Belen Jesuit FL Junior Wins Mile, Earns Fourth Gold Medal; Texas Sprinters Sweep 60s and 200s; Iowa Wins State DMR

By Oliver Hinson of DyeStat

Photos by John Nepolitan

RESULTS/VIDEOS | INTERVIEWS

NEW YORK — With about 100 meters left to go in Sunday’s mile championship at Nike Indoor Nationals, it looked like Marcelo Mantecon’s run of greatness at Nike Indoor Nationals was in danger of ending.

As the Belen Jesuit FL junior rounded the final turn at The Armory, he had nearly seven miles of racing in his legs, and a surging Abdinasir Hassan (Northfield CO) charging up from behind.

Somehow, Mantecon found the last bit of energy in his body — enough to hold off Hassan and break the tape in 4 minutes, 0.66 seconds for his fourth gold medal of the weekend. No one watching knew where that burst of energy came from — and neither did he.

“I wish I could tell you,” Mantecon said. “That came from absolutely nowhere. I pushed my body to its absolute limits.”

For context, Mantecon’s weekend of racing is one of the most impressive performances in high school history. On the first three days of the weekend, he ran 13:57.94 in the 5,000 meters, 8:48.02 in the 2 mile and 4:04.73 on the anchor leg of the distance medley relay. All wins. Still, he had enough left to run 1:57.42 for his last 800 meters and 56.39 seconds for his final 400 in Sunday’s race.

Looking at his weekend as a whole, there is almost no appropriate historical comparison. In 2011, Lukas Verzbicas won the 1,600, 2 miles and 5,000 at New Balance Nationals Indoor, running 4:10.67, 8:40.70 and 14:06.78. His performance was widely celebrated at the time. Mantecon’s quadruple is unprecedented at a national indoor championships.

“It means everything,” Mantecon said. “The best in the country were in every race. Each race had its own personality… it was all tough, but I’m glad to come out on top in each and every one.”

Mantecon was already one of the most highly regarded athletes in the country before the weekend, but going into the outdoor season, he has risen to another level.

“It does put a target on my back,” Mantecon said. “It just makes me want to work harder to keep that aura.”

Texas Stars Showcase Sprint Depth

At the end of the weekend, the Lone Star State prevailed in the state rankings with nearly 300 points scored across 49 events, and that was due in large part to its dominance in the sprint events. Texans swept the top five places in the boys 200 and earned four of the top five spots in the 60.

Sophomore Dillon Mitchell (C.E. King TX) took the win in the 60 with a blazing time of 6.61 seconds, just two hundredths of a second off of his U18 world record time of 6.59. Mitchell has arguably the most momentum of any sprinter at the moment. In February, he took seventh at the USATF Indoor Championships, and last weekend he ran a wind-aided 9.88 in the 100 at the Texas A&M Bluebonnet meet. Still, he saw himself as an underdog coming into the weekend.

“I promised myself I was gonna win,” Mitchell said. “I couldn’t come out here and lose again. I’ve taken too many losses.”

Jake Odey-Jordan (Texas Titans) won the 200 in 20.72 seconds, earning his fourth individual national title as a high schooler. 

Odey-Jordan moved to Texas after the 2025 season and started training with Tate Taylor (Harlan TX), a three-time high school record holder and fellow Texas Tech commit. Taylor ran 20.46 in last year’s 200 at this meet to break the national record, and coming into this weekend, he looked like the best all-around sprinter in the country. He had broken the high school record in the 300 in January, running 32.45, and hadn’t lost a race longer than 60 meters all season.

Odey-Jordan knew he was just as capable of a national title, though, and he took his opportunity to earn it. 

“I knew it was gonna be a fair race,” Odey-Jordan said.

Iowa Caps Off Weekend With Thrilling Win In State DMR

Quentin Nauman (Epworth Western Dubuque IA) saved his best work for the end of the weekend, fending off Texas’s Caden Leonard (Southlake Carroll TX) and anchoring his Iowa squad to a win in the boys state distance medley relay with a 1,600-meter split of 4:03.30.

The Iowa team, consisting of Caleb Ten Pas, Kolby Hodenfield, Jack Meggison and Nauman ran 9:46.23 for the win. Ten Pas, Hodenfield and Meggison split 2:57.97, 49.84 and 1:55.13, respectively, giving Nauman a lead of over three seconds when he took the baton.

Nauman, coming off a disappointing 14th place finish in the 800 on Saturday, looked like he was fading in the last few laps as Leonard made up ground at a furious pace. Leonard and Cooper Lutkenhaus created the idea of the “all-star state DMR” — a relay consisting of a state’s best four runners — and the Southlake Carroll senior certainly didn’t want to lose at his own game. He was able to make up about three seconds on Nauman during his leg, but his effort was too little, too late. Texas finished second in 9:46.98.

As Nauman barreled down the home stretch, he only had one thought: “win it for the boys.” He had created the squad over the last several weeks, reaching out to associates to get in touch with the Hawkeye State’s fastest runners. All four came in with a mission to put Iowa on the map.

Ten Pas, in fact, was originally going to compete at New Balance Nationals Indoor in Boston this weekend, but when Nauman told him about the state DMR, he knew he had to come to New York.

“I had to flip over to get the state win,” Ten Pas said. “I feel like Iowa is so underrated. I mean, I went 4:03 (in the mile) at our state meet and didn’t win last year.”

The time of 9:46.23 is faster than the indoor high school record time that Belen Jesuit FL set on Saturday (9:47.01), but because the four of them are from different schools, that time means nothing for record purposes. It does, however, send a strong message. In a race with historically strong running states like Texas, Florida, Oregon and Colorado, Iowa reigned supreme.

“I feel like everyone’s like, ‘Oh, California, Texas… if you get a state championship from there, it’s a real state championship,’” Ten Pas said. “I wanted to go out there and put Iowa on the map. I think we are the best in the nation.”

Other Highlights From Day 4 At Nike Indoor Nationals:

- Kayden Hulet (Sparks NV) made the trek from Boston to New York to try for his second national title of the weekend in the weight throw, and he emerged victorious, throwing 85-00.25 for the win at the Armory. On Saturday, Hulet threw 86-9.50, a US#2 all-time mark, to take the win at New Balance Nationals Indoor in Boston.

- Joshua Kai-Smith (Gar-Field VA) clocked a 7.59-second performance, a US#3 in 2026 and US#7 all-time performance, to win the boys 60 hurdles.

- McCallie TN ran a US#9 time of 7:46.73 to take the win in the boys 4x800 meter relay. The squad of Matthew Gabbert, Luke Bowen, Ian Jacobs and Henry Webb ran remarkably consistent splits of 1:57.56, 1:56.67, 1:55.65 and 1:56.85.