SJND grad Cooper Teare takes first, breaks 42-year Arcadia speed record 

St. Joseph Notre Dame (SJND) long-distance runner Cooper Teare continued his impressive 2017 track-and-field season with a pair of first-place finishes earlier this month. 

The first came at the Arcadia Invitational at Arcadia High on Saturday, April 8. Teare blew past the other participants in the 3,200-meter meet. He finished with a time of 8:41.46. Not only was it a personal record for the senior, he broke an Arcadia Invitational record that stood for more than 40 years. 

Thom Hunt from Patrick Henry High of San Diego held the previous record when he finished with a time of 8:42.30 in 1976. Teare’s time also broke the North Coast Section record of 8:43.5 that Richard Kimball of De La Salle set in 1974.

Teare kept a steady pace throughout the meet. He stayed at the front of the pack for the majority of the time, never falling behind second place. At the 7:30-minute mark Teare made his push. He took back the lead from Finn Gessner of Madison La Follette High in Madison, Wisc. The gap between Teare and the rest of the field grew wider and wider as the race continued. 

Teare won the race by almost two seconds. Austin Hindman from Lafayette High of Wildwood, Mo. came in second place with a time of 8:43.40. Casey Clinger of American Fork in Utah finished third with a time of 8:44.70. Callum Bolger from San Luis Obispo finished fourth with a time of 8:45.10. Gessner finished seventh with a time of 8:47.57. 

Thirty-three participants from 15 states competed in the long-distance meet. Last year, Teare finished sixth at Arcadia with a time of 8:54.14. 

Teare followed his strong performance at Arcadia with an equally extraordinary showing at the Mt. San Antonio College Relays on Friday, April 14. The SJND standout finished first in the one-mile competition with a time of 4:00.16. It was the 10th fastest time for a high school student-athlete ever, according to milesplit.com. 

His time was more than 10 seconds better than Bolger, who finished second with a time of 4:10.46. Teare’s time was a personal record. His previous best time in an outdoor one-mile race was last July at the Nike Elite Camp in Oregon when he ran in 4:06.79.

After Bolger, a pair of Claremont High distance runners took third and fourth place. Ryan Renken finished with a time of 4:11.02, while Owen Bishop finished his one-mile race with a time of 4:11.54. Liam Anderson from Redwood High of Larkspur rounded out the top five with a time of 4:16.74.

The relays took place at El Camino College in El Camino, Calif.