Boy's Distance: Present and Future
There were three notable performances this week and I'm going to touch on them in chronological order.
Keegan Smith Runs 9:24
On the day his Athlete's Corner episode aired, Keegan Smith cemented himself as the premier middle school distance runner in the country laying down an incredible 9:24 3200m run. He now holds the US #1 spot for both the 1600m and 3200m distances. While we're awaiting the results to be uploaded to the site, enjoy his last lap from Wednesday's race here:
Ally lowers TN #1 800m
On Thursday night, Miles Ally made a concerted move with 300 to go and left a solid field of competitors almost 4 seconds behind him over the final lap at Ravenwood on his way to a 1:52.70. After watching him almost run down the Brentwood anchor in the 4x400 later in the night, I'm having a hard time finding someone in the qualifiers that could keep up with him in a foot race. Without a time in mind for the state meet, I think he'll let the field dictate the pace and pull away as he did this past week.
Miles Ally on his way to a US #34 800m run at the Section 3 Championships.
Luke Mussard, Fastest Freshman Ever
On Saturday, Daniel Boone's Luke Mussard employed a similar strategy to the one I alluded to with Ally. Let someone else set the pace and rely on your kick. It seemed to pay off for the Freshman as his 4:16.95 1600m run now sits US #2 among freshman nationwide and the fastest freshman ever in our Milesplit TN Database surpassing Carter Cheeseman by almost 6 seconds.
I just don't understand how someone this talented finished 106th at the Cross Country Championships in November. Nevertheless, he is growing into a household name race over race. Excited to see what he can do in a little over a week at Rockvale.