What About Those Half-Milers
It was a good weekend for 800 meter runners in Utah.
At a distance where times are continually dropping week after week on the national leaderboard, two runners from the state dropped two US top 5 times at the Olympic Ice Oval -- an oversized facility that's close to a full outdoor 400m -- on Saturday at the Utah Distance Challenge.
First up was Provo (UT) High junior Meghan Hunter, the sister of BYU freshman and 800m specialist Kate Hunter.
Meghan ran her first 800m over all competition and came within an earshot of her sister's overall best, tuning up for a US No. 5 mark of 2:11.38.
Orem (UT) High senior Brandon Williams followed with a US No. 2 effort of 1:53.66, coming within a few hundredths of a second of the new US No. 1 time of 1:53.52, which was achieved by Alfred Chawonza at the Fastrack National Invitational on the very same day.
Williams was more experienced than Hunter in the race, having plied his trade at the distance numerous times before. But he had yet to break 1:55 indoors until Saturday.
That wasn't a problem this time around. He set a new personal best by nearly two seconds and came within two tenths of his career mark over the outdoor season.
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