Run it back: Husky harrier defends 3200-meter state title with record-breaking performance
Will Brunner and Porter Middaugh went 1-2 as both Battle Mountain runners dipped under the all-classes state meet record
Ryan Sederquist/Vail Daily
Hollywood couldn’t have scripted it much better.
Two harriers. Two teammates. Two friends — Will Brunner and Porter Middaugh — duking it out for an entire lap with a state title on the line.
That was the scene at Friday’s 4A 3200-meter final at the Colorado high school state track and field meet. Spielberg, however, would have cut up the clip, zoomed out from the hot sun baking Jeffco Stadium’s red tartan on Friday and flashed the film back to a regular snowy spring day in Edwards.
“I’m coming down the final stretch and I’m like, ‘wow, this feels like a 400 rep at Battle Mountain,'” said Brunner, who out-leaned Middaugh to successfully defend his 3200-meter title. Both dipped under the all-class state meet record, with Brunner breaking the tape in 9 minutes, 1.22 seconds.
“I’m super happy for Will,” said Middaugh, who came across 11-hundredths of a second later. “I really hoped to get a state win, so kind of disappointed, but happy with how the race played out. Just wish I had a tad bit more at the end there.”
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Brunner may have won the race, but Middaugh made it.
“All the runners need to write Porter a thank you note,” said head coach Rob Parish.
“I was a little disappointed with the past state meet, so I wanted to make this super honest,” said Middaugh, whose resume has everything except an individual title.
The Battle Mountain program record-holder in the 800, 3200 and 5,000-meters also finished sixth at Nike Cross Nationals in December. Going into Friday, Middaugh’s sights were set on Connor McCormick’s 9:03.83 all-class state meet record.
He said his preparation and 8:41.02 performance at the Arcadia Invitational in April gave him the confidence to lead from the gun, if necessary. Fortunately, Cheyenne Mountain’s Aiden Le Roux was OK sharing the load early on. But when the sophomore slipped to a 69.4 third-lap, Middaugh took over. The group came through halfway at 4:35.3.
“I knew we could make it even faster,” Middaugh said.
Over the next two laps, a lead pack of four manifested in front of a chase group the same size. Parish said he spoke of two targets — a place goal and a record goal — with Middaugh before the race. The coach told his pupil if the former interfered with the latter, “back off.” As the morning temperatures soared into the upper 70s, Middaugh pulled up, allowing the field to return into the frame with a 71-second sixth lap.
The record chase was off. For now.
On the penultimate lap, Brunner, who’d been biding his time in the pack — always within striking distance of his comrade — went to the front. The defending 3200 and 4A cross-country champion possessed a different agenda all along.
“Today, I just wanted to win,” he said. “If I ran 10-flat, I’d be stoked … if I won.”
By the time the Huskies approached the bell, they’d built a 30-meter lead. The gap doubled by the backstretch. Interestingly, the teammates had also pushed themselves back onto record schedule.
“The reason they broke the record was because of each other,” Parish said.
The statement captures Brunner and Middaugh’s perfect embodiment of the Latin root for the English word, ‘competition’:
‘Competere,’ means “to strive together.”
“Last rep of every workout I feel like we’re racing to win and that’s kind of what today felt like,” Brunner said.
“Porter and I are best friends. … If he won or if I won, I think we’d both be stoked for the other one. It was such an incredible feeling to cross the line with him.”
After securing his third state title with a 57-second lap — and a time only two seconds slower than his sea-level best — an ecstatic Brunner embraced his parents standing at the finish-line fence.
“I came into this season with super high hopes — like, this is going to be my year,” Brunner said. “And kind of everything was in for Arcadia.”
In California, at sea level, Brunner finished 17 seconds behind Middaugh, an effort he described as “pretty poor, compared to Porter.”
“I was like, ‘OK, shoot, what am I doing wrong? I feel like I’ve been doing everything right,'” Brunner said.
While still “continuing to train hard,” he shifted his mind off of running, a perspective change which ultimately refreshed his drive.
“To kind of be like, ‘I want to be the best I can be and if that means I don’t beat Porter, (or) I don’t win Arcadia, so be it. I’m happy to be here,” he said. “I’m happy to go to Battle Mountain every day after school and work out. I’m happy to run.”
Both athletes aren’t done running, either. Middaugh and Brunner are the top-two seeds in Saturday’s 1600. What else could be in store?
“It’s amazing that we’re still amazed by those two,” Parish said. “But they still find ways to amaze and surprise us. They’re inspirational.”
Just like Hollywood.
“I think everybody who knows endurance sports knows you always script it a certain way, but it very rarely goes to script,” the coach continued.
“But when you can have your athletes finish their careers like their finishing, it’s more than special. It’s like a storybook ending.”
Filmore flies under Eagle Valley school record to finish in ninth
The fast pace of Friday’s 3200-meter final benefited Eagle Valley’s Cooper Filmore. The senior placed ninth in a new altitude school-record of 9:28.29.
“It feels pretty good. I’ve been going for that,” said Filmore, who posted consecutive 9:30 efforts in his last two tries at the distance. “This is pretty sweet. I’m so happy.”
Filmore said if the race had gone slow, he would have set the pace from the front. “My plan was kind of just to lead the race,” he said. “I wanted to PR.”
But the race played out perfectly, as the Devil rode the train to a 4:39 first mile. He closed in a 66-second final lap.
“I remember Janssen telling me freshman year that I was going to break the school record,” said Filmore, who ran 10:49.85 his first year on the team. “So, it’s pretty sweet to finally do it.”
