18 years old runs a 1500 that is the equivalent of a 3:51 mile. (3:34) I think that is ahead of Ingebrigsten’s progression. Apparently up until a year ago mostly concentrating on climbing. Amazing
https://www.outsideonline.com/2424439/hobbs-kessler-high-school-1500-record
Combining Kessler with the fast guys from Oregon (Teare and Hocker) will make for an interesting trials 1500 in a couple of weeks. Of course, guys like Centro have the experience, but it seems like a pretty good time for US middle distance. The 1500 can be a very tactical race, and probably won’t favor younger runners, though.
The made me look up Jim Ryun. Forgot how amazing he was.
Combining Kessler with the fast guys from Oregon (Teare and Hocker) will make for an interesting trials 1500 in a couple of weeks. Of course, guys like Centro have the experience, but it seems like a pretty good time for US middle distance. The 1500 can be a very tactical race, and probably won’t favor younger runners, though.
That race at the US Olympic Trials for the men’s 1500m may be one of the most interesting at the whole meet!
The Kessler kid is super talented for sure. There were signs of this brilliance last year. He seems well balanced - great overall body strength and conditioning from his Rock Climbing. Has a great team supporting him in Ann Arbor headed up by Ron Warhurst with 2X Olympic Medalist in the 1500m New Zealander Nick Willis as a key training partner and Guidance Counselor!
He’s committed to NAU for next year - a strong Distance Running school - so that will be a bit of a new journey for him away from the amazing support of the team at home.
On paper and via times run, he is the greatest U.S. runner of his age at the 1500m/Mike since Jim Ryun. Many have flamed out and burned out, after approaching this level of greatness at this age - the next few years are critical to longer term success. I’m pulling for the kid, but I also know that doing THIS well at this young and age, is a bit of a Catch 22 situation
Unless I’m mistaken, this means the 1500 record for high school is faster than the NCAA record.
Yes the 1500 high school record is now faster than the college record. Today Kessler at the Michigan State track meet anchored the 4 x 800 relay in an incredible 147.8 in extremely windy conditions probably more like a 146 performance. And the 800 is not even his event. Probably Americas best distance talent since Jim Ryun whose 55 year old record he broke in the 1500 a few days ago.
Sometimes I wonder if the pandemic caused a bunch of very talented people to run faster than they otherwise may have. Lack of travel, sleeping in your own bed, living/training in your own town, etc etc.
It’s pretty amazing what is happening. (There was a recent 3:31!!)
Probably Americas best distance talent since Jim Ryun whose 55 year old record he broke in the 1500 a few days ago.
I think we’d be remiss to just skip over Webb. Almost exactly 20 years ago Webb broke Ryun’s then 36 year old mile record (and I’m sure Synthetic would be quick to tell us about how Webb didn’t have super spikes)
Anyway, super awesome to see Kessler killing it out there. I’m looking forward to seeing him and Jacob Ingebrigtsen duke it out over the next 10+ years. I do wonder if Kessler will end up skipping out on going to NAU and just go pro. College adds a bit of external stress as well as distractions and he already has a stellar training setup in Michigan.
Probably Americas best distance talent since Jim Ryun whose 55 year old record he broke in the 1500 a few days ago.
I think we’d be remiss to just skip over Webb. Almost exactly 20 years ago Webb broke Ryun’s then 36 year old mile record (and I’m sure Synthetic would be quick to tell us about how Webb didn’t have super spikes)
Anyway, super awesome to see Kessler killing it out there. I’m looking forward to seeing him and Jacob Ingebrigtsen duke it out over the next 10+ years. I do wonder if Kessler will end up skipping out on going to NAU and just go pro. College adds a bit of external stress as well as distractions and he already has a stellar training setup in Michigan.
What external stress? Having to do school? Going pro too early is what breaks a ton of kids across multiple individual sports.
Sometimes I wonder if the pandemic caused a bunch of very talented people to run faster than they otherwise may have. Lack of travel, sleeping in your own bed, living/training in your own town,
I’ve been developing a bit of the theory about this and I’ve chatted with one of the leading Sports Physiologists in Canada about it - there is something to what you said there.
A typical year, despite the best of planning for many national and world class endurance sports athletes goes as follows: A training block. Maybe some travel to another location to train. Then a race. More travel. Some sponsor obligations. Travel to another race. A niggling injury pops up. Need to take some down-time to recover. Now back at the training, but rushing because you need to be ready for a certain race, or make a certain time . . . and so on
Compare the above to the last year where most have just been at their home-base training with NOTHING else to pull them away or distract them from that. No need to rush the training - just gradually build it up. Paula Findlay said that after she won in Daytona last year - that was the first time in her life as a top-level athlete where for 10 months straight, uninterrupted by anything . . she just trained.
Probably Americas best distance talent since Jim Ryun whose 55 year old record he broke in the 1500 a few days ago.
I think we’d be remiss to just skip over Webb. Almost exactly 20 years ago Webb broke Ryun’s then 36 year old mile record (and I’m sure Synthetic would be quick to tell us about how Webb didn’t have super spikes)
Anyway, super awesome to see Kessler killing it out there. I’m looking forward to seeing him and Jacob Ingebrigtsen duke it out over the next 10+ years. I do wonder if Kessler will end up skipping out on going to NAU and just go pro. College adds a bit of external stress as well as distractions and he already has a stellar training setup in Michigan.
What external stress? Having to do school? Going pro too early is what breaks a ton of kids across multiple individual sports.
Yes. Going to class, writing papers, taking exams on top of training is more stress than if you were just living at home or with some other pros and you only have to focus on training. Unless you are a D1 football player and someone does all the for you.
Going pro early seems to work ok for a lot of athletes outside the US (ie the Ingebrigtsen kids, pretty much every pro soccer player)
Is it just me or did any one else think of The Real Starky (Ben Hobbs) who was very vocal about the MBK driving incident and wonder if Hobbs Kessler was a joke name?
No? I’ve been laughing for a week about this lol
Is it just me or did any one else think of The Real Starky (Ben Hobbs) who was very vocal about the MBK driving incident and wonder if Hobbs Kessler was a joke name?
No? I’ve been laughing for a week about this lol
When reading the thread title for the first time (and before clicking to read the thread and what it’s about) my first thought was 'is this a reappearance of that Hobbs guy under a different name?
Has a great team supporting him in Ann Arbor headed up by Ron Warhurst with 2X Olympic Medalist in the 1500m New Zealander Nick Willis as a key training partner and Guidance Counselor!
i believe he has an intersection with our folks. his mom ran the track workouts organized by lew kidder and lew’s wife the great (deceased) age grouper karen mckeachie. i don’t know, but i suspect perhaps his folks had a multisport background.
this has been a real banner year for HS distance, notwithstanding the pandemic. there have been some unbelievable teams in XC, and achievements on the track, chiefly over 2mi or 3200m. at arcadia recently i think newbury park’s runners were 8:43, 8:43 or thereabouts, the 4th runner across was 8:57, and the 5th was at 9:10. and newbury park might (or might not) be the most talented XC team out there (i think they all return for fall of 2021).
but hobbs kessler is the class of the field for sure.
my first thought was 'is this a reappearance of that Hobbs guy under a different name?
Whatever happened to Ben Hobbs?
He was at one time trying to be the “Howard Stern” of triathlon, or so it seemed!
18 years old runs a 1500 that is the equivalent of a 3:51 mile. (3:34) I think that is ahead of Ingebrigsten’s progression. Apparently up until a year ago mostly concentrating on climbing. Amazing
https://www.outsideonline.com/2424439/hobbs-kessler-high-school-1500-record
Here you have Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s progression
1500m
14 - 3,48,37
15 - 3,42,44
16 - 3,39,92
17 - 3,31,18
18 - 3,30,68
19 - 3,28,27
Mile
16 - 3,56,29
17 - 3,52,28
18 - 3,51,30
2000m
19 - 4,50,01
3000m
14 - 8,25,90
15 - 8,22,25
16 - 8,00,01
19 - 7,27,05
5000m
15 - 14,38,67
16 - 13,35,84
17 - 3,17,02
18 - 13,02,03
20 - 12,48,45
10k road race
18 - 27,54
More results here
https://worldathletics.org/athletes/norway/jakob-ingebrigtsen-14653717
I stand corrected.
I know we can rely on you to keep us up on all things Ingebrigtsen 
I do wonder if Kessler will end up skipping out on going to NAU and just go pro.
https://www.letsrun.com/news/2021/06/breaking-hobbs-kessler-is-turning-professional/
Every so often I get one right. Kessler announced he signed with Adidas and going pro
Going pro early seems to work ok for a lot of athletes outside the US (ie the Ingebrigtsen kids, pretty much every pro soccer player)
I feel like for soccer you need to turn pro-early. We are starting to see the benefit of kids in the US turning pro at 16/17/18 for soccer. College soccer does nothing for the elites.
I stand corrected.
I know we can rely on you to keep us up on all things Ingebrigtsen
He only turned 18 in March, so he has some time to catch Ingebrigtsen’s times from 18.
His finishing speed appears to be pretty incredible. His prelim 1500m race made me nervous, but he appeared to know what he was doing.