Nearly a national record holder, Butler’s Drew Griffith running the best he ever has

By: Chris Harlan
Saturday, February 24, 2024 | 11:48 AM

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Drew Griffith ran two miles in a historic time, faster than the all-time indoor best for high school boys, but the Butler senior’s name won’t appear in any national record book.

While running last weekend at an invitational meet hosted by Notre Dame, Griffith won the 2-mile race in 8 minutes, 38.67 seconds, which was nearly five-tenths of a second faster than the record of 8:39.15 set in 2013 by Edward Cheserek of St. Benedict’s Prep in New Jersey.

But because Griffith’s race was run on a 320-meter indoor track longer than most others, his time won’t replace Cheserek’s in the record books.

“It’s definitely a little bit of a bummer that it doesn’t actually count,” Griffith said. “But I actually knew it probably wouldn’t count even if I did break it before I even ran the race.”

Most indoor tracks are only 200 meters and banked. It’s believe that the elongated nature of Notre Dame’s track and others like it would give runners an advantage.

“On a 320-meter track like that you have less turn, which in theory makes if faster,” Griffith said, “because you’re running in a straight line for a longer period of time.”

The reigning PIAA cross country champion, Griffith is also a Notre Dame recruit, so he was running on his future college track. But regardless of whether he set a national record or not, Griffith said he’s excited to be running the best he ever has.

He’ll try to win a state indoor title in the mile at the PTFCA championship meet Sunday at Penn State. He’s the defending state indoor champion in that event.

In a couple of weeks, Griffith said, he might take another shot at Cheserek’s record. He hasn’t decided which event he’ll run at New Balance Nationals Indoor — the mile or two miles. That national meet, the finale for his indoor season, is March 7-10 in Boston.

When Cheserek set the record 11 years ago, he broke a mark of 8:40 that had stood since 1964. So, Griffith is in rare territory.

“I had thought about (breaking) it, especially since last year when I ran 8:48,” Griffith said. “I was kind of thinking about that record a little coming into this season, thinking that if I got into really good shape, maybe I could take a crack at it.”

Running became Griffith’s primary sport only three years ago. He was a swimmer, but said he gave up that sport and focused on running in the summer before his sophomore year.

In cross country, he was the state runner-up in 2021 and ’22 before winning PIAA gold this fall. He was named the Gatorade boys cross country runner of the year for Pennsylvania earlier this month.

He already has set some lofty personal goals for outdoor season. He said he’d like to break the four-minute mile and possibly finish faster than 8 minutes, 30 seconds in the 3,200 meters.

“Those are goals of mine, but most of all I want to have fun,” Griffith said. “Last season I got hurt a little and wasn’t able to enjoy it as much, so I just want to finish out this senior season with a good end to the career.”

A slight calf strain bothered him a year ago, an ailment he said was probably the result of his travel for campus visits. But he said he’s now fully healthy.

At states last spring, Griffith took second in the 1,600 meters and third in the 3,200.

“I’ve been feeling really good recently,” he said. “I’m looking forward to trying to keep this going to outdoor. Hopefully, I can maintain in this kind of shape and maybe even get a little faster.”

Griffith maybe isn’t a national record holder, but that remarkable run at Notre Dame did make him stop and reflect.

“It was pretty crazy,” he said. “I couldn’t have even imagined running that fast of a time a couple of years ago. To be able to go out there and do it is pretty cool.”

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.

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