Semi-OT: Ann Arbor's Hobbs Kessler Breaks Alan Webb's HS 1,500 Record
This story is amazing. Until a year or so ago, Hobbs Kessler of Ann Arbor Skyline High School was a rock climber. Then he tried distance running, and quickly realized he was one of the fastest kids on the planet.
At a meet in Portland yesterday, he broke the high school record for the 1,500 meters by four seconds, running a 3:34.36. That time also would have broken the COLLEGIATE 1,500 record, which was just set a couple weeks ago by a Notre Dame runner. It also qualified him for the Olympic trials. The world record is 3:26, by the way.
Aside from the kid being from Ann Arbor, there are Michigan prints all over this story. The high school record he broke was held by Alan Webb, who ran for U-M 20 years ago, made the 2004 Olympics and set the American record in the mile.
And Kessler trains with U-M coach Ron Warhurst and runs with former U-M running Nick Willis. Alas, he's not going to college here; he's going to Northern Arizona. LINK.
I remember a post about him last year. I think it said he picked Northern Arizona because of its access to climbing. I, personally, blame Harbaugh. If he had used some of that money he spent on assistants to build a few mountains on N. Campus, we wouldn’t be hanging our heads right now.
Typical anti-Harbaugh nonsense. No one wants to go to North Campus. The real villain is Dave Brandon for not making the Macaroni noodle a permanent statue, as it would have allowed for climbing practice just outside the stadium.
Things have probably never been the same on North Campus since Bagel Fragel moved down to Washtenaw Avenue recently...and since the Village Corner redoubled their efforts to care about your age....
I'm not an engineer because the bus ride to North Campus sucked.
I thought VC was torn down to build a giant condo building a few years ago.
Yep, VC is long gone. All of South-U street is totally transformed these days.
The staff at that place were...different
VC was known as the worst place to try a fake id when I was in school (class of 2010). Champions was the place to go back then. I was actually shocked when they asked for an ID
Obviously you've never heard about the great Macaroni noodle shower scandal. Take it down, now!
"He's committed to run at Northern Arizona, which has four of the last five men's national championships."
https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/northern-arizona-university-1082
Couple that with their outstanding educational ranking (#284) in the US and how could you pass it up? I'm sticking with Mt. Harbaugh being the deciding factor.
No, it was Yost’s fault for being a racist
Not that it matters much but he's run off and on throughout his life and has been doing track/cross-country since freshman year, I'm pretty sure. So more like was a rock climber until 3-4 years ago. Still an absurd story and shows how gifted he is (and how hard he works). NAU seems like the perfect school for him, though. Great access to climbing, school's at altitude with lower elevations nearby, and they've been a recruiting machine for the last handful of years and dominated this year.
I saw him at the regionals at Saline Friday before last. This kid is really good. He's also arrogant as hell but I can't say I blame him.
Man that immediately takes away from the joy of the story for me
He’s just a kid, his ego may deflate someday
Wait until he competes against the top African runners his age. Several of them can run even faster times that he's even put up.
My pointed out how arrogant he was. I wasn't paying attention until a later race where he literally spent the entire final 100 meters looking over his right shoulder at the crowd as he won the race easily. It was like Michael Johnson back when he was competing when he would turn around to talk shit to the guy in 2nd when he could have just run through the finish line and set a world record.
Are you not entertained?
To be fair this was the regional meet. The only thing on the line was qualifying for state. For most kids this means busting ass, but if you're a contender to win state then the only thing you need to do is finish high enough to move on. If you are good enough to treat it as normal training run and not break a sweat, by all means do so. I wasn't there to see exactly how he was acting, but a certain amount of toying with the competition would be expected and I wouldn't consider that arrogant, per se.
I wasn't there but the reports I heard from coaches on other teams, is he actually talked to athletes on other teams about their goals and paced them to them - yes pulling away at the very end - but helped them.
He has a brother named Calvin who's mischievous but not as arrogant.
He's the talk of the international running community as well. Among his HS records, he also broke all time 2 mile mark with an 8:39.04. That's a few seconds faster than Steve Prefontaine in 1969.
Hobbs hasn't tried the 5000M run yet. I can only imagine. The sky is the limit with this kid so long as he remains healthy-no injuries.
Good luck to him in the US Olympic Trials, coming up soon. He's already a number 1 seed!
Craig Engels won the race that Hobbs was in so I have to imagine he would be the #1 seed in the trials.
What a strange story. In 2019, I suppose as a sophomore, his best time in the 1600 was 4:24, which is a good but not elite time for a high schooler (at least when I was running track that would have maybe qualified for the state meet). He must have just been jogging here and there for training because to go from that to hitting a qualifying time for the Olympics in two years is just mind blowing.
In 2019 he was competing in the IFSC youth world climbing championships. It sounds like instead if splitting so much time between climbing and running he is now much more focused on running
Running will be his priority until at least the Olympics are done with later this summer. He'll probably run cross country in the fall for NAU as well. Climbing will take a back seat for most of his collegiate career but he'll have ample time to get out and get away for a few climbs in the interim, no doubt.
All those years of chasing Calvin have paid off.
Any running experts out here? If he’s only being training for a year or so I assume he has the potential to shave some time off that time. 8 seconds sounds like too much to expect though
While I am not familiar with his running history, he's been training much harder and at this new level for about a year. As for shaving 8 sec of the 1500M time, that will only come within either national or world class competition. That will take a few years. He'll need that, kind of like of "seasoning" to adapt to the that kind of race strategy including getting his doors blown off from time to time.
I remember when Steve Prefontaine was a sure bet to win the gold medal in the 5000M event in the 1972 Olympics. He was leading the race with 150M to go, then down the stretch, he got passed by 3 other runners including one at the finish line to finish 4th and NO medal. The international runners did not fear him because he hadn't proved anything to date on the world class scene. Moral of the story, Hobbs will take his lumps and learn from them. It can be a very humbling experience.
Fascinating, thanks for the reply! I didn’t know how important the mental aspect is
Great achievement.
However, total BS the kid would not go to Michigan.
Typical, entitled--privileged kid from A2 going where there is "good rock climbing" instead of climbing all the new high-rises on South U.
Go Blue.
With a name like Hobbs Kessler I would have thought he was a Yale man
Breaking that record by four seconds is insane.