OWEN POWELL TOOK “one more shot” at the Terrier DMR Challenge, and it paid off with a 3:56.66 HSR in the mile, taking down Hobbs Kessler’s 3:57.66 from ’21.
Gerry Lindgren had been the original target for Powell, not Kessler. The distance running legend had run 4:01.5 for the mile in Jamaica (outdoors) in ’64 and the mark had stood as a Washington prep record for more than 60 years.
That was the target Powell, a senior at Mercer Island High, had started gunning for after he ran 4:02.04 last season. At Washington’s Husky Classic on February 15, he trounced it with a 3:57.74.
“My goal was just to break 4:00. I didn’t think I was going to break it by as much as I did, honestly,” he says. “So when I realized that first time I was only 0.08 off [Kessler’s] national record, I was like, ‘I might as well give it one more shot, it couldn’t hurt.’”
That took Powell to the uber-fast Boston U track for a mile race as part of the Terrier DMR Challenge. ‘It was kind of a last-minute decision,” says coach Susan Empey. “I think he slept on it for several nights. And then since his mom was taking a few people anyway, he’s like, ‘Yep, let’s go for it.’”
“I’m not gonna lie,” he says. “I saw the heat sheet beforehand, and it was a little nerve-wracking realizing I was in a 3:51 race.
“I’ve just never been in a field that good before, so my original plan was to just tuck in the back and hold on for dear life. But once I got into the race, I went out a little slower than I thought and was more comfortable, so I decided to try to move up, push myself a little bit more than I thought I would. I started moving up probably after the first 400m, and then I slowed it down a little bit, right on the pace, and it was basically just holding onto pace and competing with the people around me, and then just closing as hard as I could once I got to 400 and 200 to go.”
After a 60.03 at 409m, he reeled off 400s of 58.02, 59.48 and 59.13. New Zealand’s Sam Tanner won in 3:51.85, with Powell placing 7th. On the way he passed 1500 in 3:40.62, breaking Drew Hunter’s 3:41.93 HSR from ’16.
“I wouldn’t say that race was flawless,” he says, “but overall, I was pretty happy with it, other than I went out a little too slow, which wasn’t a huge deal, but I was able to work my way back up on the pace and run what I wanted to.”
The son of Washington coaches Maurica and Andy Powell, Owen says being a track guy was still never preordained: “Not really. I didn’t start running seriously until late my freshman year or early my sophomore year. Before that, I just didn’t show a huge interest in the sport. When my parents worked at the U of O, they would take me to Hayward Field on Sundays when they had to work. I didn’t realize how cool that was at the time. It just seemed normal.”
Being around the many great runners that his parents mentored gave him plenty of role models, but he says it wasn’t necessarily about running. “I didn’t really think, ‘Oh, I want to run as fast as them.’ I was more like, ‘I want to be like them.’”
Says Empey, “From day 1, the Powells emphasized that for Owen, this was just all about having fun. And they were not going to play a role in coaching him… And I think that would be hard as a parent to know that you’ve got a very talented kid, to just put that child’s training in someone else’s hands. But they did. They were very trusting.
“They were going to play a role in making sure he was fed and watered and nurtured at home. But from a coaching standpoint, they were completely hands-off.”
Powell’s training, at around 50M per week, has been light compared to some of his peers. Explains Empey, “I didn’t want him to max out in high school and burn out either physically or mentally. So I look at what he’s done on, like I said, relatively few miles, and I think he’s got such a bright future because there’s way more for him to grow into. And I think under Andy’s tutelage, he certainly will.”
Powell will join the Husky team next fall. Deciding to run for his parents was tough, he admits. “I was really stuck in between UW and a couple other schools, just because I do see myself as really a miler, but I do think I can help out with cross country and some other distances the best I can. There’s so many good mile programs right now. My options are definitely not limited, but I really like Seattle. I’m really comfortable where I am here, and I’m just really happy to be spending the next couple years here.”
Timing is everything, and if Powell hadn’t broken Kessler’s record in section 1 at BU, it would have fallen in the very next race. Josiah Tostenson (Crater, Central Point, Oregon) ran 3:57.47 for 4th in that section, becoming the No. 2 prep ever indoors. His teammate, Tayvon Kitchen, hit 3:59.61 in 11th, making them the first ever sub-4:00 pair from the same school.
Tostenson will be a Husky teammate of Powell’s next fall. Says Powell, “It’s so cool having the Northwest represent like this. I don’t think there’s ever been an indoor season having three guys sub-4:00 as early as we have right now. The fact that we’re from neighboring states is going to make the invites where we face off against each other so much cooler and so much deeper.”
That, says Powell, will only make it more fun. And that’s why he runs in the first place. “I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t enjoy it as much as I do right now,” he says.
