Cade Flatt Will Makes His Ole Miss Debut At Millrose Games; Five-Time U.S. Champ Clayton Murphy Looks To Accelerate His Season

Story by Cole Pressler for DyeStat

In an Ole Miss freshman dorm room, there’s one sentence written on a whiteboard.

“Cade Flatt is a super talent with zero work ethic, and he’ll crumble under a proper college program.”

Flatt reads that sentence to himself every morning.

He internalizes it as he gears up for his collegiate debut Saturday at the biggest indoor track meet in the world: the Millrose Games.

“A lot of people in track and field are just boring,” Flatt said. “No one wants to hear ‘em talk, no one wants to hear what they have to say. No one cares if they win or lose. Track and field needs a guy like me.”

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Also pinned to Flatt’s bedroom wall is a list of names — 800-meter runners he wants to “take care of” this year. A list that “no one wants to be on.” 

He wouldn’t say whether Clayton Murphy is on that list.

The two-time Olympian Murphy will face the 19-year old head-to-head for the first time this weekend at Millrose.

“They’re not cut from the same mold,” Murphy said, of Flatt and the other “young guys” rising up on the middle distance scene.

At 27, Murphy is already one of the most accomplished American 800m runners ever — Olympic bronze medalist, Pan American Games champion and a six-time U.S. champion.

Flatt doesn’t even know how old Murphy is.

“He’s really mature for whatever age he is,” Flatt said. “He’s one to look up to, one to get information from.”

Different Approaches

Murphy hails from the cornfields of New Paris, Ohio. Flatt grew up at the end of a rolling road in the middle of the woods in Benton, Kentucky. 

But while Murphy logged miles in soccer and cross country, Flatt was raised on Sunday church, basketball and the Rocky movies on repeat. 

Murphy showed pigs from his family farm on the weekend. He collected coins.

Flatt did pushups and situps alone in his room after watching Rocky II. (It has the best training montage of any movie, he said.)

“I was never just content with being some guy,” Flatt said. “I was never content with being outworked.”

Before enrolling at Ole Miss in the fall, Flatt would never run more than six miles a week.

All he had was speed. It’s the only drug Flatt needs. It empowers him to be the most unapologetic 19-year old in America. He’ll slam the finishing tape on the ground after a win if he doesn’t like the time on the clock.

That speed got him three hundredths of a second away from the 800-meter high school national record. 1:46.48. It got him signing trading cards with his face on them. He wrote “best ever” on his bathroom mirror in Kentucky.

Flatt used to sit at home with his dad watching Murphy run in elite 800 races. 

“Now, we’re not watching for entertainment,” Flatt said. “We’re studying. We gotta hunt these guys.”

Murphy doesn’t feel the need to create a big name for himself off the track, and he likes being a role model for younger runners — runners like Flatt.

“I was almost thrust into my professional career without much of a role model or mentor,” Murphy said. “Now, I look at myself as a role model and a leader for high school and young athletes, trying to set an example for them.”

Murphy’s high school PR was eight seconds slower than Flatt’s. He wasn’t on anybody’s radar and decided to go to Akron University. No superstar athlete had ever come out of Akron except for LeBron James — and he didn’t even go to college there.

But Murphy developed quickly, dropping his PR by seconds at a time and winning the 2016 Olympic Trials by his junior year.

“From day one I always had the persona to win,” Murphy said. He sounds like Flatt, but less forceful.

Murphy left the family farm behind after graduating. He moved to Portland, where he could rev his Mercedes around the downtown city blocks.

Despite all the medals and titles, Murphy has won just two races since his 2021 Olympic Trials victory. That’s the nature of track and field: one year you’re the best guy in America over two laps and the next you’re getting outkicked by college kids. Sometimes, greatness is just a train stop.

“I don’t see any end that’s very near,” Murphy said. “I’ve understood and respected the fact that I’m becoming a veteran on the circuit.”

Murphy said the 800 is going through a transition period like it did from 2015 through 2018, when he and others, like Donavan Brazier, surpassed an aging generation of mid-distance stars: Nick Symmonds, Duane Solomon, Andrew Wheating — names that ruled the event when Flatt was a child.

Time comes for everybody, especially the veterans.

When he was cranking out wins, Murphy’s biggest weapon was not caring about what other people think. Now that he has a son — born last fall — maybe that unbreakable spirit is back.

“I know that the older I get, the more guys who are younger than me who are trying to take the spot and do what I’ve done in my career,” Murphy said. “But there’s still a lot left in the tank.”

'Both Winners'

Murphy invited Flatt to a sit-down conversation with him before the USATF Championships last summer. During the talk, which was posted on YouTube, Flatt was more reserved than usual — eyes open, mouth shut. He listened to Murphy’s advice.

And Murphy listened to Flatt’s. He respected the high schooler for running in the senior race at USATF when he could have cleaned up at the U20 meet.

“The way he put himself out there chasing the records, to me, was a little bit of a wake-up call,” Murphy said. “Sometimes you have to run with a little more grit, not just get in line and run fast.”

He almost sounds a little jealous.

“We’re both winners at the end of the day,” Flatt said of Murphy. “We both have the big things on our mind, not the small wins. Both of us go to compete with the best guys and see who’s the baddest man.”

Murphy said Millrose is just an opportunity to build momentum into the outdoor season — and he’d like to run close to his PR. 

What he really means — and what he didn’t say — is that he wants to prove himself. He’s never won at Millrose, and what better way to say “I’m back” than a decisive victory at the biggest meet in the world?

Flatt, as always, was more outspoken about his intentions.

“I like the attention,” Flatt said. “All eyes on me. That’s what I’m doing this for.”