Watch Lucas Guerra, Kole Mathison and Will Jefferson compete in the 3200 at the Summer Finale Distance Open last July!
With the outdoor season underway, performances will begin to get faster and faster.
Before things get to far ahead, we're showcasing 5 distance boys to keep an eye on this outdoor season!
Corydon Central's Camden Marshall has had a tremendous start to 2021. After winning the Brown County Cross Country Regional in a dead heat with Reese Kilbarger-Stumpff last fall, Marshall opened the track season with a 9:16 in the 3200-meter run and a 4:19 in the 1600-meter run; both personal records. The Senior Panther will be running at Indiana University next year, and will be one of the premier distance runners in the southern part of the state this spring.
Lucas Guerra is coming off of an incredible indoor season. The Highland Senior ran a 4:12 in the 1600-meter run at the CYUP Misfits Invitational in February, which was good enough for the fourth best time nationally but not good enough to win the race as Illinois's Drew Rogers finished one second ahead of Guerra in an entertaining race.
Guerra backed up his 1600 performance with a 9:04 in the 3200-meter run the next day, which he improved on with an 8:58 a month later. That time was fifth best in the nation this winter, but again not good enough to take the win as Rogers took the win by a fraction of a second.
Guerra picked up a second place finish at the Cross Country State Finals, and you can expect to see the future Georgetown Hoya at the front of the field at the Track State Finals this spring.
Izaiah Steury is the biggest star in Indiana running this year. The Angola runner went undefeated in the cross country season on his way to a state championship with an eye catching best time of 14:51 at the Marion Invitational on the speedy course at Indiana Wesleyan University. Steury would better that time just slightly in the postseason, with a 14:48 at the RunningLane Cross Country Championships.
Steury has visited some of the biggest high school meets this year, competing in the adidas Indoor Nationals, the CYUP Misfits Invitational, the SPIRE Scholastic Showcase, and the NSAF USA Meet of Champions. Steury set outdoor personal records in both the one mile run and the two mile run at the Meet of Champions, with a 4:14 in the mile and a 9:19 in the two mile.
Whiteland's Will Jefferson only competed in one indoor meet, but he made the most of it. The Liberty University commit won both the one mile run and the two mile run at the Louisville Indoor Games, logging impressive times of 4:18 and 9:10 in those events.
Jefferson has never failed to reach the state finals, qualifying in the 3200-meter run in both 2018 and 2019. As a sophomore, he won the Columbus North Regional and the Warren Central Regional before finishing 12th at state. Now in his senior season, expect to see Jefferson once again make a run in the state tournament.
Southwood Senior Braden Sweet should demand some serious attention this season. Sweet finished 12th in the 1600-meter run at the 2019 State Finals with a 4:19, and nine of the runners that finished ahead of him have since graduated. Sweet is a sectional and regional champion in cross country, and although we've only seen him compete in one track meet since that race in 2019 it's safe to say he'll be a state contender this spring before heading to Indiana Wesleyan University to run next year.