LOUDON VALLEY, VA. - Gatorade named Drew Hunter the National Boys Cross Country Runner of the Year this morning in a surprise ceremony at Loudon Valley High School in Virginia.
Special guest Alan Webb presented the award to the University of Oregon-bound senior, who has lowered Webb's indoor National High School Record in the Mile from 3:59.86 to 3:57.81 this season.
Webb is a 2004 Olympian and American Record Holder in the Mile. He still holds the absolute National High School Record for the mile, 3:53.43. The Virginia native was coached by Hunter's parents, Marc and Joan, during his freshman year at South Lakes High School in Reston.
Hunter called the outdoor mile record "unrealistic," but did not rule out making a national record attempt in the two mile [8:29.46, Lukas Verzbicas, 2011] this spring.
"I just want to keep improving," he said via phone after the ceremony. "Just continue to run faster and get better and I think that's one thing I get better at every day."
Webb acknowledged that the transition from high-3:50s indoors to low-3:50s outdoors "is not easy."
"That's the challenge that Drew has before him," he said. "He's got a great head on his shoulders and I think he understands the context of how to get better and how to improve... he's given us a sneak peak at what's to come."
Two preps -- Matthew Maton and Grant Fisher -- broke four minutes last spring with identical times of 3:59.38 [run in different races]. But no one has come within two seconds of breaking four minutes indoors, aside from Webb's historic mark.
When 2016 opened, the No. 2 mark in prep history was 4:02.21, courtesy of Edward Cheserek.
Every time Hunter steps on the track this year, records follow. He broke Cheserek's National High School Record over 3K in 7:59.33 at the Camel City Elite Invitational; then took down Webb's mile record first at the Armory Track Invitational in 3:58.25 before lowering it to 3:57.81 at the Millrose Games this past weekend.
"When you do something great, you know... there's always a time [it will be broken]," Webb said. "It's such a special thing for me to have a connection [to Drew] and still be a part of it even as my record is broken. I couldn't have asked for a better person to break my record.
"It's hard to know when someone is going to become a super star," Webb said. "When that became apparent, the excitement started to build and the poetic part of it to come out as it brought back memories of seeing his mom pregnant with Drew when I was a freshman."
Though the storyline of Hunter, Webb and the pursuit of the sub-four minute mile is enthralling, the young star won the Gatorade award for a stellar fall cross country season. Hunter ran undefeated, set a course record at Foot Locker South Regional Championships in 14:26 and capture the Foot Locker National Cross Country Championships title by 12.2 seconds.
Next up for Hunter is the New Balance Nationals Indoor in March at the New York Armory, where he will team up with his Loudon Valley cohorts to run the Distance Medley Relay and the 4xMile.
Photos and video courtesy of Gatorade.
