THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT: LIVE FROM NEW BALANCE NATIONALS INDOOR

This is the CITIUS MAG Newsletter by Chris Chavez. If you’ve been forwarded this email or stumbled upon a link online, you can sign up and subscribe here:

We’re almost at the weekend, friends. After a weekend field of great action from the professional scene, we turn our attention this weekend to high school stars.

Kyle Merber, Mac Fleet and I will be at The Armory for the New Balance Nationals Indoor as we’re hosting a preview show on Friday and two editions of After The Final Lap on Saturday afternoon (4:30 p.m.) and Sunday morning (10:30 a.m.) We will be joined by Olympians Emma Coburn, Cory McGee and Trayvon Bromell as guest hosts.

Set your reminders here:

The best part: our show will be complementary to the free livestream by Runnerspace. Keep two tabs open, enjoy the races, and hang out with us. There’s so much happening from Friday through Sunday. The broadcast will start at 9:30 a.m. ET on Friday, 8:30 a.m. ET on Saturday and 8 a.m. ET on Sunday.

You can find entries, live results and a full schedule here.

ALSO HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

• There is also a free live stream of Nike Indoor Nationals taking place over on Staten Island. Yes, there are high school championships in one weekend! Shout-out to Magic Boost Class of ‘21 alum Tiara Williams on being the in-stadium host for the meet. Great to see bright young voices in the sport stepping into big roles.

• After a two-year hiatus, we also get an NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships this weekend in Birmingham, Alabama. Action gets underway on Friday afternoon at 3 p.m. The meet will not be televised but you’ll be able to stream it via WatchESPN. | Live results and a complete schedule can be found here.

• Major congrats and good luck to Noah Droddy and Stu Newstat of the D3 Glory Days podcast on landing the NCAA broadcast announcing gig for the NCAA Division III Championships. A big moment for them. You can watch and hear them on the NCAA livestream)

Before you join us this weekend, here’s a rundown of the biggest races this weekend at New Balance Nationals:

FRIDAY

Natalie Cook Returns To Action In The 2-Mile – Friday, 3:36 p.m. ET

Natalie Cook of Flower Mound (TX) will make her indoor track season debut at Nationals. Last fall, she put together one of the best seasons by winning the RunningLane Cross Country Championships and then the Eastbay (formerly Footlocker) Cross Country Championships within a week. She has committed to running at Oklahoma State in October and was named Gatorade's National Girls Cross Country Player of the Year in February.

SATURDAY

How Much Will Newbury Park Destroy The HS 4xMile Record By? – Saturday, 4:13 p.m. ET

Newbury Park High School is sending a lineup of Aaron Sahlman, Leo Young, Lex Young, and Colin Sahlman in an attempt to shatter the 17:01.81 set by Loudoun Valley High School in March 2019. If betting odds were available, Newbury Park would be heavy favorites to do it.

They have the pieces for it. Aaron Sahlman has a personal best of 4:05.00 from Feb. 19. Lex Young ran a 4:08.96 PB in Arizona on Jan. 22. Leo Young just ran 8:39.57 for 3200m on Feb. 19. Colin Sahlman is their star and will anchor with a 3:58.81 mile personal best at the Armory on Feb. 5. He followed that up with an 8:33.32 for 3200m, which is the fastest ever by a U.S. high school boy.

When I had coach Sean Brosnan on the CITIUS MAG Podcast, he brought up the American record of 16:03 set by the Brooks Beasts in 2019. The splits in that race were 4:04.0 to 4:03.5 to 3:57.6 to 3:58.6.

“I said, ‘Why don’t you guys think you can get that?’” Brosnan recalled asking his team in February. “I’m talking about the regular American record, not the high school American record. They started thinking about it and thought, ‘Well, this is possible.’ That’s how they think. That’s how I feel we have to think as athletes if we want to be great.”

Is it crazy to think that it’s not out of the realm of possibility these high school kids can get it? In short, yes. I posed the question in a text to former record-holder Kyle Merber, who just texted me back, “Oh Chris, sweetie.”

At the time, the Beasts that ran had PBs of 3:58.09, 3:55.23, 3:56.06, and 3:53.40. That adds up to 15:42.67, and they ran 21 seconds slower as a group of seasoned professionals. So although the Newbury Park crew may be closer to 16 minutes than 17 minutes on paper, common wisdom suggests that you should add about 5 seconds per mile leg for a solo relay effort.

An American record might be a tall order, especially since they will be running much of the race solo but the high school record chase should still be super entertaining.

SUNDAY

The Sahlman Brothers Take the 800m – Sunday, 9:25 a.m. ET

Colin Sahlman and Aaron Sahlman are the big names to watch here but the Californians don’t have any indoor 800m marks on the record this year. Cade Flatt of Marshall County (KY), is one guy who could make this a sub-1:50 race - he ran 1:49.76 in Lexington to become just the sixth high schooler under 1:50, the #2 U.S. time this year by a high schooler. The national leader, Will Sumner of Woodstock (GA), ran 1:48.14 at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix but has opted to run at the Nike Indoor Nationals.

Roisin Willis vs. Sophia Gorriaran In A Championship – Sunday, 9:45 a.m. ET

We’ve seen Roisin Willis vs. Sophia Gorriaran four times this season, their most-recent duel at the BU Valentine Invitational ending with Willis running the U.S. HS girls record of 2:00.06 and Gorriaran running the No. 2 all-time mark in 2:00.58. They’re always great to watch in races together. Willis holds the all-time head-to-head advantage at 8–2. We can’t forget that Gorriaran is just a junior, so even if she doesn’t run faster this weekend, she’ll have a whole extra year to try and break Willis’s record.

Remember The Names Nyckoles Harbor and Shamali Wittle – Sunday, 11:59 a.m. ET

16-year-old Nyckoles Harbor of Archbishop Carroll (DC) enters with the No. 1 time of the year with his 20.79 personal best from Jan. 22 in Lubbock, Texas that ranks as the No. 4 high school mark in history. Only Jaylen Slade (20.62), Noah Lyles (20.63) and Xavier Carter (20.69) have ever run faster. On top of all of his track credentials, when you Google his name, you’ll quickly learn that he is a five-star football recruit with offers from Alabama, Maryland, Michigan, Oklahoma and Oregon.

Shamali Whittle of Hamilton North Nottingham (NJ) has been making headlines as a track star since he was 10 years old and committed to running at Georgia earlier this year. He ran 21.05 on Feb. 15 at the Armory. Both these guys will be going head-to-head in the 200 meters.

Fitzroy Ledgister of St. Peter’s Prep (NJ) and Justin Braun of Westerville Central (OH) enter as the fifth and sixth-ranked guys nationally and looking to pull off an upset.

Any More Sub-4 Miles? – Sunday, 12:11 p.m. ET

Earlier this year, Colin Sahlman became the 13th U.S. high school boy to break four minutes for the mile, and Sunday we’ll see if another name gets added to the list. James Donahue of Belmont Hill (MA) enters with the third-best time in the country and the best mark in the field with a 4:02.25 from the BU Last Chance Meet last month. He’s joined by two other sub-4:05 milers in Gary Martin (4:04.59 PR) and Connor Burns (4:04.91 PR). Conrad’s (CT) Gavin Sherry has already beaten an all-star field this season when he won the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix’s high school race in a personal best of 4:05.10. There’s no shortage of talent in this field, and even without a pacer, a combination of a few guys taking it out and a few others closing hard could generate some seriously quick times.

Will The Girls Mile All-Time List Get Some Major Revisions? – Sunday, 12:27 p.m. ET

Mid-distance star Juliette Whittaker of Mount De Sales (MD) has opted to put all her chips into the mile after an indoor campaign that included running a U.S. high school record in the 1000m of 2:39.41 on Feb. 26 and the #3 all-time 800m of 2:01.69 on Feb. 18. I was partially hoping she would join the 800m party but she has decided to try and claim the mile title. She won the high school girls mile at the Millrose Games in 4:47.14.

The competitors that will push her are Ventura’s Sadie Engelhardt (4:38.24 PB), Cherry Creek’s Riley Stewart (4:47.22 PB), Colts Neck’s Lilly Shapiro (4:45.39 PB), Ridgewood’s Camyrn Wennersten (4:48.60 PB) and Cornwall’s Karrie Baloga (4:46.52 PR).

On top of all that talent, Gorriaran is doubling back and stepping up in distance for her first mile since last summer. She ran an outdoor personal best of 4:43.74 in the high school race at the Prefontaine Classic last year. Gorriaran and Whittaker go head-to-head for the first time since last year’s NYC Qualifier. Whittaker is 2–0 in their career duels. With so many girls with personal bests so close to each other, we could see a mid 4:30s performance to win.

Mary Cain’s high school record of 4:28.25 is a tall order, but the fastest time ever run indoors in an all-high school race is Katie Rainsberger’s 4:36.61 from 2016. That mark could easily be in danger with this star-studded field.

Shawnti Jackson Returns to NYC After Making History – Sunday, 12:55 p.m. ET

‘The Batman’ crushed at the box office with a $134 million debut in the U.S. box office last weekend. If you want some free entertainment for 2 hours, 55 minutes and 3 seconds less than the total runtime of the superhero movie, you’ll tune in to watch Shawnti Jackson try and better her U.S. HS national record of 7.18 set on Jan. 29 at the Armory. What’s with all the Batman references? For those who aren’t as familiar with Jackson’s roots. She is the daughter of 2005 400m hurdles world champion Bershawn ‘Batman’ Jackson. Since retiring in 2018, he’s been all-in on coaching his daughter and it’s paid off.

At the Millrose Games women’s 60m dash, Jackson finished third in a field of professionals behind Aleia Hobbs and eventual U.S. indoor champion Mikiah Brisco. Her time of 7.18 broke the previous record that was shared by Ashley Owens (2004) and Tamari Davis (2020).

Jackson is undefeated against high schoolers this indoor season and looks to finish her year with a national title on the same track she set a national record.

Some news from Substack: You can now read CITIUS MAG Newsletter and The Lap Count in the new Substack app for iPhone.

With the app, you’ll have a dedicated Inbox for my Substack and Kyle’s. New posts will never get lost in your email filters or stuck in spam. Longer posts will never cut off by your email app. Comments and rich media will all work seamlessly. Overall, it’s a big upgrade to the reading experience.

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That’s it from me today. As always, thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this, learned something new, or have any questions or commentary on anything featured in this issue, feel free to hit my inbox by replying or writing to [email protected]

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