Ryan Schoppe And 3200m Boys Were On Record Paces

Rare Company

This year, there was an opportunity for history being made in the 3200. We were on 3200m watch with Ryan Schoppe to see if he was going to be able to tie UIL state meet records by winning three consecutive 3200m state titles.

That has only happened on three other occasions in the state of Texas. The boys 3200m was first competed in the 1980-1981 season. It only took until 1984 through 1986 when Ruben Reina of San Antonio Jay (9:05.50, 9:00.10, 8:58.60) was able to win his three UIL 5A 3200m state titles. Reina was equally successful in the 1600m in those years (4:13.70, 4:10.70, 4:09.00).

At the same time, Midlothian's Joey Chapman was doing the same thing as Reina. Chapman won the 1984 and 1985 UIL 3A 3200m titles and then added the the 1986 UIL 4A state title the following year.

It wasn't until the 2005 - 2007 seasons that Colby Lowe of Southlake Carroll (SLC) was able to become the third athlete to win three 3200m state titles. Lowe added 1600m wins in 2007 (4:09.20) and 2008 (4:06.87).

It was a goal for Schoppe to join that rare company in 2020.

To win three consecutive state titles, means a young runner has to beat upper class runners to have a chance to do so; that's what all of these runners were able to do. Schoppe did it by winning the 3200m as a sophomore. He qualified for the state cross country meet as a freshman and sophomore, but without real impactful performances. He did qualify for the state track meet in the 3200m during his freshman campaign finishing 6th overall with a 9:26.87.

Schoppe's sophomore season was his initial state title and he ran an elite 9:09.26 to get it. He doubled back last year with another outstanding time of 8:52.73, which is the fourth fastest 3200m ever ran at the UIL state meet.

Boys 3200m Assault

That's just the tip of the iceberg of how fast the 3200m in the state of Texas has become. Eric Henry of The Woodlands held the state record for 30 years from 1987 - 2017. It wasn't until Reed Brown (8:50.43) from SLC and Sam Worley (8.51.44) New Braunfels Canyon were able to eclipse that mark.

Related: 2020 Boys 3200m Leaderbords/Rankings

However, there have been nine sub 9:00 3200s run by Texans since 2015, that includes a 8:56.99 and 20th fastest All-Time 3200m by Judson Greer of Melissa. Joining Greer, there are three other runners who have run under 9:10 on the 2020 season and there are 25 boys who have run 9:25s and under.

Greer's broke the UIL 4A 3200m state record last season with a 9:06.00 has already displayed signs of lowering that by already having nearly running 10 seconds faster this season.

Here are the 50 All-Time boys track 3200m performances by Texans.