* American Fork's Daniel Simmons is this week's boys COROS Distance Athlete of the Week
Photo Credit: David Nguyen/MileSplit
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Simply put, this last weekend of high school track and field was historic. There were plenty of national records to go around, accompanied by a lot of all-time marks.
Two names that will surely be etched in history for quite some time are those of Elizabeth Leachman of Boerne Champion (TX) and American Fork's (UT) Daniel Simmons.
Both left their respective national championships with a pair of titles and a national record to their name.
Take a look at this week's COROS Distance Athletes of the Week.
Elizabeth Leachman, Boerne Champion (TX)
Class of 2026
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In the wake of her breakthrough cross country season, the national sensation made it look way too easy when ran the 5,000m over the weekend in New York City.
At Nike Indoor Nationals, the Nike Elite athlete got her weekend off to a rather historic start, winning the two-mile on Friday in 9:44.16. The next day, she ran ran 25 laps to perfection, shattering the indoor national 5K record formerly held by Katelyn Tuohy.
Leachman clocked 15:28.9, passing Tuohy's mark of 15:37.12 from 2018.
Leachman and Flower Mound legend Natalie Cook, who owns the outdoor record at 15:25.93, are now the only two high schoolers to ever run under 15:30.
Name School Time =================================================================== 1 Elizabeth Leachman Boerne Champion (TX) 15:28.90 2 Maddie Gardiner The Covenant School (VA) 16:17.32 3 Sophia Rodriguez Mercer Island (WA) 16:22.72 4 Emily Wisniewski Crescent Valley (OR) 16:23.51 5 Sadie Adams The Covenant School (VA) 16:49.81 6 Zoe Carter Normal (IL) 17:00.45 7 Liliah Gordon Northern Burlington Reg. (NJ) 17:02.44 8 Lillie Bogdan Frontier (NY) 17:04.00 9 Macy Wingard Denton Braswell (TX) 17:06.16 10 Maysen Fletcher Elkview MS (WV) 17:18.5
Daniel Simmons, American Fork (UT)
Class of 2024
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Over the weekend at New Balance Nationals Indoor, Simmons finally had the opportunity to go after something big and he absolutely annihilated the previous national 5K record in the process, breaking the tape in 13:38.86.
After taking over the lead just under 2,000m into the race, the senior never looked back and went on to lower Tyrone Gorze's record by 18 seconds, becoming the first-ever high schooler to break 13:40 indoors.
He's just the third to do it in general and he came just a second and a half short of the overall national record. The record wasn't his only feat on the weekend, as he also anchored the Cavemen's 4xMile win in 4:06, with the quartet posting the No. 2 mark in history of 16:43.21.
