Clayton Mendez places 4th at New Balance Indoor Nationals

Rahul Mikkilineni, Editor

Once again, Whitney Young’s Clayton Mendez ’18 has achieved a huge feat, this time at New Balance Indoor Nationals.  The meet was March 9-11, with Stanford bound Clayton racing on Sunday March 11th.  At this meet, he raced in the two-mile. There were two heats with Clay racing in the slower heat.  Unfortunately, he was not placed in the fast heat where he belonged. Through the first mile, he was at 4:31 and ran a 4:36 second mile with a final time of 9:06.  He won his heat and placed fourth overall at this meet. By doing so, Clayton earned All-American status.

Clayton himself, was very happy at the end.  “I’m really glad with how my race went. It’s too bad I wasn’t able to compete with the other guys in the fast heat, but I’m grateful for the chance to come out here and compete.  Definitely a race I’ll remember.” This is a race that he will definitely remember as he is now US #4 in the two-mile. His teammate Keaton Schwartz ’19 shares a similar ideology with Clay’s race. “Seeing him run was amazing, after seeing what he does in practice, being able to witness what he can do on the national level was awesome.”

Looking ahead, Clayton hopes to compete on the national level again once the track season transitions to outdoor.  We are all excited to see what he accomplishes!

 

Video of Clayton’s Race

New Balance Nationals Indoor Website

Stanford Cross Country Roster

 

Clayton Mendez will be attending Stanford University in the Fall.

Clayton racing during two-mile PC: Milesplit