A world record before high school? This York County runner is dominant at age 14

Sophia Rodriguez had already been on a tear lately.

The 14-year-old phenom runner from Dallastown had already posted some of the best times in the country for a girl her age in the one-mile and 3K races in recent weeks. She earned All-American honors in a national high school race this fall — and she's still in eighth grade.

She earned an even more impressive accomplishment this past weekend.

Rodriguez set a world record for her age group (U14) in the two-mile run at the Nike Indoor Nationals in New York City on Friday. Her time of 10:20.68 broke a world record set in 1979.

She set the mark while taking second in a race against some of the best high school runners in the country. The only runner to beat her was Brooke Wilson, a senior from Colorado who will attend Wake Forest next school year. Wilson, who was named the Gatorade Colorado Cross Country Runner of the Year this fall, finished the race in 10:15.95.

Rodriguez's accomplishment was celebrated on a Nike billboard in Times Square over the weekend.

"She's got a lot of natural talent and some great gifts, and she's a hard worker," Dallastown middle school running coach Michel Schuler said Monday. "Her parents are knowledgable, and her dad has done a great job training her this winter. She's obviously doing great things right now."

Rodriguez's success hasn't come out of nowhere. The younger sister of Dallastown sophomore and 2022 YAIAA cross country champ Victoria Rodriguez, Sophia has been on a dominant stretch this entire school year.

In the fall, she finished seventh (17:55.70) against a field of high school students at the Garmin Cross Country Championships in Huntsville Alabama. She was named a high school All-American for that performance even though she's not in high school yet.

This winter, she ran a one-mile race in under five minutes (4:56.90). It was the fastest time for an eighth-grader and the 19th-best time for a runner of any age in the country this year.

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In early March, she ran a 3K race (1.86 miles) in 9:43.08. National running website MileSplit called it "one of the fastest times an eighth grader has ever run." For more context, it was faster than the time Brownsville Area senior Jolena Quarzo ran (9:43.13) to win a gold medal in the 3K at the Pennsylvania Indoor Track and Field Championships on Feb. 26.

Gary Martin, the University of Virginia runner and Bucks County native who spent the past few years running sub-four-minute miles and dominating the Pennsylvania track scene, gave Rodriguez a shoutout on Twitter after she broke five minutes in the mile.

Schuler said Rodriguez showed great potential as a seventh grader in cross country and then took things to another level when she decided to give up soccer to focus on running.

He said there's no need to speculate about her potential right now. Her accomplishments speak for themselves.

"Let's just wait to see how she does," Schuler said. "Obviously there's talent there. She has the right mental framework and the right support system. But she's a great person who is very gracious and acknowledges the people who help her along the way."

Matt Allibone is a sports reporter for GameTimePA. He can be reached at 717-881-8221, mallibone@ydr.com or on Twitter at @bad2theallibone. 

This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: Dallastown eighth grade runner Sophia Rodriguez sets world record