Photo Credit: MileSplit
4. Newbury Park's Wild 4xMile National Record At New Balance Nationals Indoor
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When I look back at the Newbury Park Four, those impossibly talented high school distance athletes with beaming smiles and long hair, I'm going to remember New Balance Nationals Indoor in New York City.
I'm going to remember the spectacle, the stakes, the intensity and the utter chaos that was the team's 4xmile national record in March.
Sometimes we forget that these are simply high schoolers out there, that these 16- and 17- and 18-year-olds are not fallible, that they are not machines and are able to have bad races.
Most high schoolers do make mistakes. Most high schoolers are allowed to go for broke and come up short.
Which is why, I think, watching Newbury Park in 2022 was like a trance.
Because they didn't make mistakes.
They didn't have bad races.
And they did answer and meet every expectation placed upon them.
It was unprecedented.
At New Balance Nationals Indoor, this team ran a new national record of 16:29.31, which was a full 70-plus seconds faster than the next best team on the track (Corning). Loudoun Valley's old national record was 17:00.81.
The group consisting of Leo Young, Lex Young, Aaron Sahlman and Colin Sahlman averaged 4:06 per mile. No member of this group was any slower than 4:11. Colin, the lone senior in the group, finished things off in 4:03.
Sean Brosnan, the team's head coach, was seemingly on the track with them, his shoulders perching out from a staircase on the track. His spirit certainly was a big part of this record, too.
And this moment? It came after the team's record XC race at RunningLane and it came before a top five all-time DMR attempt at Mt. SAC.
For me? This one was it. It's the one that will be remembered for ages.
INDEX:
Natalie Cook's 5K - The All-Time 800 And 1,600m - Brenden Herbert's Madness - Newbury Park's Greatness - Team USA's World Haul - The 800 Meter Double - The Sub-4 Club