COMPETING AGAINST PROS and collegians is the way that many of the top high schoolers have making their marks this season. California’s Newbury Park boys rewrote the indoor distance all-time lists at the Sander Invitational, while rivals Roisin Willis and Sophie Gorriaran both ran under the 800 best at the next weekend’s Valentine Invitational.
Will Sumner (Woodstock, Georgia) became the No. 2 indoor performer ever in the 800 with his 1:48.14 against the big boys at the New Balance GP.
And the vaulting Moll twins (Capital, Olympia, Washington) both placed high at the USATF Indoor, with Amanda 4th, tying the AJR and Absolute HSR at 14-9, while Hanna cleared 14-5¼ to place 7th, that performance =No. 8 all-time.
And in a mark that originally went unreported in last month’s Millrose Games, en route to her HSR in the 60, Shawnti Jackson (Wakefield, Raleigh) also claimed the 55 standard at 6.29.
Outside of the pro scene, however, there was still plenty of hot high school action to go around over the last month:
Pioneer Girls Burn DMR Record
Running on the oversized oval at Saginaw Valley, Pioneer (Ann Arbor, Michigan) put together an absolute HSR of 11:21.95 in the distance medley. Running solo from the start, Senior Sarah Forsyth led off at 3:29.5, followed by junior Emily Cooper (61.7), senior Cookie Baugh (2:12.0) and soph Rachel Forsyth (4:38.8).
Though the 300m oval made the mark ineligible for the indoor record, the time is far superior to the 11:34.54 that Lake Braddock (Burke, Virginia) ran in ’17. However, it also bettered the outdoor HSR of 11:22.23 that Harvard-Westlake (Studio City, California) set in winning the ’11 New Balance Outdoor Nationals.
The younger Forsyth has also run 2:06.30 and an oversized 10:02.12 for 3200 this indoor season.
Juliette Whittaker Cracks 1000 Record
Juliette Whittaker (Mt. de Sales, Catonsville, Maryland) put her name into the recordbooks at the Ocean Breeze Elite Invitational (February 26), running 2:39.41 to cut more than a second off the HSR of 2:40.72 that Sammy Watson set in ’17.
Whittaker, who won by more than 7 seconds, took the lead early and passed through 800 in 2:07.32; . A week earlier on the same track, Whittaker had moved to No.3 all-time in the 800 with her 2:01.69.
Newbury Park Heads Outdoors
The Newbury Park boys raced at the Sundown Series at Azusa on February 18, notching some notable performances. Colin Sahlman won the 3200 in 8:33.32, moving to No. 3 on the all-time list. Junior teammate Leo Young followed in 8:39.57 (No. 12 a-t), with twin Lex Young 3rd in 8:43.93. Junior Aaron Sahlman took the mile in 4:05.01.
At the same meet, Sadie Engelhardt (Ventura, California) took down the frosh-class and age-14 national records with her 4:38.24 mile performance.
More Notable All-Time List Marks
Boys — 60, Justin Braun (Central, Westerville, Ohio) 6.62 (=5, =5 HS); Wt, Tarik Robinson-O’Hagan (Woonsocket, Rhode Island) 85-2½ (5, x HS).
Girls — 3000, Ellie Shae (Belmont, Massachusetts) 9:08.54 (4, 5 HS); PV, Kenna Stimmel (Margaretta, Castalia, Ohio) 14-2 (=9, x HS). ◻︎