IN A SEASON FULL of great performances, assuredly the single best moment for a high schooler came on the final afternoon of the USATF Championships when sophomore Cooper Lutkenhaus stormed from the back of a pack of pros to nearly steal the 800 final, finishing 2nd in a mind-blowing 1:42.27.
The 16-year-old from Northwest High School in Judson, Texas, might have been our High School Athlete Of The Year even without that record-crushing mark, but that moment engraved his prep legacy in stone, making him the 79th athlete to win those laurels in a list of greats that stretches back to ’47.
“It’s definitely the race I hold closest to my heart,” Lutkenhaus says.
A 1:47.58 performance the year before gave him the 9th grade national record, so even with modest improvement, Lutkenhaus had been expected to challenge Michael Granville’s HSR of 1:46.45, one that the California prep set 29 years earlier. Lutkenhaus looked on target indoors, blasting a 1:46.86 to slash 0.81 off Josh Hoey’s undercover HSR. (Continued below)
Outdoors, he served notice at the Texas 6A Championships, running 1:47.04 for the win and scoring another PR with a 46.30 for 2nd in the 400. Two weeks later he ran his only mile of the season, a PR 4:06.33 for 2nd at the Lone Star Elite Invite. Then he took down the HSR — for the first time — at the Brooks PR meet on June 8, cruising a comfortable 1:46.26 to slice 0.19 off Granville’s standard.
He wasn’t done, not by a longshot. On June 21, he won the Nike Nationals with a 1:45.45, an improvement by 0.81. Then came the USATF, also in Eugene. Coming to the meet with an intent he described as “more of a learning experience than anything else,” he got through round 1 with a solid 1:47.23. Then, after nearly tumbling in his semi, he closed like a runaway train to snatch the last auto-qualifying spot finishing 2nd in 1:45.57. That missed his own HSR by just 0.12.
A 2-day rest set the stage for the performance that shocked the world. Using what he called “middle school tactics,” he hung back until the final 200. That’s when Lutkenhaus, the youngest in the race by more than 5 years, blasted the final furlong to race his way onto the team, finishing faster than any of the pros.
Much has been written about the time that popped up on the board, one that he stared at in shock. The 1:42.27 destroyed his own HSR by 3.3 seconds, while also breaking the American Junior Record of 1:43.55 that Donavan Brazier had set in winning the ’16 NCAA. It was the No. 2 time ever by a world U20 performer, after only Nijel Amos’s World Junior Record 1:41.73 that won silver at the ’12 Olympics.
With just over six weeks until the first round at the World Championships in Tokyo, Lutkenhaus had a weighty task before him: preparing for a significant extension of his season while trying to figure out the next move that could define his career.
On the first part, he said that he and coach Chris Capeau were planning to stick with what had worked. “The training is going to be very, very similar to what we have been doing.” His goal for Tokyo? “It doesn’t matter if I have the fastest time going in or the slowest time in my first race. I’m going to leave it all out there on the track.”
The career-defining part came in late August, when Lutkenhaus signed a contract with Nike and forfeited the rest of his prep career as well as his college eligibility. As much as some traditionalists might have decried it, the move made sense. A 1:42 performer isn’t going to find much meaningful competition at the prep level, and the financial benefits of going pro might certainly outweigh an NCAA career, even in the age of NIL.
Says Lutkenhaus, “I still do plan on attending college, because nothing in this sport is guaranteed.” As to where, he says he has only started shopping recently, and no decisions have been made.
First, though, came the World Championships. Unfortunately for the youngest member of Team USA, the spark he felt in Eugene wasn’t quite there; everyone knew it would be a tough ask. He ran to a non-advancing 7th in his heat, his 1:47.68 over a second short of what he needed. “It was definitely tough walking off that track. I felt like I could have been able to do a little more out there, but I feel like I did as much as I could in the first round.”
His takeaway: “Just knowing the racing is different. High school races are definitely different than World Championship racing. Just knowing that nothing in the sport is guaranteed. You might be a 1:41 guy, but you still might not make the finals.”
He adds, “Every race is a little bit different. I guess that ‘middle school’ tactic was just kick with 200 to go. I wouldn’t say that was really the plan coming into [the World Championships], but I think something that’s so important that I learned is every race is different, especially in the prelims… When you get to this championship setting, you’re going to be coming through 53, 54 seconds, and then, you know, everybody’s still going to have a kick with 200 to go when you’re coming through that slow.”
With his return to the hallways at Northwest, Lutkenhaus still has to navigate the changes that his incredible season have brought to his life. He notes, “I feel like I’ve been doing this running thing for a long time, even though it’s only been about two years. A lot of my kids at my school kind of realized I was pretty good at this. I don’t think this good, but you know it’s almost pretty normal in a way at my school now. ‘Oh,’ they say, ‘Cooper runs 1:42.’ Now they don’t know what that means…”
The son of the athletic director adds, “I’ve grown up at Northwest High School, so all the teachers, they’ve seen me since I started learning how to walk, so just always being around them, they understand what’s been going on.”
One point that Coach Capeau had raised earlier in the season was that the Lutkenhaus family provided the perfect support for their son to reach this level. Cooper agrees, adding, “This is always a sport I’ve enjoyed. So whenever I find something I have enjoyment in, I always pull everything I have into it. I always wanted to be good at this sport. I didn’t know this was possible, especially at this age. But to be able to do it at 16 is definitely different. Not many people have been able to do that. So just enjoying all the little moments with my family, you know, good and bad, I think that’s the most important part.”
At the TAFNOT Tour banquet in Tokyo, a post-race Lutkenhaus dealt with the question of whether this season — and his moment on the big stage in National Stadium — was possibly too much too soon. Had he been ready for it all?
He had no regrets, he said, and in a similar situation wouldn’t hesitate. “I’ll go for it, right? Again, nothing’s guaranteed in four years. You don’t know where you’re going to be. You don’t know… you’re going to be a whole different person in four years.
“So taking the opportunity when it’s given to you, especially being so young, it’s everything to gain but nothing to lose. You know, I went out here and gave everything I had. Obviously, it wasn’t the results I really wanted, but… I mean, it’s been a great year.”
