Colonel Crawford's Chad Johnson leads the national rankings with his 14:54.88 result.
Seven returning under 4:13. Seven back under 9:20. Eight have run sub-15:20.
Based on these 2016-17 numbers, boys' distance running in the Buckeye state will be at an incredibly high level in the next three seasons. Colonel Crawford's Chad Johnson captured a trio of state titles as a junior last year and is in each of the aforementioned groups returning to drop their bests during the next 10 months.
Ohio MileSplit's Phil Grove paid a visit last week to North Robinson in the heart of Crawford County and northcentral Ohio for a quick Q&A with the Eagle senior. He opened his senior year today (Saturday, August 26th) on his home course in the Colonel Crawford Early Bird Invitational, christening the new 5,000-meter layout with a PR of 14 minutes, 54 seconds and the No. 1 time in the U.S. thus far.
In addition to a full slate of 5K's, Chad plans to take official visits to Iowa State and Eastern Kentucky this fall, with others possible.
