Who is the greatest of all-time?

 

This question is constantly being asked in every sport, as fans and athletes alike want to declare one man’s abilities and achievements superior to his peers. If the purpose of sport is winning, then one person surely has to be better at it than the rest, even when comparing athletes that competed in different generations, right? In basketball, the Jordan v LeBron debate will continue to be waged even though the men will never step on the court together- experts rely on stats, number of titles, and longevity to support their argument.

 

Running has a much easier task than most sports when comparing athletes across multiple generations. Time, as well as championships won, are the two factors that determine a runner’s greatness, making it easy to claim that Runner A is better than Runner B because his PB is faster and he won X more titles than the other athlete. The tough part, however, is comparing athletes with different strengths and trying to prove that their best performance at their preferred distance outweighs another man’s best at a different distance. 

 

For a long distance runner to be considered the best of the best, they have to be successful not only on the track but also on the cross country course. One such athlete that has dominated on both surfaces over the last two years will close out his high school career this Saturday at the Brooks PR Invitational, that being Grand Blanc (MI) senior Grant Fisher, unquestionably the top prep in the country right now.

 

After collecting his second straight Foot Locker XC title this past fall, joining Dathan Ritzenhein, Edward Cheserek, Lukas Verzbicas, and Abdirizak Mohamud as only the 5th man to win consecutive cross country titles, Fisher most recently repeated as adidas Dream Mile champion, joining Verzbicas as the only man to accomplish that feat (yes, the Dream Mile has only been around since 2010, but still). Just one week prior, Fisher became only the seventh U.S. high schooler to break 4 minutes in the mile by running 3:59.38 at the Nike Festival of Miles in a pro race, tying him with Bend, OR senior Matthew Maton as the 3rd fastest all-time. Only Alan Webb and Jim Ryun have run faster.

Grant Fisher's 3:59.38 mile at the 2015 Nike Festival of Miles:

On Saturday, Fisher will go for his second straight Brooks PR 2-Mile title in Seattle, which would complete two straight years of going undefeated against high school competition. If Fisher can complete this run, does he jump ahead of Ritz, who never broke 4 in the mile but is widely considered the greatest cross country runner in U.S. high school history? What about Webb, who never won Foot Locker but ran the fastest mile in U.S. high school history (3:53.43)? Does Fisher’s career stand above both of these men because he won titles during the fall, while also making history in the spring? And what about Jim Ryun, who was the first to break 4 as a high schooler, and competed in the 1964 Olympics as a 17-year-old. Is Grant Fisher better than all of these men?

Is Grant Fisher's prep career better than Dathan Ritzenhein's? It's tough to compare

The answer is not so simple. For one, there is no exact science to determining the greatest distance runner since that title does not specify whether track speed or cross country strength is a better measuring stick of value. Ritz torched Webb at Foot Locker, but he couldn’t come close to him in a mile. How then, can one be better than the other? 

 

The reality is that there is not one high schooler that stands out as the greatest when considering cross country and track ability. Grant Fisher isn’t as good of a miler as either Alan Webb or Jim Ryun, but his XC credentials are superior to both (although cross country wasn’t as big back in Ryun’s day). Similarly, Fisher probably couldn’t hang with Ritz on the XC course, but he surely could handle his fellow Michigander in the mile. Even though Fisher has a better resume on the grass and the oval combined than all three, most would still hesitate to say that he’s a better overall runner. 

 

For Fisher, he’s satisfied with his legacy as a high school runner as he prepares to head off to Stanford in the fall. “I’ve done almost everything I wanted to accomplish in high school. I feel like the next step is to go to college. I’m really happy with where things are in high school,” he said after his sub-4 mile on June 4th. 

 

Watch Fisher close out one of the best prep careers in U.S. history this Saturday at the Brooks PR Invitational, LIVE on FloTrack. Fisher will race in the Boys 2-Mile at 1:45pm PT.