Nease senior Rheinhardt Harrison is the defending state champion in the 1600 and 3200 meter run in the 4A classification and a state record holder at the full mile and 3200-meter distance, but we may have seen him run his last races on Florida soil any time soon in those races.
After running a new personal best of 1:48.05 for 800 meters this past week at the Bartram Trail Thursday Spikes Night to move up to #2 all-time in Florida high school history behind only Andres Arroyo at 1:47.79, Harrison has opted to go all-in for that event in the upcoming FHSAA championship series at the district, region, and state series.
Certainly, the pressure has been on him the last two years internally and externally to break 4 minutes for the mile after running 4:01 in the summer of his sophomore year and those opportunities and better competition should come in the post-season.
Now the focus shifts to chasing after the state record in the 800-meter run as he only needs to shave off 26 hundredths of a second off his most recent performance in the event with three tries coming up at his district meet (4A District 2) on April 26th at Flagler Palm Coast and regional meet (4A Region 1) on May 7th back at Flagler Palm Coast before the FHSAA 4A State Track Finals on May 14th in Gainesville at the University of Florida.
Multiple factors have ultimately pushed Harrison to go all-in with the 800 over the next few weeks. The success and joy of racing an event like the 800-meter run, which is a much easier event to blast out a fast time solo compared to the 1600 and 3200 is certainly a top motivating factor.
Another factor is this year's state meet schedule which there is limited rest for distance athletes to double or triple between their races. Each classification will get their own day at the state meet venue this year at the University of Florida and with the most heats being 1-2 for each event, an athlete's second or third race quickly comes up.
It has also been a tough year for Harrison dealing with some of the rules, sanctions, and eligibility threats that exist competing in the FHSAA sanctioned season.
Despite the VA Showcase indoor track meet in January being advertised as and sanctioned by the FHSAA as an official event that athletes and teams within the state association can compete in, a local rival school athletic director reported Rheinhardt Harrison for competing in the meet wearing a school uniform (which is allowable and actually required for any meet that is officially sanctioned by the FHSAA). The assumption by local administrators was the meet was not sanctioned and Harrison was competing unattached but wearing a team uniform.
Nonetheless, Nease High School was somehow still fined $400 and put on an one-year probation. If the violation was not self-reported, the Harrison family and Nease program were under the impression from the local administrators that Rheinhardt could have potentially lost his eligibility to compete in the FHSAA outdoor championship season entirely. The irony is that there were many other teams and individuals from Florida who did the exact same thing competing in the sanctioned portion of the meet and representing their high schools officially in team uniforms and seem to have not been targeted or punished.
Thankfully, the FHSAA rescinded that fine, and punishment mistakenly applied once the situation was presented to track administrator Ed Thompson who has been a great asset in pushing for indoor track events to become sanctioned recently. Florida is not too far off making indoor track an official sport in future years after the new indoor track facility in Gainesville is built and hosting meets.
The changes when it comes to the sanctioning of scholastic indoor meets is a recently new development that still many high school coaches, athletic directors, and even some officials at FHSAA were not fully aware of this past year holding old assumptions.
With that situation resolved, there was also another roadblock though that Rheinhardt Harrison ran into this spring. While the family was on vacation in California, Rheinhardt hopped into a 800-meter race in California at the Arcadia Distance Challenge on March 19th to blast out a 1:51.92 to win easily.
After having such a great experience racing there and also knowing that real major event with the nation's best to be hosted on the same track in early April in the Arcadia Invitational for a potential fast mile or 3200, the Harrison's discovered that a second trip to California would not be allowed as there is an FHSAA rule that prohibits athletes and teams from competing in more than one sanctioned event out-of-state beyond any border states to Florida during the season.
The rule exists not for just the sports of cross country and track, but all sports in the FHSAA to prevent essentially an athlete or team to be a traveling roadshow competing in events across the country, while never competing in any events locally in Florida. It would be a heavy lift to make the change since it would require a change for all sports, which are certainly justifiable reasons for the rule to exist and also good motives for a future modification as well.
When not fighting the rule book, Rheinhardt Harrison has also been fighting the wind as the two times that he has had an opportunity to race the full mile distance on Florida soil in a lively atmosphere and crowd against some of the top preps in the state, mother nature has spoiled any sub 4-minute attempts.
Whether it was last March at the Set Goals Not Limits Distance Showcase in Satellite Beach or just weeks ago running in the Bolles Mile Showcase in Jacksonville, wind gusts sustaining in the 15 to 25 MPH range for both prevented any realistic shot for him to chasing after the 4-minute barrier. He ran 4:06 last spring at Satellite trying to push through the wind, while he gave up trying to fight it at Bolles this month and cruised it in ultimately for a 4:14 victory.
Rheinhardt Harrison also beats to his own drum when deciding which races to compete in and which races to skip that might be more commonly accepted as the events to go to. As a result, he has missed out on some great competition locally and nationally that turned out to be some outstanding races.
He skipped out and scratched last minute in running at the FSU Relays, which saw the deepest 3200 meter run ever run with 5 Florida boys breaking 9 minutes for the 3200-meter run. Instead of running the Florida Relays, which had the fastest and deepest 1600 and 800 meter races of the season, Harrison instead race a solo 800 meter time in a smaller local meet on the same weekend.
Harrison could have also run in the cross country season post-season at the Eastbay or Running Lane National Championships as well as competed at any of the indoor national championships on the East Coast this past March, but declined them all. The many loyal fans and obviously some detractors were disappointed to not see Rheinhardt compete in any of those high-profile events.
The one blessing of Rheinhardt's decision to skip some of these high profile events it has obviously opened the door for the spotlight to be shown on other great star runners in Florida such as the group of 5 that went sub 9 at FSU Relays in Nick Carpenter, Patrick Koon, Ethan Lipham, Brayden Seymour, and Michael Toppi. They could have been viewed as afterthoughts in that race if Harrison was there and dropped something incredibly like a sub 8:40 performance.
Seymour and Toppi also are now going to get a better opportunity of winning state titles now in the 4A classification with Harrison opting to skip the 1600 and 3200 with his focus solely on the 800 down the stretch.
The process might be different, but it has certainly worked for Rheinhardt Harrison and he certainly is leaving a lot in the tank when it comes to running beyond high school to tap his full potential. Still one of our favorite race memories and a testament to his character is not a race in which he broke another record, but one in which he helped pace someone else to one in last spring's Golden South Series #3 meet as he guided Caroline Lehman of Cambridge Christian to a new 10:14 Florida high school girls two mile state record.
Certainly, Harrison has thrilled us locally in Florida over the years with many of his historic all-time great performances as well as the many victories that he has enjoyed often appearing to win with such ease and effortless at times. We may have to wait a while to find another runner like him, so enjoy his presence while it lasts in his next few races of Florida soil.
Before he heads off to Oregon in the fall, he still has a few more final acts left and we are hoping it includes some more history to be made. State record in the 800 next? We shall see. It would be remarkable for one distance runner to leave high school with a state record at all 3 distances (800/mile/3200).
We will be live-streaming his next 3 meets at the district, region, and state level here on fl.milesplit.com.
