly Conover, Mark’s wife, wrote on Caring Bridge on April 7. In addition to his wife, he is survived by three triplets (now 14), girls Audrey and Marley, and a boy, Cordell. *Cal Poly *RW 
*MB: Rest in Peace: 1988 US Olympic Marathon Trials winner and Cal Poly coach Mark Conover has lost his battle with cancer.

You can support the family here: https://supportconoverfamily.itemorder.com/shop/sale/

***
Quotes Of The Day And Last Week’s Home Pages

To see the quotes of the day from last week or last week’s home page or any home page, go to our archive page.

***

Got a tip, question or comment? Please call us at 844-LETSRUN (538-7786), email us or post in our forum.

Talk about this article on our world-famous fan forum/ messageboard.

Want More? Join The Supporters Club Today
Support independent journalism and get:
  • Exclusive Access to VIP Supporters Club Content
  • Bonus Podcasts Every Friday
  • Free LetsRun.com Shirt (Annual Subscribers)
  • Exclusive Discounts
  • Enhanced Message Boards