OWEN POWELL TOOK “one more shot” at the Terrier DMR Challenge, and it paid off with a 3:56.66 HSR in the mile, taking down Hobbs Kessler’s 3:57.66 from ’21.
Gerry Lindgren had been the original target for Powell, not Kessler. The distance running legend had run 4:01.5 for the mile in Jamaica (outdoors) in ’64 and the mark had stood as a Washington prep record for more than 60 years.
That was the target Powell, a senior at Mercer Island High, had started gunning for after he ran 4:02.04 last season. At Washington’s Husky Classic on February 15, he trounced it with a 3:57.74.
“My goal was just to break 4:00. I didn’t think I was going to break it by as much as I did, honestly,” he says. “So when I realized that first time I was only 0.08 off [Kessler’s] national record, I was like, ‘I might as well give it one more shot, it couldn’t hurt.’”
That took Powell to the uber-fast Boston U track for a mile race as part of the Terrier DMR Challenge. ‘It was kind of a last-minute decision,” says coach Susan Empey. “I think he slept on it for several nights. And then since his mom was taking a few people anyway, he’s like, ‘Yep, let’s go for it.’”
“I’m not gonna lie,” he says. “I saw the heat sheet beforehand, and it was a little nerve-wracking realizing I was in a 3:51 race.
“I’ve just never been in a field that good before, so my original plan was to just tuck in the back and hold on for dear life. But once I got into the race, I went out a little slower than I thought and was more comfortable, so I decided to try to move up, push myself a little bit more than I thought I would. I started moving up probably after the first 400m, and then I slowed it down a little bit, right on the pace, and it was basically just holding onto pace and competing with the people around me, and then just closing as hard as I could once I got to 400 and 200 to go.”
After a 60.03 at 409m, he reeled off 400s of 58.02, 59.48 and 59.13. New Zealand’s Sam Tanner won in 3:51.85, with Powell placing 7th. On the way he passed 1500 in 3:40.62, breaking Drew Hunter’s 3:41.93 HSR from ’16.
“I wouldn’t say that race was flawless,” he says, “but overall, I was pretty happy with it, other than I went out a little too slow, which wasn’t a…
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