National High School Records Through the Years

Photo by John Nepolitan of DyeStat

Boys Outdoor Record – 400 meters

Quincy Wilson (The Bullis School, Potomac, Maryland) 

Performance – 44.66

Date – June 21, 2024

Place – Eugene, Oregon

Meet – U.S. Olympic Trials

Previous Record – 44.69 by Darrell Robinson (Wilson, Tacoma, Washington) in Indianapolis, July 24, 1982

From Wilson’s first arrival on the scene, when he ran 47.59 as a 14-year-old eighth-grader, observers suggested he might finally be the one to break Darrell Robinson’s absurdly ancient national record of 44.69. It had, after all, been 42 years. For 37 of them, no one else had even broken 45. Wilson, a slight young man who appears to be even younger than he is, ran 45.87 in 2023 – not a freshman record. He opened his sophomore season with an indoor HSR and ran an outrageous leg at Penn Relays, but then, the Olympic Trials looming, he seemed to reach a plateau. How would he do against veteran quarter-milers? When introduced to the fans in the first round at Hayward Field a year ago this week, he received a polite reception. Most in attendance had never seen the young man in person. He was the youngest competitor in the entire meet. Would he finish first … or last? He hung in there, and as he fought his way down the straightaway in the biggest race of his life, the crowd roared for him. First! He finished 1st! Just like that, Robinson’s record was gone, broken by three hundredths. Wilson lowered it to 44.59 in the semis, then to 44.20 a month later in a pre-Olympic meet. He also made the relay pool for the Olympics, ran leadoff in the qualifying round of the 4x400 for the United States in Paris, and received a gold medal when the Americans won the final, all the world watching young Quincy on TV cheering enthusiastically for a new teammate, Rai Benjamin, as Rai held on for the win, just missing the world record. Now he was the high school record-holder with two years to go, attending a superb private school in the leafy Montgomery County suburbs of Washington, D.C. 

National High School Records Through the Years appears once a week, compiled and written by a track historian, Jack Pfeifer (Lake Oswego, Oregon). Inquiries may be directed to him by email (jack.pfeifer@gmail.com).