The Simplot games--a huge high school indoor meet--were just held. Items of note:
1) Hannah Cunliffe (you guys keep asking about her) had the best preliminary time out of 103 athletes. However, in the finals she finished third. The winner was MaryBeth Sant, the blonde streak who has also been mentioned on these boards, but has received far less attention. Sant has wicked fast leg turnover.
2) Blonde Canadian Sage Watson annihilated the competition in the girl's 400 with a blazing (indoor) time of 53.91 that beat the second place finisher by nearly three full seconds. That's a breathtaking margin of victory, especially given that these were not average h.s. runners but generally runners running for track clubs rather than their schools. I believe Watson has been ranked Youth #1 at the 400 hurdles. Remember the name. She will be running for Florida State next year.
3)
Alex Mead won the boy's 200 in a splendid indoor time of 22.02, and he's only a high school junior.
Glen Taylor finished second, and
Austin Mitsch (seen in earlier video here) third. That's a clean sweep, gentlemen.
4) Cole Lambourne took the 400. Is this getting to be a trend?
5) Tyler Smith, a junior, smoked nationally famous h.s. runner Strymar Livingston by TWO AND A HALF seconds in the 800. I've seen dozens of headlines about Livingston. No one ever mentions the kid Smith. Here's a video of Smith winning the
previous year's Simplot 800 when he was only a sophomore.
6) In the 1600 meters (basically a mile), Brad Nye ran a fantastic 4:12. Why fantastic? Because it was indoors and at 4,500 feet altitude. And because he's in high school! Nye blasted the final 200 in 27.3. And, oh yeah, that's the number one time in the country this year, at any altitude.
7) Even more impressive, given the altitude, Dallin Farnsworth, ran a meet record 9:10 in the 3200 meters. Why more impressive? Because that's the #2 time in the country, behind only a Kenyan transfer who is about 25 yrs old and ran his time at sea level with professionals to pace him. Farnsworth ran at altitude against high school kids. Here's an article on
Dye and Farnsworth.
Wow. What a bunch of performances, right? Boys victories in the 200, 400, 800, 1600, and 3200. If anyone finds videos, post them. I know that was a lot to remember, but just try to hang on to those names--Sant, Cunliffe, Sage Watson, Alex Mead, Glen Taylor, Austin Mitsch, Cole Lambourne, Brad Nye, and Dallin Farnsworth. An impressive bunch.