FOR COOPER LUTKENHAUS, 17, a short summer vacation lies ahead and soon he will head back to the classroom for his high school senior year.
He does so coming off a junior season — even though he turned pro last summer — for which the only American middle distance comparison is Jim Ryun 60-plus years ago.
Let’s see: USATF 800 titles indoors and out, a World Indoor crown. And, oh yes, wins 3 days apart in his first-ever DL outings at Stockholm and Oslo.
The victory in the Norwegian capital came over Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi in 1:42.08. Among Junior (U20) athletes, only Botswana’s Nijel Amos has ever run faster —and did so in claiming Olympic silver in the epic David Rudisha WR race of 2012. Amos, it’s worth noting, was 18 at the time. Lutkenhaus won’t celebrate that birthday until December.
Asked in the Icahn Stadium interview zone after earning his first USATF outdoor crown what he made of all that success, Lutkenhaus mentioned others first: “The group team I have around me really helps with the pressure. But I think it’s one of those things, you know, when you run 1:42 at 16 years old, you’re expecting that there’s going to be a lot of pressure. People thinking you should win this, win that. I’m not really focused on that. I’m just focused on what I can do.”
One who took admiring notice of what Lutkenhaus can do at the USATF Champs was Paris 800/1500 Olympian Hobbs Kessler — 3rd-place finisher in the 2-lapper over which the Texas prodigy had demonstrated confident command.
“It was badass,” said Kessler, who is just 23 himself and knows a thing or two about racing against elites as a teen. “He’s obviously got incredible physical gifts. I don’t think people are giving credit. Like composure, showing up.
“It’s just like, for me, [in high school] it was just so overwhelming. I thought I didn’t have the tools yet. Like, I just wasn’t at that maturity. So, I’m really impressed that he seems to be. I’m also impressed with how well his coach has been handling it. He has his brother with him. He’s doing a great job.”
Of the Randalls Island victory, Lutkenhaus observed, “I was just focused on getting to that line as fast as possible. Obviously, with this being an off year, a lot of people will say it sounds good, [but] the USA 800 is the best it’s ever been in a long time. It’s the best it ever has been. So, we’re going to be a part of a group like that.
“Anyone could have won it today. I was just hoping for what I could do, coming out here, with this our last race for, basically 6 months until next indoor season. So, I just really wanted to come out here, just give everything I had, because I’m not gonna have anything like this for a while.”
Scale of 1 to 10, how did Lutkenhaus rate his year?
“I would say 9.5 out of 10. There’s some things I really wanted to do, but I got a nice shiny PR this year.”
