The fastest freshman in the country at 1,500 meters is a former South Jersey middle school star who now lives about 5,000 miles away.
Sadie Krueger, who attended Northern Burlington Middle School last year, is now a freshman at Moanalua High School in Honolulu, and she’s the fastest 9th-grader in the U.S. in the 1,500 meters and one of the fastest at 800 meters.
Krueger won the New Jersey Middle School Cross Country Championships in Montgomery Township in October of 2023, and then ran 5:07.91 at Cherokee Night of Distance last June.
Her family moved to Florida during the summer, and in her first season of high school cross country, she placed 6th in Foot Locker West Regionals in Walnut, Calif., earning a spot at Foot Locker Nationals in San Diego, where she was one of only two freshmen to qualify.
Also in that race was her close frien Liliah Gordon, who would have been her teammate at Northern Burlington this year if her family had stayed in New Jersey. Imagine that distance medley?
This spring, Krueger has PR’d at every distance from 400 to 3,200, running 59.63 on her home track in Honolulu, 2:13.34 for 800 meters at the Arcadia Invitational outside Los Angeles, 4:34.47 in the 1,500 on her home track and 10:23.86 for 3,000, also in a home meet.
She’s No. 1 in Hawaii regardless of grade in the 800 and 1,500, and MileSplit doesn’t show any faster 1,500 times, although their database only goes back about 20 years. If anybody out there is an expert on Hawaii state track records let us know if that’s a state record. I found this story [click here] that seems to have some information about Hawaii state records, but it’s behind a paywall in the Star-Advertiser newspaper and I somehow don’t have an acount.
In the MileSplit national database, Krueger is No. 1 in the 1,500 and No. 14 in the 800 and No. 9 in the 3,000.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 