Henry Wynne was a cross country and track star at Staples who is one of the greatest high school runners in state history.
Now he is a world record holder.
Wynne came through with a fantastic anchor leg as a member of a distance medley relay team which set the new world record one day after his 29th birthday on April 19 at the Oregon Relays.
Wynne ran his 1,600-meter anchor leg in a sizzling time of 3:52.64 to secure the new record and enable he and his three teammates to break the old record by almost a full second at the famed Hayward Field on the University of Oregon campus.
Wynne and his Brooks Beasts Track Club teammates – Brannon Kidder, Brandon Miller, and Isaiah Harris – clocked in with a time of 9:14.58 to break the previous record of 9:15.50 set by a United States team at the 2015 World Relay championships.
A couple months ago the four runners had targeted this meet in the very early portion of the outdoor track season as an opportunity to take a legitimate run at the world record. Despite having nary any racing competition on the track to push them at this Friday night meet, they forged ahead to push themselves to optimum performances and achieve their goal.
The distance medley relay has a combined distance of 4,000 meters with the distances of each relay leg in the order of a 1,200-meter leg, a 400, an 800, and Wynne’s 1,600 anchor leg.
Kidder got the team off to within striking distance of the world record with his time of 2:49.6 on that opening 1,200 leg. Miller and Harris knew the general times they needed to achieve, and they did just. Miller ran his 400-meter leg in 46.6, Harris took the baton, and a loud crowd spurred him on during is last lap to a 1:45.75 on his 800 leg.
That put Wynne in the position where he needed to get his time down to about the low 3:50’s on that final 1,600 leg. And then he went and did his thing.
Wynne surged hard down the backstretch of the last lap to catch up to the pace lights which light up on the outside of the track to indicate the exact spots for world record pace and then he steadily pulled away from those lit lights with his strong finishing kick in the last 200 meters.
“It was pressure, but such a fun atmosphere,” Wynne said to the www.dyestat.com website reporter.
“Seeing Henry, that last 200, pulling away from the lights – it was so hype for me and the boys,” Miller said. “It was a dream come true.”
When Wynne was at Staples High School, the 2013 graduate was the indoor national champion in the mile when he won it by 1.16 seconds with his time of 4:11.73 at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston on Feb. 2, 2013.
That was a major highlight among so many of Wynne’s high school achievements under the guidance of longtime veteran Staples cross country and track coach Laddie Lawrence.
During his junior year, Wynne won the 1,000-meter run at both the 2012 Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Boys Class LL Indoor Track and Field Championships and a week later at the CIAC State Open to help lead the Wreckers to two state championships. A few months later at the end of the outdoor track and field season Wynne swept the 800-meter run (1:54.08) and 1,600 (4:12.73) at the State Open.
That great junior year laid the foundation for his senior year when Wynne won the CIAC Class LL and State Open races in cross country, swept the 1,000 and 1,600 indoors at the State Open, and during the outdoor season he set a State Open record in the 800 (1:50.63) after he won the 1,600 in 4:13.82.
And then it was on to a stellar college career as a Virginia Cavalier when Wynne was the NCAA indoor mile champion (4:06.63) and was selected the ACC Men’s Track Performer of the Year during both the indoor and outdoor seasons in his junior year in 2016.
Wynne got his personal-best indoor mile time of 3:51.26 in Boston on March 3, 2019. Wynne ran a 3:52.62 mile in Seattle on Feb. 23 six days after he placed third in the 1,500 at the 2024 USA Indoor Track and Field Championships with a 3:38.81 which was 1.3 seconds behind winner Cole Hocker (3:37.51) on Feb. 17 at the Convention Center in Albuquerque, N.M.