It’s easy to talk about how insane the 4 sub 4 miles this season are for US HS boys running, but I think these two are the most impressive of the bunch
Relatively speaking Sumner and Flatt’s 800 performances are more impressive than the miles in my opinion. Granville’s record hasn’t been close to being touched for years, and it is now under threat by 2 guys. Crazy year
Sub 4s are impressive, especially in the HS only meets. Currently, Martin > Sahlman @ mile unless Sahlman races Martin to prove otherwise.
Sumner is 18y.o. while Flatt just turned 19. Both are incredible but factually speaking, plenty of 19y.os have gone faster than 1:46.45 (Granville) but no 18 y.os have (in the US!)
Sumner > Flatt regardless of the 18 vs 19 age difference.
Either way it's the fast 800s, including Harrison & Salhman's performances that are most impressive this year. The shoes do have measurable affect on mile distance but not at 800 where they lace up 400 sprint shoes, not dragonfly's.
Yeah. With Sumner, what I find most impressive is after he ran the 1:48 indoors, his dad said they were still going to focus on the 200/400 outdoor season. He was top 5/10 in the 200 indoors. It seems he’s running National-record type times without fully training for the event.
With a 45.x open 400, he could likely split 44.7-45.2 on a relay.