The Best Writing On MileSplit From 2022

Only, running has often been the easiest part of this thing called life. 

Because while running has challenged her to her core, while it's made her stronger and forced her to keep going, mile after mile, it's never broken her like that moment did, it's never forced her to question her own self worth, it never made her doubt humanity, it never made her cope with her deepest and darkest fears.

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As a census-designated place, Haines technically isn't even classified as a town but rather as one of six communities comprising the Haines Borough. Situated on the Chilkat Peninsula and largely isolated from the rest of Alaska, Haines is lucky enough to have a portion of road connecting it to the state's main highway system.

Without it, the area would only be accessible by an hours-long ferry ride or air travel.

Tuesdays in Alamosa, Colorado can often feel like an intersection of culture, history and identity for Madeline and Lia Castillo, the teenage daughters of '92 NCAA Division II cross country champion Phil Castillo. 

On the one hand, they're just training days, the typical weekly interval sessions the Alamosa High School girls and boys cross country teams conduct at Cole Park -- 600 meters of hard-nosed grass running, affectionally known as 'lappers.' But upon closer examination, those days might reveal something more innate for the pair.

After all, Alamosa remains a place where their father once found himself, too, on the trails and roads surrounding this town. It's where he realized his potential, fought for his rights as a Native American and where he executed on a vision that saw him -- and his team -- make NCAA history by becoming the first and only program to ever to earn a perfect score at nationals. 

"How many repeats?" Lex Bullen asked. 

Her hazel eyes were shaded over in darkness as the sun was hiding behind the brooding clouds to the west. A snowstorm was brewing on the horizon in Colorado Monday evening. But also on the horizon for the Niwot girls was Team Cross Country Nationals this weekend. 

And on this Monday evening, despite the twilight hour and swirling winds, there was still work to be done. 

Just making it to the line at the state championships in a state as deep as Texas comes with prestige and notoriety. But here at Flower Mound, two distance runners with the name Humphries have made their way into the elite-level national conversation.

"It's hard to put it into words," Nicole said. "It definitely is something that is unique and it makes it so much more fun."

And yet, 2022 is different. As upperclassmen, the Humphries have now found themselves in a new role, not only filling the shoes of one of the fastest high school distance runners in history, but now tasked with leading a Flower Mound program toward something more elusive this year. 

Could this Texas squad win a national team title? Could this duo shape Flower Mound into the country's next great power program?

"I think if anything, it's definitely more of a blessing than a curse to always have someone," Nicole said. "We're best friends."

After school, or sometimes after practice, the pair had often walked to the bus stop, the Special 12 post, and waited for their time to get on, before saying their goodbyes and walking home for the night. Ever responsible, the pair never had to worry about one another. 

This time, however, just days after the shooting that killed 10 Black lives and injured three more at the Tops Friendly Supermarket in Buffalo, just 3.2 miles from their school, Nyrelle's father rerouted plans and decided to pick her up instead.

In that second, a sense of panic came over her. How would her friend Xavier fare? 

Few NCAA coaches are ever afforded opportunities where they can dramatically change the course of an entire program during their initial hires. 

In 2022, the bar is simply that high at many power conference programs. 

But Cal Poly's newest Director of Track & Field and Cross Country, Ryan Vanhoy, may be one such candidate to achieve that feat. 

In June, the acclaimed middle- and long-distance coach from Ole Miss announced he was leaving the the Rebels to join Cal Poly, ushering in a truly "Wait, what?" moment across the collegiate track and field space. 

In three years at Morgantown High School, Irene Riggs has shown herself very capable of being equal parts trailblazer and follower. On both sides of the coin, the rising senior from West Virginia is proud to be the latest in a growing list of distance standouts from the Mountain state.

"Every time we go out of state, we really try to do well," said Riggs, who picked up a state triple this outdoor season in West Virginia. "We want to show that distance running in West Virginia is really pretty awesome. We have a lot of talented runners that come from West Virginia and some people kind of forget about us a little bit.

"It's a little bit hard, but also it makes it even more special when you go out (of state) and you do really well. You kind of get to shock everyone and be like, 'Yeah, we're from West Virginia."

Seven years after first meeting Mike O'Connor during a speaking engagement, Olympian Jorge Torres called the Ursuline Academy athletic director to inquire about the cross country and track and field head coaching position.

O'Connor met Torres when the latter gave a talk in 2015 at the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association, an organization that sponsors activities in thirty-three sports, comprising 374 public and private high schools in the U.S. state of Massachusetts.

At the time, Torres had two young children and wasn't ready to get into coaching, so the pair exchanged business cards and parted ways.

But when Torres, a Foot Locker Nationals champion in 1998 and an NCAA champion for Colorado in the early 2000s, called in early July seven years later, it just so happened that Ursuline's running coach had given her notice several months prior.

Zane Bergen stood tall on the starting line in the dark night.

The stadium lights shined down from high above, creating ominous shadows on the track at Longmont High. 

The Niwot senior anxiously eyed the starter's gun while donning a black singlet with the sticker "1" taped to his left side. Anyone who knows anything about track knows what the "1" sticker means.

It means you're the top-seed.

A part of Hansen always wants more, even on his fastest days. That sentiment perfectly encapsulates the runner he has become, a kid who took North Carolina by storm with his record-breaking speed around the track. His 2022 outdoor personal bests of 3:59.26 for 1,600m, 4:00.72 for the mile and 8:46.97 in the two mile stand in a class of their own.

"I've sort of looked at my running career as stages of evolution, and I feel like every year I've done something better or added something to my routine," Hansen said.

But that's also coming from a runner who only less than a year ago struggled to find his place in this sport, let alone nearly break the 4-minute mile barrier and run a sub-9:00 two mile and a sub-15-minute time in cross country. That came after an anemia scare left him doubting his hunger and desire in the sport.

"I was questioning whether I even had a place in running," Hansen said, "Like, 'Well, what am I doing here?'"

"I definitely had the DI or bust mentality coming out of high school, like I feel most people do. And then when I realized I didn't want to bust, I had to change my ways and really look at the options I had in front of me."

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By Lilah Drafts-Johnson - MileSplit Correspondent

Heading into outdoors in 2022, Vaught was ready for anything. He had big goals and was excited to see how his winter training would pay off.

But getting to race one of his running idols, Olympian Christian Coleman, en route to breaking the all-time DIII 200m record?

Definitely not on his bingo card for the 2022 track and field season.

"I had to stop fan-girling so I could warm up, and then I went into the race with zero expectations at all," Vaught said. "I was just thankful that I got the opportunity to be there and to get pushed to run fast."

Retracing back two years, as a freshman in 2019, Natalie was a regional meet qualifier in four events: The 100m and 200m, as well as the 4x100 and 4x200 relays. She was more than eager to make up for lost time and put on display the many improvements she'd made through all of her training during the Covid-19 disruption. 

That plan came to an abrupt halt in January of 2021, however, when Natalie was hit with unthinkable news: At just 18 years of age, she was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma.

And with that everything changed. 

"It's very difficult to describe how you feel when you receive a diagnosis of cancer,"  Rakestraw said.

Jaylen Boudreaux is about to trade in being a top hurdler in the country to serving for his country.

The Cane Bay senior and Michigan native is about to compete in his final South Carolina High School League 5A state meet before joining the Navy.

Boudreaux will leave for basic training on June 20 in Great Lakes, Illinois. Before he does, though, the speedster is hoping to lead his team to a championship.

"I don't like to speak the future into existence, but I'd like to win it all," Boudreaux said.

Surely, by now, you've heard of Sadie Engelhardt.

She's the 16-year-old Ventura High School sophomore runner for the Cougars' cross country team. She's the girl who ran 15:42.60, California's fastest three-mile time and the nation's fastest performance at the distance ever. She has several MileSplit videos on file that go as far back as her speaking as a national champion at age 13. Engelhardt, Gatorade's State Player of the Year in track and field in California for the 2022 season, is the same girl who began running in 2016 as an alternative to her initial sport of choice, soccer, but quickly found that her speed as a striker translated well to her success on a course or track.

So what to expect of his future? Perhaps now is a good time to say the 800m is deep: A total of six athletes have already broken 1:50, and so there could be a handful of athletes who could challenge Flatt for national performances. 

Could the high school national record go down? Michael Granville's mark of 1:46.45 has held since 1996. 

"Staying focused, keeping that belief," Flatt said. "Knowing what brought me here. I don't want to stay like this. I don't want to live there." 

"Whenever I'm at the end of practice and something's hard, I just think about that. I don't want to be average. I want to be great. And I know that to do that, every little drill matters. Every little throw, every lift, every ab workout, everything. It really pushes me."

Mensi Stiff knows what she wants.

The 17-year-old from Brentwood Academy (TN) unleashed a throw of 51 feet, 10.75 inches on Feb. 6 in the shot put at the Tennessee State Indoor Championships to put herself No. 2 on the all-time list for juniors.

She wants that last distinction -- No. 2 -- to be removed, though.

Stiff wants to be at the top.

Being a middle-distance athlete is already tough as it is: The 400m and 800m are some of the most brutal events in track & field.

But what if you had to shot put right afterward? Or discus? Or high jump?

For Austin Gallant, a senior at Battlefield (VA) High School, this kind of versatility and flexibility with different track and field disciplines is second nature to him. It's not uncommon to see him double or triple with a combination of middle-distance and throwing events. 

The biggest question Micayah Holland had to answer this year was a particularly grueling one: Give up the sport she grew up loving as a child, or pursue a different opportunity that could lead to a full-ride scholarship? 

It wasn't an easy decision. 

It all started with a bet.

Ahead of the AAU Indoor National Championships in March of 2021, Andre Korbmacher made a deal with a teammate that, should he qualify for the 60 meter hurdle final, he would bleach his hair.

He proceeded to run an 8.69 in the qualifying race and an 8.64 in the final to finish second. 

He owned up to his promise.

"That was a little fast," Riley Stewart said between breaths.

The Cherry Creek senior continued to walk the curve on the top of the track while coach Steve Lohman jotted down her 45-second 300 meter split. 

Her arms swayed as she walked beneath the scoreboard that loomed high above the south end of the track. In large bold letters it read: "STUTLER BOWL" on top, and "Dedicated To Excellence" in italics below. 

Meanwhile, just under a dozen of her teammates were sucking air behind her as they moved from a walk to jog.

Tatum David is back in Illinois where it all began, where her family and friends are. 

And to David, that feels like home. 

This past weekend, she made her senior cross country debut in her familiar Olney orange jersey at the First To The Finish Invitational at Detweiller Park, the state cross country course in Peoria. In her first three-mile race since 2020, she clocked a time 16:51.30, and perhaps more impressively, won the race. 

Tylertown, Mississippi bolsters a population of just under 2,000 residents, but here's a fun fact: It's also the home of an elite high school track talent and a Division I college football signee. 

And for Jordan Anthony, that's quite all right.

The Tylertown High School senior lives the best of both worlds,  sprinting on the track as one the country's best and brightest athletes, and then lining up on the football field, where his future seems just as promising. 

There are no what-ifs in Casey Combest's life when he watches his son race. 

What the 41-year-old high school national record holder at 60 meters sees now is a vision of himself destroying competition much like he did 25 years ago, a muscle-bound teenager stomping out of the blocks and forging his body forward like a brick wall, a highly-concentrated pack of 120 pounds flying toward the finish. 

He sees King Combest, his 14-year-old son, repeating the steps he once took as a high school athlete, winning a national middle school title at adidas Track Nationals, in the biggest race of his fast-evolving career, owning the same distance he once covered. 

Just one day before another year would have passed since track legend Jim Ryun ran 3:58.3 on a cinder track in the Kansas state final, Martin became the 14th U.S. high school boy to go sub-4:00 over 5,280 feet and set a new standard in HS-only competition in the process with an even-paced 3:57.98.

Amidst all the chaos of a record four-by-mile relay attempt on Saturday at New Balance Nationals Indoor, furious laps one after another, a crowd brimming with excitement, the blaring chords of Red Hot Chili Pepper's 'Dani California,' was Newbury Park High School boys track and field coach Sean Brosnan, his head peeking out just beyond the curve, shouting instructions, pinching his fingers and imploring his impossibly talented team, 'LET'S GO!', 'SLOW DOWN' and 'FINISH IT, FINISH IT.' 

For 16 minutes and 29 seconds straight, this race, these runners and their coach seemed on edge, knowing that everything mattered, that every little detail made a difference, even if the final result was an absolute demolition of the former record. 

Never being completely satisfied and always working harder to get better and faster: That's what makes the great runners become legends.

That's what defines Angelina Perez.

Perez, coming off arguably the greatest cross-country season in state history when she set the New Jersey course record at Holmdel Park of 17:07 and placed second at the Eastbay National Championships in December, was thrilled with what she accomplished on the trails.

Natalie Cook remembers her last trip to The Armory well.

But McNatt had been feeling increasing pain in her legs and back. After running the 1600 at Dublin (at right in photo below), she had to scratch the 3200, her favorite event.

Like most runners, she figured she'd just rest up a bit and come back stronger.

Instead, her doctor told her she had a stress fracture and since her legs had been bothering her, that kind of made sense. But this was a rare stress fracture of the sacrum in her lower back, not her foot.

"I couldn't believe it," said McNatt, "I'd never been injured before."

The Union Catholic track and field program has collected several national championships, smashed national records, captured countless state and Meet of Champions titles, and has pretty much won every possible major title they have targeted.

But the one thing that has always eluded one of the greatest programs in NJ history, has been a coveted Penn Relays wheel, a huge oval plaque that is awarded to each Championship of America winning relay team. 

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Karrie Baloga Found Strength When It Mattered Most

Behind a strong family support system, this New York star won her first national title

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By Ashley Tysiac - MileSplit National

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The summer after his junior year, Pritchett began working at a trampoline center. After his third day of work, he and a friend were using the facility after he clocked out of his shift. While attempting a double front flip into an "airbag" (essentially a foam pit), Pritchett over-rotated and landed on his head.

"I heard a really loud crack and my left arm immediately had that pins and needles feeling," Pritchett said recently. "My balance felt really off and I kind of felt like I had been concussed. Also, my left tricep was really weak. I can normally crank out push-ups, but I could only do three until my left arm gave out."

Now, most people in that situation would probably want to, I dunno, go straight to the ER and get checked out maybe?

Not Pritchett.

In the small, northwest Wisconsin town of Chippewa Falls, Brooklyn Sandvig earns high praise as "the" local high school talent.

When Sandvig travels to track meets across the state and country, her mother's work colleagues plaster the walls of their office building with cutely-crafted motivational posters and fun photos of Sandvig, all signed with words of encouragement.

When she completed the sprint trifecta by winning WIAA Division I state titles in the 100m, 200m and 400m this outdoor season, members of the community even went as far as to host a modest parade in Sandvig's honor.

At the end of the first day at the VHSL Class 6 girls' state track meet, Thomas Dale's star horizontal jumper, senior Madison McConico was asked about her winning triple jump.

Two questions were brought to the forefront. First, would she jump at one of the national meets, and second, how much distance did she think she could add to her new personal best of 41 feet and a half inch?

McConico, by nature, is a very pleasant person. She is genuine and gracious to a fault. Most importantly, she thinks of her answers before responding, a trait that would benefit more high school (and college and pro) athletes. "Yes, I'll be back for the Adidas meet, right here. Today was a breath of fresh air, as I see my hard work pay off." On that late February day, she topped 41 feet for the first time, and finished four inches ahead of her teammate, sophomore Devyn Parham, who would win the high jump and 55-meter hurdles as the duo propelled Dale to the team championship.

When Kylie Thomas and her family returned to Fort Myers, Florida this week following the most destructive hurricane in the city's history, she made a point to quickly get back to her routine. 

For Thomas, who had been running since she was in the sixth grade, that made sense. She often found comfort in her daily rituals, including her weekly long run.

The Bishop Verot High School senior is in her last year as a Vikings runner and still feels as if her goals are within reach. She holds hopes of breaking the 20-minute barrier for 5K, reaching the state championships and placing among the state's top 20 runners. 

But when the 18-year-old took that first step outside her home, which sat just miles away from the most devastated part of Sanibel Island, she saw a completely different place than what she had always known. 

Kim Lawhon knew pretty much from the time she first met three freshmen last year that they were special.

Nothing since then has made the Yosemite High cross country coach change her mind.

"When they came in as freshmen, they had a huge goal," said Lawhon, who has headed up the program of the school 14 miles from the entrance to Yosemite National Park for eight years. "A lot of kids have goals for football or soccer but they said they wanted a scholarship to the University of Oregon and running might be the best way to get that.

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The Life Of A Five-Star Football And Track Athlete? Balance. 

A peek inside the life of Nyckoles Harbor

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By Logan Stanley - MileSplit Correspondent

(Sidebar)

The future for Archbishop Carroll junior Nyckoles Harbor is undeniably bright. But just where, and in what sport, that future holds is still in question.

Not only is Harbor one of the fastest sprinters in the nation with a lifetime personal best of 10.31 seconds in the 100m as a sophomore, but the 16-year-old from Washington D.C. is also a five-star football recruit who has accumulated over 30 scholarship offers.

So the question is, football or track?

Well for right now, it's both. And the present is what Harbor is focused on.

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Behind William Jones' Star Raising Turn In The 400m

This Division I baseball recruit from Kansas found his true calling during one weekend in New York City

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By Dan Beck - MileSplit Pennsylvania

(Sidebar)

Who the heck is William Jones?

If you did a quick scan of the boys 400 meter entries and the national rankings entering this weekend's New Balance Nationals Indoor, that certainly would have been a fair question to ask.

After all, Jones had logged just two races this indoor season. His two races happened to be the only two track races Jones had run since the summer of 2019.

But Jones let the nation know just who the heck he was on Saturday afternoon inside the Armory Track. 

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Meet Newbury Park Coaches Tanya Brosnan And Steve Hawkins

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By Jeffrey Parenti - MileSplit California

This wasn't the plan.

But the whirlwind courting and signing of national championship coach Sean Brosnan by UCLA in early August left high school distance powerhouse Newbury Park without the coach who had led them to national prominence. 

The plan was for a summer spent training in Big Bear, a slow rollout to the fall cross country season ramping up in October and again in the second half of November culminating atop a podium in Portland the first Saturday of December. 

"It happened really quick," Tanya Brosnan said of the college job offer for her husband. "When it came along, he couldn't pass it up."

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Behind Tulsa's Success Recruiting The U.K. Lads

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By Tim Casey - MileSplit Recruiting Reporter

(Explanatory)

In 2009, then-Tulsa assistant coach Andrew Maloney was searching the internet like he normally did, checking out times and reading about young runners who could possibly compete for the Golden Hurricanes. It was then that Maloney told head coach Steve Gulley about someone they had never heard of: Chris O'Hare, a high schooler from Scotland who had run 3:48 in the 1,500m and 14:49 in the 5,000m.

That fall, O'Hare enrolled at Tulsa, arguably the most important recruit the Golden Hurricanes ever signed.

The Scottish runner went on to become a cross country All-American and set the NCAA record in the indoor mile. Perhaps even more importantly, O'Hare's accomplishments created a pipeline of runners from the United Kingdom and Ireland who have enrolled at Tulsa and made the school a cross country powerhouse.

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(Note: This piece was also featured in our top recruiting stories of the year.)

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Jadyn Marshall Has His Sights Set On Records And Much More

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By Damin Esper - California MileSplit

Jadyn Marshall is looking to break some records this year.

But some records mean a little bit more to the senior hurdler on the Stockton St. Mary's (SJ) High School track and field team.

One of those would be a time of 13.31 seconds in the 110 meter hurdles. That's the time Jadyn's older brother Jamar ran in the California Interscholastic Federation championships in 2019.

Although wind-aided by 3.3 meters-per-second, it was the fastest all-conditions time ever run at the CIF State Track and Field Championships. 

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Jordan Ware Could Be The Next National Sprint Star

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By Ian Decker - MileSplit Correspondent

(Sidebar)

When Jordan Ware stepped to the track at Memphis Central High School for the first practice of his tenth-grade season, he wore a pair of sneakers because he had forgotten his spikes.

But as the team progressed through its 3x300 meter drills, Ware still managed to make his teammates look like they were "running in slow motion," according to MCHS assistant track and field coach Shawn Harris.

One year later, Ware dominated the state of Tennessee as a junior; he won two state titles in the 100m and 200m in the state's Class AAA championships and anchored Memphis Central in the 4x200m relay as the team won a state title.

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What I know now is that loosening the grip is very separate from caring deeply about the sport. It does not mean you care less or work less; it means you're working smarter and reducing stress. The most important thing I have come to realize is that there is NOT a rulebook for running. There is not a set of rules that every single person must follow. No. I realize it might feel this way.

The reason this is not the case, though, is because everyone has different things that they need in order to achieve their own success, to be physically and mentally fit. We're nowhere near physically or mentally fit when we aren't happy, when we're tired or when we're stressed. Running is about consistency over time, not perfection. Worrying about every little thing being perfect and being relentlessly hard on yourself is exhausting and unnecessary. When I find myself in this place, I feel so much extra fatigue in my training and it also affects my mindset.

As I am writing these words, I acknowledge that I am that competitive and driven athlete, and losing is quite possibly one of my least favorite things, but running, you have forced me to deal with it, time and time again, and now I think I've started to learn a few things. 

First, thank you for teaching me how to lose. Thank you for allowing me to experience the pain of crossing the line without a medal, a time standard or a record despite giving 110-percent of myself on the track.

Somehow, through the 22-second hurdle races, you still believed in me, pushed me to be better than I was before, instilling in me that hard work would pay off.

I was beginning to fall in love with hurling myself at solid objects, those hurdles. My body matured in high school and then true love came. I realized my body could run faster and faster and faster.

If I were you, I would have given up on me, but you stuck with me through it all. Even when I ignored you and deprived you for over 10 years, you continued to do everything that you could to support me and help me achieve my goals. 

Last year, when I finally truly realized what I had done to you, I was scared that you would never trust me again. I feared that you would never let me run because you were too scared of the way I might treat you. But you aren't scared. You are brave, resourceful, and strong. And even though I've given you no reason to, you trust me. 

Win or lose, Glover Smiley never changed.