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Christ School junior Brooks Barbee shattered the North Carolina 2,000-meter steeplechase record on Saturday against a loaded field at the Spring into the Season Kickoff at Metrolina Christian.
Barbee ran a massive 16-second PR of 5:54.78, breaking the record of 5:58.38 set by former Ardrey Kell standout Patrick Gibbons (now at N.C. State), who set the record on June 18, 2022, at Nike Outdoor Nationals in Eugene, OR, at the University of Oregon.
Barbee, who came to the meet hoping to break the mark, took the lead from the start, clicking off 400-meter splits of 1:06.62, then 1:10.31, 1:12.92 and 1:13.33 (4:43.17 at 1600 meters), before closing with a 1:11.62 for his last lap and finishing with the record performance (the time also met the National High School Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association All-American standard).
"The goal for all of our Christ School races is to execute a race strategy," Christ School coach Randy Ashley said. "We never talk about hitting times. For Brooks on Saturday, the race strategy was to be aggressive early with a fast 400 and then the focus was to go into each barrier with a high level of aggression. We especially go hard at the water barrier. As soon as Brooks took the left towards the pit, he was to put his head down and pick up the pace at the barrier. This allowed him to only get one foot wet on every steeple water pit. We prepped with a lot of strides over hurdles."
He was fresh off his 9:01.11, 3,200-meter victory at the NCRunners Independent Schools Indoor Track & Field Championships, which he ran on Feb. 9. That was the No. 6 all-time 3,200-meter performance in North Carolina history and showed he was ready to go after the record.
Barbee's steeplechase performance on Saturday would have ranked No. 5 in the U.S. last year, so it's likely to stay near the top of the country the remainder of the year. It is currently U.S. No. 1 in a season that already had marks from three meets in Texas and California.
Runner-up on Saturday in the 2,000-meter steeplechase in a field that featured several out-of-state runners and six of the top steeplechasers from North Carolina last season, was Vidal Macchia (William Floyd HS, Mastic Beach, New York), who ran 6:06.90 (U.S. No. 2 and a PR by six seconds) and Luke Vannoy (Oak Grove), who finished in 6:13.42 (U.S. No. 3 and NC No. 16 all-time). Sawyer Duncan (Covenant Day, 6:23.49, U.S. No. 5 and NC No. 32 all-time), Edward Haponik (Davidson Day, 6:24.31, U.S. No. 6), Clay Summers (RJ Reynolds, 6:43.55, U.S. No. 9), Harris Bradford (The Mount Vernon School, Atlanta, GA), 6:54.65 and Cole Usery (Parkwood, 6:55.28, rounded out the top 8 scorers.
Cecelia Taft (Cuthbertson) won the girls' race in 7:28.52, with a lifetime best of 30 seconds and a N.C. all-time No. 14 ranking, as well as an early U.S. No. 1 mark. Runner-up was Lillian Broadway (Piedmont) making her steeplechase debut with a 7:39.13 performance, good enough for N.C. No. 21 all-time, N.C. All-Time Junior No. 9.
Rounding out the top 8 finishers were: Addison Miller (Cuthbertson, 8:12.31); Jane Dunlap (Charlotte Catholic, 8:29.11); Isla Downard (RJ Reynolds, 8:38.07); Eliza Murray (Covenant Day, 8:54.77); Maizey Cheatwood (Davidson Day, 8:59.78) and Lydia Duncan (Metrolina Christian, 9:07.38).
In all, 35 boys and 16 girls competed in the 2,000-meter steeplechase.
*Former steeplechase and North Carolina great, Jim Cooper (who graduated from South Mecklenburg), presented medals to the top-3 boys & top-3 girls steeplechase finishers. He was a 3-time Olympic trials qualifier (1984, 1988, 1992) and one of the top-ranked steeplechasers in the US and world from 1983-1992, earning silver (1986) and bronze (1988) at the U.S. Track & Field Championships. An NCAA All-American, he still holds the University of North Carolina's 3,000-meter steeplechase record (8:34.47), 44 years after he set it in 1982. His PR (8:19.88) was run in 1986 (at the time, No. 6 all-time in US history).
*The first known high schooler to run the steeplechase was Myers Park's Paul Boyette, who ran the mile steeplechase at the Greenville News-Piedmont Relays at Furman on March 20, 1976.
*The first North Carolina boy to run the 2,000-meter steeplechase in high school was June 24, 1983, when some of North Carolina's top distance runners at the time competed in the event: Jim Farmer (Broughton) and John Erickson (Southeast Guilford) ran 6:20.1 and 6:30.7, respectively, to go 1-2 in the Young Men's division (17-18), and Alton Barnes (Garner) and Paul Baxter ran 6:45.0 and 7:26.2, respectively, to go 1-2 in the Intermediate Boys (15-16) division at the TAC (The Athletics Congress, precursor to USATF) North Carolina Junior Olympics Championships at Duke's Wallace Wade Stadium, when the track was inside the stadium an not in a separate facility.
*Amelia Slagle (North Mecklenburg) was the first known North Carolina high school girl to run the event, which she did in 2001.