Crater relay team breaks state record at New Balance Nationals

Another record has been set by the Crater distance runners.

Preston Schmidt, Maxwell Miracle, Tayvon Kitchen, and Josiah Tostenson’s squad won the 4xmile relay championship in 16 minutes, 54.6 seconds on Thursday night at the New Balance Nationals in Philadelphia.

The group ran as the club squad for the Oregon Running Project.

The time established by the South Eugene team of Bill McChesney, Dirk Lakeman, Chris Nielsen, and John Gustafson in 1976 was surpassed by the new Oregon high school record of 17:06.6.

In March, the rater team raced a New Balance Indoor Nationals in 16:59.08.

The nation’s second-best time ever was set on Thursday by Schmidt, Miracle, Kitchen, and Tostenson. The Newbury Park team from New York set the national record in 2022 with a time of 16:29.31.

On Thursday night, the Oregon Running Project runners had to make a huge turnaround. The team finished in tenth place following the first leg of the race.

After Miracle gained some position, the team moved up to third place, where Kitchen managed to hold them for his four circuits.

Tostenson overtook the two Utah teams to grab the lead with a scorching time of 4:01.58. American Fork XC came in third place with a time of 17:03.41, while Herriman finished in second place with a time of 16:59.28.

In the mile (3:59.00) and 1,500 (3:36.85), Tostenson also owns the state record. Kitchen is the state record holder for both the cross-country 5,000-meter event (14:23.7) and the 3,000-meter race (7:58.92).

In the 4,000-meter distance medley relay at the New Balance Nationals last summer, Tostenson, Kitchen, Nicholas Cuba, and Caleb Doddington’s Oregon Running Project team set a new state and national record with a time of 9:44.30.

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