(Northport High School - New York)
Class of 2015
Last year, Mikey Brannigan always had his Northport teammates in the McGowan twins to push him in races. The trio made history in being the first high school trio of teammates to break 9 minutes in the two mile in the same race at New Balance Nationals and ended their season winning the Brooks PR Invitational 4xmile relay (Brannigan on anchor) with the second fastest time in US history. Branigan won his first national title this past June with a 8:53 victory in New Balance Nationals two mile, while dropping down to 4:07 as the New York state runner-up in the 1600. In a 3 mile time time trial with many of the nation's best runners in attendance at the Nike Elite Camp just a few weeks ago in Oregon, Brannigan finished ahead of them all with a time well under 15 minutes. It will be interesting to see if Brannigan stays the team route going to NXN with a Northport team taking two big loses with the McGowan twins or explores the individual glory found with Foot Locker. Brannigan, who is autistic, might be one of the best feel good human interests stories across the country in the sport with how much success he's enjoyed already and will continue to have this fall.