Kentucky State Champion Ran Close To The National Record In The 800 Meters Three Times To Join Debate As One Of The All-Time Greats

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

Cade Flatt would be the first to admit that he came up just a bit short of his ultimate high school goal of breaking Michael Granville's 1996 national high school record of 1 minute, 46.45 seconds in the 800 meters. 

He is also convinced that he belongs in the discussion of the greatest half-milers in U.S. high school history after painting around the edges of that record with three performances that were all within a tenth of a second. 

Flatt ran faster than any prep in 26 years in the two-lap race and was presented with the Gatorade National Boys Track and Field Player of the Year award Tuesday at Marshall County High in Benton, Ky. 

"It's like the Jordan and LeBron debate," Flatt said. "I think that the greatest-ever debate is still there for me."

To be in that conversation is a place Flatt couldn't have expected a year ago, when he ran a best of 1:50.25 for fourth place at the Brooks PR Invitational in Seattle to wrap up his junior season. 

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"I decided then I didn't want to be one of the top guys, or just another of the top guys," Flatt said. "I want to be a guy who's looked at like the best."

Flatt is the first Kentucky winner of a national Gatorade award since 2016 when Erin Boley from Elizabethtown High was honored for girls basketball. He is the second male athlete to win a national award from Kentucky since Tim Couch of Leslie County High was selected for football in 1996. That same year, Granville, of Bell Gardens, Calif., also won for track and field. 

Flatt is the second 800-meter runner to win the award this season. Juliette Whittaker from Mount de Sales MD, who broke the national high school record in the event, won the girls award last week. 

Flatt's achievements were shaped in some respects by the COVID-19 pandemic, which shut down the 2020 track season when he was a sophomore. 

Flatt counts one important race as a freshman in 2019, when he finished second at the Kentucky state meet, and no meaningful races in 2020. 

In 2021, Flatt was confined to Kentucky by travel restrictions, but did make it out once to go race in Seattle for Brooks. 

In 2022, with a competitive, hungry mindset, opportunities opened up. He won the New Balance Nationals Indoor title in New York in March, running 1:48.86. 

Then, he got his first taste of competiting against college runners when he ran on his future home track at Ole Miss, clocking 1:47.04 on April 9 at the Joe Walker Invitational.

He lowered his best to 1:46.51, barely missing Granville's record, at the Trials of Miles event May 20 in New York. 

The record proved elusive over the final month of the season, when Flatt felt ready to take it. 

At New Balance Nationals Outdoor in Philadelphia he raced the clock at Franklin Field and came up even closer with 1:46.48. 

And then, in Eugene at Hayward Field, Flatt advanced to the semifinal round of the men's 800 meters. In his first-round race, Flatt ran 1:46.53 and coasted into the finish line. 

"I know what I did wrong, I've assessed it many times," Flatt said. "I can live with it and move on."

Flatt's competitive streak is something that burns inside him on and off the track. 

"I'm a competitor," he said. "Anything I do, whether it's playing cornhole with my family or out here running for a national championship ... if you're not out here trying to be the best at it, why are you doing it? I'm not here to waste time. It's not something I do just for fun. This is like a job to me."

Flatt will take that dedication and confidence into college, as well as the belief that he belongs in the debate as the greatest, alongside Granville. 

"He ran the national record and I ran (close) however many times," he said. "The debate's there."