With extremely even splits, Drew Hunter broke eight minutes in the 3000 meters at the Camel City Elite meet in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. His time of 7:59.33 makes him the first high schooler ever under eight minutes and breaks Edward Cheserek's old national record by five seconds. The senior from Loudoun Valley, Virginia finished fifth in a field filled with collegians and professionals.
The time is also faster than German Fernandez's 7:59.83 outdoor 3K record. The MileSplit calculator converts it to 8:37.53 for two miles, which would be the fastest high school indoor two mile of all time and the fifth fastest outdoor two mile ever, behind only Lukas Verzbicas, Jeff Nelson, and Fernandez.
This is perhaps the the best high school boys performance in January since Alan Webb's sub-4:00 mile at the Armory in January 2001.
Next up for Hunter: a mile at the Armory. No high school boy has broken 4:00 indoors since Webb.
His mom/coach drolly weighed in on Twitter after the race:
Screengrab from JDLFastTrack.com
Photos, interviews, and more on-site MileSplit coverage coming soon.
