By Oliver Hinson of DyeStat

Photo by Logan Hannigan-Downs

Every June, dozens of the fastest high school runners in the country flock to Seattle for the Brooks PR Invitational. Last year, two of the six boys events produced meet records and Drew Griffith ran the second-fastest high school 2-mile of all time, an 8:31.46 performance.

Here’s a guide to watching the boys’ events at this year’s edition, which is free to attend at Renton Memorial Stadium and free to watch on Runnerspace.

WATCH THE BROOKS PR INVITATIONAL LIVE SUNDAY ON RUNNERSPACE

Boys 2 Mile - 1:48 pm PT: Is Joe Barrett ready to return to the national spotlight?

Last fall, Joe Barrett, a senior at Christian Brothers Academy in New Jersey, was nearly unstoppable. He won all of his races through the end of November, highlighted by a 14-second win at the NXN Northeast Regional.

During the indoor season, things changed drastically. He managed to scrape together some wins against local competition and finished 10th in the 2-mile at New Balance Nationals Indoor, running 8:57.02, but his indoor campaign wasn’t nearly as dominant as his cross country season.

It wasn’t just a string of bad performances; Barrett’s iron levels were extremely low over the winter. He faced a long road to get back to 100 percent, and he didn’t start his outdoor season until the last weekend of April, when he anchored his CBA squad to a win in the high school distance medley relay at the Penn Relays. He split 4:09.56 in that race, his first sub-4:10 performance of the 2025 calendar year.

Since the Penn Relays, Barrett has been relatively quiet, only racing in New Jersey competitions. Last weekend, he ran 4:14.86 to take second in the 1,600 meters at the NJSIAA Non-Public Group Championships. Heading into Brooks, he owns the fastest personal best in the field at 8:43.26, which he ran at last year’s Arcadia Invitational, but is he sharp enough to take down a slew of runners with sub-8:50 credentials?

Juan Gonzalez is one of those runners, and he is certainly battle-tested; the Fremont NE senior has raced over 20 times in the outdoor season, and he’s won most of those races. In Nebraska, he’s been spectacular, but his only national meet of the season so far has been the Arcadia Invitational, where he finished 18th in the 3,200 meters with a time of 8:51.83.

Mountain Vista CO teammates Benjamin Anderson and Benjamin Adams beat Gonzalez at Arcadia, finishing sixth and seventh, respectively, in 8:46.15 and 8:46.55. Those times represent the second and third fastest personal bests in the field. Anderson and Adams have also raced consistently this spring.

Also look out for Ben Crane and Vincent Recupero, both of whom are Brooks NIL athletes. Crane has run 8:49.02, and Recupero has run 8:52.46.

Boys 400 Meters - 2:25 pm PT: Sidi Njie looks to continue undefeated season

Sidi Nije, a senior at Westlake GA and a Georgia commit, unquestionably has the best credentials heading into this race. Not only does he have the fastest personal best in the field (45.37) and no losses to his name this season, he has two World U20 medals to his name. 

Last year, he won the 400 meters at the USATF U20 Championships and took third at the World Athletics U20 Championships, and he led the United States to a win in the 4x400 meter relay. 

So far, Njie hasn’t faced any serious challenges in the outdoor season, but that will change this weekend. He’ll be lining up against some of the best long sprinters in the country, including Elijah Ferguson (Katy Mayde Creek TX), the Lone Star State’s 6A 400 meter champion. Ferguson has actually run faster than Njie this outdoor season; he ran 45.46 at his regional qualifying meet, while Njie has only run 45.75 (his 45.37 performance came last summer). 

Joshua Shelton (Pearland TX) is another name to look out for. He’s run 45.93 this season, nearly two seconds faster than his season’s best from 2024. With three sub-46 runners in this field, it’s going to be a tight race.

Boys 800 Meters - 2:55 pm: It’s Cooper Lutkhenhaus’ race to lose… or is it?

This race is somewhat of a wild card. On paper, it looks like a one-man show, but it has the potential to be an all-time classic.

The obvious favorite is Cooper Lutkenhaus, the Northwest TX sophomore who, at 16, holds the indoor national record for 800 meters at 1:46.86. He hasn’t lost an 800 race to a non-professional runner since May of 2023, when he was in middle school. In May, he won the 6A 800 at the Texas state meet by over two seconds, running a 1:47.04. He is unquestionably the guy to beat in this event.

That being said, there are two guys in the field with serious chances to win. The first is Tiago Socarras of Belen Jesuit FL. He has the next fastest personal best behind Lutkenhaus at 1:47.66, which he ran to win the Arcadia Invitational on April 12. He’s also run under 1:50 four times this outdoor season.

More importantly, he shows up in the big races. In April he dominated the 800 meters at the Arcadia Invitational, winning by nearly three seconds. Even more impressive, he recorded negative splits, coming through 400 in 55.01 and closing in 52.66. Anyone who runs a 1:47 in that fashion has the capability to go much faster. Given his credentials in big-time races, he’s a prime candidate to hand Lutkenhaus his first high school loss.

The other candidate is Owen Powell. The Mercer Island WA senior is competing in his home state, and this will be his third time running at the Brooks PR Invite. He’s undefeated in the outdoor season, and in February, he broke the high school indoor mile record, clocking 3:56.66 at the BU Terrier DMR Challenge. 

Powell hasn’t run the 800 outside of Washington this year, but he’s definitely in shape to contend in a national race. At the Washington state meet, he broke the 3A meet record with a 1:49.28 performance that looked almost impossibly smooth. He also broke the meet record in the 1,600 meters, running 4:03.68 and closing in roughly 55 seconds.

The last time he faced off against serious competition in the 800 was nearly a year ago at the Portland Track Festival. In that race, he ran 1:48.60 to take 11th place against collegians and pros. Since then, he’s made substantial improvements, lowering his mile personal best by six seconds. 

There is a lot of talent in this field. Bryson Nielsen (Eastmark AZ) had a breakout performance at the Arizona state meet last month, running 1:48.91 to win and beat his personal best by almost two seconds. Robin Lefebvre, the Canadian standout from College Notre-Dame in Montreal, ran 1:48.63 at New Balance Nationals Indoor in March. Everyone else in the field has a personal best under 1:50.

If any of those runners come out on top, though, it will be a major surprise. This race will almost certainly come down to three contenders: Lutkenhaus, the ultra-talented youngster; Powell, the hometown favorite; and Socarras, the clutch championship racer.

Boys 110 Meter Hurdles - 3:15 pm PT: Will the meet record fall again?

Le’Ezra Brown (Dudley NC) will likely be the one to answer this question. He’s currently ranked US#2 in this event with a season’s best of 13.21 (+2.1 m/s wind), and his wind-legal mark isn’t much slower at 13.25. 

This outdoor season, he’s put together several impressive performances, including wins at the Florida Relays, the All-American Track Classic, and the North Carolina state meet. He could add to his accolades with a win here, and the meet record of 13.31, set last year by Karamoko Sacko, is certainly within reach.

He’s not the only one that could break it; freshman phenom Jasir Fontenot has run 13.31 in legal wind this year, and last weekend, he ran 13.21 with a 2.4 m/s tailwind to take home a gold medal at the California state meet. Sutton Flint (Liberty Issaquah WA) is another strong contender; he’s run 13.44, and he beat Brown in the 60-meter hurdles in March. So did Zacchaeus Brocks (Detroit Catholic Central MI), who is also in the field this weekend. 

Boys 100 Meters - 3:35 pm PT: The Brayden Williams show

It takes a certain amount of confidence to call your shot. If anyone is going to do it, though, it makes sense that it would be Brayden Williams.

On a recent DyeStat Discussion, Williams, a senior at Duncanville TX, said he would run 9.96 in this race, which would obliterate the meet record of 10.23, set by Udodi Onwuzurike in 2021. If he runs that with legal wind, it would be his first eligible sub-10 performance. He’s run under 10 seconds with excessive wind three times this outdoor season, including a 9.82 performance with a 6.0 m/s tailwind. 

Williams’ wind-legal personal best is 10.01, which he ran at the Texas state meet to take second in the 6A division. The next fastest personal best in the field is 10.17, belonging to Dillon Mitchell (C.E. King TX).

Aside from the Texas standouts, the field is populated by a flurry of guys who have run around the 10.30 mark, including Nicholas Altheimer (Curtis WA), the Washington representative for this race. After taking home three gold medals at the Washington state meet last weekend, he said he was looking forward to Brooks because he wanted to show that his home state deserves to be taken seriously in the sprints. 

“Everyone acts like Washington doesn’t have fast individuals,” Altheimer said in a post-race interview after his win in the 200 meters. “It’s really just because of our weather. Other than that, we have people that can really slide. To go out there and (perform well) on a different stage, it’s just showing people what we already got.”

Boys 1 Mile - 4:12 pm PT: Corbin Coombs and TJ Hansen face off again

Corbin Coombs (Organ Mountain NM) and TJ Hansen (Freeland MI) have competed against each other several times this season in high-profile mile races, and this is yet another edition.

Through the indoor season, they both approached four minutes, but couldn’t quite break the barrier. They finally did it at RunningLane in Alabama in late May; Hansen won that race in 3:59.02, while Coombs took second in 3:59.23. 

As of Thursday, Hansen leads 3-2 in five 2025 matchups. At the HOKA Festival of Miles on Wednesday, Hansen ran 4:00.69 for third and Coombs ran 4:03.29 for ninth.

That being said, it could also tire them out. Brooks PR is only three days later, so with a fast race in their legs and possible jet lag, they may not be at 100 percent. In that case, there are plenty of guys in the field with good enough credentials to take them down. 

Soheib Dissa (Newtown CT) comes in with a personal best of 4:04.80 and some notable performances; he took fourth in the high school mile at both the Millrose Games and the Penn Relays. Aiden Monistere (Parkview Baptist LA) has run 4:05.92, and he was second in the mile and 2-mile at New Balance Nationals Indoor. 

Additionally, Kade Brownell (Mt. Spokane WA), Caleb Ten Pas (Des Moines Christian IA) and Brian Burns (Bentonville AR) have all run under 4:05. 

Any of these athletes could be in position to win, and if it goes out quick enough, Simeon Birnbaum’s meet record of 3:59.51 from 2022 could go down.