2023 HS Boys Athlete Of The Year — Simeon Birnbaum

WHEN HE BROKE 4:00 in the mile as a junior, Simeon Birnbaum made himself a name to watch his senior year. After a low-key indoor season, the Stevens High School (Rapid City, South Dakota) star put together a near-perfect outdoor campaign, one that won him our High School Athlete Of The Year honor.

Performance-wise, Birnbaum made a big jump from cross country, where he was a none-too-shabby 6th at Nike Cross Nationals, and a week later 4th at the Champs Sports race (now back to being called Foot Locker). Indoors, he placed 5th in the 800 at the New Balance Indoor Nationals, the next day running 4th in the mile.

But Birnbaum and coach Jesse Coy timed everything for outdoors, where he proved to be nearly unbeatable in the high school set. He opened up at the Arcadia Invitational in California, winning the 3200 in 8:34.10, the No. 5 performance in prep history. He recalls that as perhaps his favorite race of the year.

“I still don’t know where I found that extra gear,” he says. “I wasn’t in great shape. I just wanted that bad. That’s probably what I’m most proud of.” He crossed the line just 0.04 ahead of Utah prep Dan Simmons.

Three weeks later, he took the prep mile at the Drake Relays in 4:02.36. In early May, he tested his fitness with a 1:50.37/4:04.05 (1600) double on the other side of the state at the Howard Wood Dakota Relays.

Then came his State Meet at the end of the month, where he was determined to help his team try to win the team trophy. On Thursday he ran anchor on the winning sprint medley. The next day, he captured the 3200 in 9:22.96 and later the 800 in 1:53.02. On the final day, he set a meet record in the 1600 (4:02.78), winning by nearly 18 seconds. It was the second year he had done that quadruple successfully, but the team still fell 4 points short of the victory.

Then came what Birnbaum had been aiming for as an individual, the post-season. His schedule was packed. On June 01 he made it to St. Louis for the HOKA Festival of Miles. There he won the deepest mile race in prep history, clocking 3:57.63 as three others — Rocky Hansen, Tinoda Matsatsa and Jackson Heidesch — also broke 4:00. (Continued below)