Mile results
INDIANAPOLIS – Honor roll of boys winning the Miracle Mile at the Flashes Showcase includes Andy Bayer, Austin Mudd, Cole Hocker, Kole Mathison.
All have gone on to represent Team USA in world meets, junior or senior level. None won the Flashes Showcase mile twice.
So what Martin Barco achieved Friday night is unprecedented in Indiana.
The Martinsville senior ran the closing 400 meters in 59 seconds to pull away from Brebeuf Jesuit’s Cameron Todd and win in 4 minutes, 11.53 seconds at Franklin Central.
The time was slower than the meet record of 4:08.94 set by Barco last year, and slower than the state indoor record of 4:05.62 he set March 10. Yet it is rarely about time for Barco, the defending state champion at 1,600 meters.
So it was uncharacteristic for him to divulge what he hopes comes next — becoming the first Indiana high schooler to run a sub-4-minute mile. He is aiming for a May 3 race, Trials of Miles, at Randalls Island in New York City.
“I think I’m going to do it. I know I’m going to do it,” Barco said. “That’s the place.”
Mudd, of Center Grove, has held the state record of 4:01.83 since 2011.
On this night, with temperature at 56 and winds blowing at 14 mph, the times did not reflect quality of the field.
Three boys have been runners-up in national meets at three distances: Todd at Nike cross-country, Portland, Ore. (5,000 meters), Barco at New Balance indoor nationals, Boston (mile), Floyd Central’s Will Conway at Nike indoor nationals, New York (two-mile). All are headed to top college programs: Todd (Notre Dame), Barco (Washington), Conway (Tennessee).
Roman Sierpina of Louisville Collegiate School is reigning state champion in Kentucky, and Bloomington North sophomore Caleb Winders is a 1:50 runner who was state runner-up at 800 meters.
Delta’s Nicki Southerland wins the Miracle Mile race in a time of 4:50.80 during the Flashes Showcase on Friday at Franklin Central High School in Indianapolis.
Todd was second in 4:13.01 and Sierpina third in 4:14.44. Bloomington North’s Jack Holden and Winders were fourth and sixth, sandwiching Conway in fifth.
The meet features introductions of milers, some wearing basketball jerseys, entering the track through a tunnel of runners. This was the 17th edition, and the races always deliver. It has become part of Indiana’s running culture, Todd said.
“I mean, it’s such a great event,” he said. “The trophy is over there, and it’s this big, if people didn’t see it. And we all want to go out and chase it.
“The state meet is a big deal, of course. But a lot of us feel that way, this is almost the true state meet, just from the way that everyone comes to compete and the way we all look at this race. Weather doesn’t matter, man. It’s a good day.”
Todd pressed the pace after about 500 meters, explaining he wanted to apply pressure on Barco, known for his big kick.
“But I don’t think the move was strong enough to create enough separation,” Todd said.
Conway and Todd were racing six days after a historic 3,200 meters at Arcadia, Calif. Conway was 13th in a state record of 8:41.18 and Todd 19th in
Boys – 1, Martin Barco, Martinsville, 4:11.53; 2, Cameron Todd, Brebeuf Jesuit, 4:13.01; 3, Roman Sierpina, Louisville (Ky.) Collegiate, 4:14.44; 4, Jack Holden, Bloomington North, 4:15.59; 5, Will Conway, Floyd Central, 4:16.33; 6, Caleb Winders, Bloomington North, 4:16.54; 7, Ian Baker, Brownsburg, 4:17.70; 8, Joey Ashman, Franklin Central, 4:17.84.
Girls – 1, Nicki Southerland, Delta, 4:50.80; 2, Reagan Gilmore, Assumption, Louisville, Ky., 4:52.00; 3, Josefina Rastrelli, Warsaw, 4:56.17; 4, Mallory Weller, Fort Wayne Concordia Lutheran, 4:56.60; 5, Libby Dowty, Indian Creek, 5:00.31; 6, Jessica Hegedus, Avon, 5:02.67; 7, Savana Miller, Franklin Central, 5:04.53; 8, Kaitlyn Stewart, Floyd Central, 5:05.37.
8:46.55. Both were under the 8:47.75 by North Central’s Futsum Zienasellassie, who in 2011 broke Rudy Chapa’s 37-year-old outdoor state record.
The two runners acknowledged they felt the effects of the race, the travel and the changing time zones. Conway said Arcadia was “the hardest I ever pushed,” running the last 400 in 61.85.
“The race just caught up to me,” he said of Flashes Showcase. “And that’s OK. It’s April. Stuff like that can happen. I lost, fair and square.”
Girls champion Nikki Southerland of Delta didn’t know she would race here until Delta’s scheduled Thursday meet was canceled. This was her first Flashes Showcase, just as last month’s Hoosier State Relays was her first.
She came out of the two meets 2-0. “It was a good race, and I had good competition to run with,” said Southerland, also a Notre Dame signee.
Southerland won in in 4:50.80 off an evenly paced 2:25⁄2:25. Florida recruit Reagan Gilmore of Assumption (Louisville, Ky.) was second in 4:52.00 and Josefina Rastrelli of Warsaw third in 4:56.17.
Indian Creek sophomore Libby Dowty, who overtook Southerland to win state in cross-country, was fifth in 5:00.31.