As a freshman in 2017, 4:47.50 was Thomas Boyden's fastest 1,600m of the year.
The next year, though, he shaved 24.60 seconds off that performance. And then as a junior, he posted a time of 4:11.13 from the BYU High School Invitational, which was ranked 38th in the nation.
For the first lap, he hung in second place comfortably behind Springville's (UT) Grant Gardner. Then, with 600m left in the race, Boyden decided to make a move for first place.
With one lap to go, he had about a 25m lead on Gardner. But Gardner tried closing the gap as best as he could during the last 300m. With a straightaway left in the race, Gardner ran out of gears to shift to and Boyden kept hammering towards the finish line. Boyden finished ahead of Gardner by nearly two and half seconds in this race.
Concluding his senior year, Boyden competed at the Snow Canyon Invitational and ran a personal best and state record of 4:05.16 in March. This times marks the 47th fastest time on the national high school all-time list. The Skyline (UT) graduate will be starting his freshman year at Stanford in the fall.
VARSITY BOYS 1600 METER RUN FINALS PLACE ATHLETE TEAM RESULT WIND H# 1 Thomas Boyden 11 Skyline 4:11.13 13 2 Grant Gardner 12 Springville 4:13.70 13 3 Hayden Harward 11 Richfield 4:18.41 13 4 Luke Grundvig 12 American Fork 4:19.36 13 5 Wyatt Evans 12 Spanish Fork 4:19.38 13 6 Ian Valentine 12 Alta 4:19.60 13 7 Joshua Armstrong 10 Hurricane 4:20.01 13 8 Caleb Armstrong 12 Hurricane 4:20.77 13