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Photo by David Vaughn
4. Will Tommy Latham break the 4:00 mile?
This seemed like an appropriate place to put this one. Maybe it's too on the nose but who cares. Tommy Latham from Marist is a superstar and might be the best distance runner Georgia has ever seen. Last year he ran 4:08.50 for the mile which is the fastest time by a sophomore in state history. It's not a huge lead as others have flirted with 4:10 before as sophomores, but none of them had the kind of XC season Latham had to follow up those times. Not only did he win yet another state title (his 5th overall) and collect another Gatorade athlete of the year award, he ran one of the fastest times ever by a Georgia athlete on a course that isn't in Huntsville. And he was still in the mix for the WIN at Nike nationals with a kilometer to go before fading slightly on the kick to finish 14 seconds back in 15th. That's the highest ever finish for a Georgia boy at that meet and it could be overall the best XC season a Georgia boy has ever had. So that means he's got more strength than any who have come before him. And the 5k in XC isn't even his best event. His best event is the mile. Add up all of those factors and Georgia could be looking at it's first boy to break the 4:00 barrier while in high school.
I'll add a small caveat here that it's incredibly hard to pull this feat off as a junior, something that's only been done 3 times ever by juniors. If he breaks it while in high school, it's more likely to come when he is a senior. But the state record of 4:03 is not out of the picture this year. He currently sits at 10th on the Georgia all time list, but he's only 3.6 seconds off of the record. That could certainly fall this year if he gets in the right race. And I'm sure he's also thinking about that 3200 state record too. It's enough to make us all pay attention to the clock every time he lines up.