Dorman Distance Carnival Elite Mile Fields, Preview

2024 South Carolina track and field

Feb 15, 2024

See the elite mile fields for Saturday's Dorman Distance Carnival below the meet preview.

2024 Dorman Distance Carnival Preview

By Robert Urban, meet director

The Dorman Distance Carnival, now entering its ninth year, is a unique opening outdoor track meet that follows a format to showcase many of the best high school distance runners in the Palmetto State and beyond. The meet started in 2016 with only seven teams, but has now grown to 60 schools represented and over 800 athletes.

The meet is billed as a "scrimmage," but don't let that fool you. In essence, this meet has become the "go to" early season opener for many top distance programs and runners in South Carolina. This year's event has been moved to Byrnes High School due to the ongoing renovation of the track facility at Dorman High School.

The Dorman Distance Carnival features eight different events ranging from 400-meters to 3200-meters, with the marquee events being the Boys and Girls Elite 800 and Elite Mile races at the end of the day. At our track meet we race a true one mile race...an extra 30 feet added to the typical high school 1600-meter run.

You might ask yourself why are we racing a true mile? The simple answer is that the mile is a classic distance that has a rich tradition in track; it is also a distance that even people outside of the running community can relate to. Pretty much everyone understands the concept of one mile.

As our event has grown, with it the level of competition has also risen significantly. Once again we have many of the very best runners in the Palmetto State and the Southeast toeing the line. Our neighboring states of North Carolina and Georgia are sending us some standout runners. Every race in this year's competition is loaded with a quality field of runners.

This year's Girls' Elite Mile features seven runners who have personal bests of 5:09 or better. Last year's champion, Abigail White (Chapin), returns to defend with a 4:59 personal best to her credit this year. However, Alivia Cleveland (Fort Mill), comes in with a best of 4:54 from last spring's 5A State Championship, a title she claimed. Mia Royall (Nation Ford) and Sofi Alexander (Unattached, N.C.) are seeded at 5:01 and 5:02 respectively. Both have posted some very strong recent indoor races.

These four girls, racing smart and working together, could put the meet record of 4:57 by Zariel Maachia (N.Y.) in jeopardy of being broken. Add another three girls with previous times under 5:10...Caroline Timms (T.L. Hanna), Miah Johnson (Unattached) and middle school phenom Emma Balaban (Unattached, N.C.) and we will find out who is fit and ready to make a statement for the first outdoor meet of 2024. Could we see several girls under the meet record of 4:57???

Not to be outdone, the Boys' Elite Mile is loaded. Our entire field of 20 is seeded between 4:11-4:34. Knox Young (Greenville) is our top seed and of course everyone is wondering how his recovery from his injury in the fall has progressed.

Young has the top seed with a 4:11 personal best. Tate Shore (Unattached, N.C.) recently took the Mondo Elite indoor mile in 4:16 on the flat, 200m track at JDL FastTrack. Garrett Brown (South Pointe), Jackson Wyatt (Eastside), and Elijah Poore (Walhalla) have all run 4:21 or faster. Jackson Tuck (Greer Middle College), Kaleb Burroughs (West Florence, Ben Coler (Greenville), and Brennan Kaplan (Unattached) and others could also be in the mix.

It truly could be anyone's race, but I expect that the victory will come to the athlete who races with a combination of patience and intelligence. Is the meet record of 4:16 in danger of being broken this year? Absolutely...the question might be, by how much?

Our Girls' Elite 800 features eight girls with seed times of 2:23 or better, and only seconds separating them. Abigail White (Chapin) is our top seed at 2:17. Keep your eye on the meet record of 2:19.59, set in 2022, because we could see a new one set on Saturday.

Not to be outdone, the Boys' Elite 800 is loaded up with four runners sporting personal bests under two minutes, with another four who have bests right at the two-minute time. Knox Eaton (Spartanburg), last year's 5A state runner-up in this event, comes in with the top seed at 1:56 with Chance Bloodworth (Walhalla) seeded just behind him, also with a 1:56. Our meet record of 1:56.03 is solid, but with the right conditions, and a smart-paced effort, it could be threatened.

Our other events have strong entries as well.

400: Two boys with personal bests under sub 50 or better are in this field...Alex Smith (Fountain Inn), 49.52 best and Xavier Dixon (Nation Ford) 48.36 best are your top seeds in lanes four and five.

In last year's girls 400, we saw Olicia Lucas set a blazing new record of 56.94. We have three entrants seeded 57-58 so if conditions are right, we could see a challenge to the meet record. Elia Jane Osade (Asheville Christian Academy) is the number one seed with a 57.38 to her credit.

3200: Our 3,200-meter races continue to get stronger. The boys' race is loaded, with at least 10 boys capable of going under the 10 minute barrier. Leading the entries is senior Elijah Poore (Walhalla) with a personal best of 9:17. Isaac Campbell (Fort Mill) has gone under 9:30 and Alex McCaskill (Nation Ford), Chappell Martin (Greer Middle College), Noah Yarborough (Dorman) and Tanner Long (Fort Mill) have sub 10 two miles to their credit.

Our girls' race is simply outstanding with 10 girls who have run the two mile distance in 12:01, or faster. Ashby Williams (Daniel) comes in with the top seed at 10:59. Look for Georgia Babcock (Chapin) seeded at 11:11, and Amelia Gray (Greenville) seeded at 11:13 to make it an honest race. The meet record of 11:35 is definitely under threat with those three athletes, and others.

Several meet records could be in jeopardy. The weather outlook is sunny and mid 50's by the afternoon, so our chances of seeing some outstanding performances is going up.

There is a $6 charge for spectators and the entry process is via a digital ticket and a card reader will be available as well. For a digital ticket, go to: https://www.hubcitylocker.com/events-1/byrnesathleticsfeb17.

Athletes, fans and spectators are reminded that this year's Dorman Distance Carnival will be held at Byrnes High School in Duncan.

Sponsors for this year's event are Run In, RSN Promotions and Urban Announcing.

All proceeds from the meet benefit the Dorman and Byrnes track and field programs.