RENTON, Wash. - Rocky Hansen’s first real trip to the Pacific Northwest is off to a record-breaking start, as if anyone would expect anything less.
The recent Christ School graduate and Wake Forest University recruit ran the fourth-fastest 2 mile in national history (8:35.22) at Wednesday’s Brooks PR Invitational.
Rocky did most of the pacesetting for the eight-lap race and jostled for the lead in the final 200 meters with South Dakota’s Simeon Birnbaum (8:34.10) and Missouri’s Connor Burns (8:34.33).
Wednesday was the next-to-last high school track meet for Rocky, who was clocked in state record-time at 3,000 meters (8:05.13) and 3,200 meters (8:32.46) en route to breaking his own North Carolina all-time record for the 2 mile.
He is the only boy from the Tar Heel state to ever run the mile in under 4 minutes and will race that event at this weekend’s Nike Outdoor Nationals meet in Eugene, Ore.