Beiting, Sugie Shine at AOC Distance Festival

Jake Weston

Sugie, Beiting, and Others Shine at AOC Distance Night

This past Wednesday, some of the best high school distance athletes in Kentucky opened their seasons at one of the premier distance meets in the country, the AOC Distance Night. This meet mainly serves as a Pre-Dream Mile qualifier and this year was no exception. Last year, on the Boy's side, the final dream mile spot went to a 4:23.44 1600m time. Wednesday, we saw 9 boys run under that time. Keep in mind, the Dream Mile is still 6 weeks away, so we have plenty of more opportunities to see how fast this field will be.

This race had all the drama you expect to see in a high quality Championship 1600m race. Like most Championship races, the pace started off relatively slow with a 2:13 opening 800m split (4:26 1600m pace). After that, Notre Dame commit and Thomas Nelson Senior Riku Sugie took to the front and hammered the final two laps. Sugie came into the meet fresh off a 4:07 full mile at New Balance Nationals, so it wasn't surprising to see him close in a 2:02 to a win in 4:15. It wasn't shocking either to see Boston College commit Roman Sierpina finish in second just behind Sugie. The Louisville Collegiate Senior has ran 4:12 for the full mile both indoors and outdoors and finished 2nd to Sugie at last year's dream mile. With this pedigree, it was expected that he would finish near the front and he did placing 2nd in 4:16. North Oldham's Charley Townsend also had a strong open to his season. The Belmont commit placed 3rd in this race running a lifetime best 4:17.06 1600m time. 

The next MASSIVE MILE field will be at Lafayette's Tyson and Trinity Gay Invitational where we will see Roman Sierpina take on a field that includes Xavier Richardson, Will Sheets, Lincoln Herald, and James Gurley all who have PR's under 4:14. Sheets of course is fresh off his 14:16 at Nike Indoor Nationals, so we will see how fast he can take this field. 

On the girls side of things, we saw a similar showing of high class times led by Lexington Catholic Senior Caroline Beiting. Beiting dominated a stacked field en route to a 7 second win. Her time of 4:48 is the 5th fastest time in Kentucky State History. We will see if she has what it takes to take down Jessica Secor's KY Mile record of 4:39.35. Your 2nd place finisher here was Leah Penick of Assumption high school. Penick picked up right where she left in Indoor running a 4:55 1600m time. This time will assuredly get her into the Dream Mile where she will look to continue Assumption's historic distance running culture. Your third finisher at the AOC Distance Festival was Thomas Nelson Sophomore Baili Hoten. Hoten ran a 5:00 1600 at this meet which is 8 seconds better than what she ran just a season ago. This race also saw 4 other girls go under last year's Dream Mile standard of 5:10.88 signaling that this year's Dream Mile filed will be the fastest in history. 

The next big 1600m event will be at the Tyson and Trinity Gay Invitational where we will see Caroline Beiting and her teammate Abigail Turner as well as Susanne Estepp of Paul Laurence Dunbar compete for a chance to get into the KY Dream Mile. 


Boys Results (TOP 10)


Girls Results (TOP 10)