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American Fork relay team breaks national record

Posted at 10:35 PM, Apr 10, 2017
and last updated 2017-04-11 09:47:39-04

AMERICAN FORK, Utah -- Four American Fork distance runners set a new national high school record in the 4x1600 meter relay on Friday at the Arcadia Invitational in California. The Caveman were led by three All-Americans; two-time cross country national champion Casey Clinger, Patrick Parker and McKay Johns.

“There has been national track and field people who have declared that they are fastest high school trio at one school in U.S. history,” said American Fork head coach Timo Mostert.

They went to the Arcadia Invitational with the goal of breaking the national record, that had lasted 40 before it was broken last year. First up was Casey’s younger brother Carson.

“It was a lot of pressure,” said Carson. “having my brother on the team is pretty cool. Being a sophomore I’m definitely not the fastest, but being with these guys, they’re fun guys.”

Carson did his part, keeping the Caveman in it before handing it off to McKay, who broke away from the pack with a split time of 4:08.

“It was fun,” said McKay. “It was awesome to be able to go out there and pass some guys, to show everyone what American Fork has.”

Patrick ran the third leg in 4:05 and Casey closed it out with a 4:02, breaking the old record by 11 seconds with a new mark of 16:41:30.

“It’s definitely one of the top things that I have ever done, probably the top,” said Casey. “Just being a part of it with my team and accomplishing it with my little brother on the team and my best friends it’s just a dream come true to know that we can put our mark in history.”

“It’s one for the record books, definitely,” said Patrick. “We put in that work and that energy and that effort to try to break that record and to have it work out for us is even better. I don’t know how long the record will go for, but to be able to say I was a national record holder is just amazing and to do it with my friends brings it over to the top for me.”