Connor Burns, Simeon Birnbaum Headline Deep Field In Boys Junior International Mile
By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor
Sub-four high school milers Connor Burns and Simeon Birnbaum will race head to head for the first time in the mile and they will be joined by a few other prime challengers on Saturday in the Boys International Junior mile at the New Balance Grand Prix in Boston.
Burns (Ashland, Mo.) and Birnbaum (Rapid City, S.D.) became the first high school juniors since Jim Ryun to break the four-minute barrier last June. Burns ran 3:58.85 at the HOKA Festival of Miles in St. Louis and Birnbaum followed soon after with a time of 3:59.51 at the Brooks PR Invitational in Seattle.
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Those two will be joined by a handful of others who have been right on the cusp of four minutes. Aaron Sahlman (Camarillo, Calif.), Rocky Hansen (Hendersonville, N.C.) and Devan Kipyego (Warwick, R.I.) have all been within a second and a half and could be primed to join an exclusive list.
Kole Mathison, who recently made the USATF U20 Cross Country team, is also in the race. The senior from Carmel, Ind. has run 4:04.82 for 1,600 meters.
Some talented runners from across the Atlantic Ocean will join them. Corey Campbell of East Lothian, Scotland is the age-15 world record holder in the mile at 4:05.77 and he is now 16.
Irish U16 cross country champion Caolan McFadden, another Irish standout, Sean Cronin, and Isaac Rothwell, the top U18 1,500-meter runner in Great Britain, are also part of the field.
The girls race also features a mix of top U.S. high school runners facing off against their counterparts from England and Ireland.
Ellie Shea of nearby Belmont, Mass. comes in as the defending champion and has a mile personal best of 4:40.01. Texan Isabel Conde de Frankenberg has run 4:38.55 and Tatum David of Olney, Ill. has a best of 4:42.15.
She’ll be competing against European U18 gold medalist Annie Mann and bronze medalist Iris Downes, both of Great Britain.
Clodagh Gill and Jennifer O’Leary are making the trip from Ireland.
Amelia Everett of Newton, Mass. and Lia Pugsley from Sterling, Va. are also in the field.
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