INDIAN TRAIL, N.C. – Brooks Barbee ’27 refers to a select number of runners who have come before him at Christ School – true luminaries like Rocky Hansen ’23 and Dawson Reeves ’24 – as legends.
With every race, Brooks seems to close the gap between the past and present.
Look at February alone.
Brooks won his very first state championship at the February 6 NCRunners Independent Schools Indoor Championship meet (in the 3,200-meter run). Three weeks later, the junior from Waynesville, N.C., took the name of Saturday’s Spring into the Season outdoor meet quite literally, zipping through the quirky 2,000-meter steeplechase in a state record time of 5 minutes, 54.78 seconds.
The previous North Carolina record for the steeplechase – typically only run a handful of times per year – belonged to Charlotte Ardrey Kell’s Patrick Gibbons (5:58.38) and had stood since 2022.
Brooks won Saturday’s race at Metrolina Christian Academy by just over 12 seconds. It was a sizable improvement over his previous personal best of 6:10.09, run in 2025.
The steeplechase is not sanctioned for most high school meets as few facilities have deep pits for the water jumps. Christ School’s previous best time in the event (6:06.71) belonged to Dawson, who now runs for Duke University.