Clay Shively

Wichita Trinity Academy, Wichita, KS, c/o 2024
AthleticNET

Clay Shively expectations entering the mile at the  Arkansas Invitational on January 13, 2023 weren’t terribly high. He had thought about running the high school division, but then saw that Connor Burns had run the collegiate races in previous years, so he asked the meet director if that was a possibility, and the meet director obliged. So with the race line upped, he thought about what kind of time he could run. He knew he could run fast, but how fast?

“Going into that race, I had a time I would be really happy with and another that would be absolutely insane,” recalls Shively. “My time that I was going to be really happy with was anything around my PR, so anything around 4:10, because in my mind, I was in shape for maybe a good two mile or something like that, but not a mile because I'd done so much cross country training and just aerobic mileage. My time that was going to be crazy was 4:07 because at the time, that was the fastest time in the nation by Devin Kipyegon and also, that was Jim Ryun’s state indoor record.”

The insane time was erased in just 4:04.95 seconds as Shively won the event with a last lap of 28.09(57.49) which bested Jim Ryun’s indoor mile best of 4:07.20 set 58 years ago.

“Obviously, it was hard, but felt really smooth as I was accelerating all the way up until probably the last 10 meters,” says Shively who ran in the middle of the pack before unleashing a furious last 200m to win . “I remember seeing the clock and just kind of being in disbelief because I did not  see myself as a 4:04 mile at all. I saw myself as maybe a sub 4:10 miler. I was super stoked after that. And just seconds after that, the realization set in that I had broken Jim Ryun’s record, which the amount of people that can say they've done that is pretty slim. So yeah, that was kind of just a surreal experience, and one that I'll definitely never forget.”

Shively never saw himself in this position when he first started out as a runner in the ninth grade. His father, Clayton Shively was a football player and swimmer so Clay thought he would follow in his footsteps.

He soon found that football wasn’t for him. His friend Ian Carroll, whose father Eric was the team’s head cross country coach, recruited Shively and a group of others to form a complete varsity and even a JV team.

“Ian was tired of running by himself,” says Shively of Ian’s recruitment effort. “ He was the lone runner on the team the previous year and went out to the lunch tables and around school to recruit runners for the cross country team.”

The first year was bittersweet for their team. Because of COVID restrictions, only two teams advanced to the state meet from the regional meet instead of the traditional three. Trinity Academy missed advancing by one point.

“I just remember kind of that experience of wanting it really bad and not qualifying really stirred some hunger in our team,” says Shively. “And so from that point on, we just put our heads down and got to work. And we set our goal for the next year was not just to make it to state, but to win state. And we ended up doing that, which is just super, super incredible experience to share with the team.”

The ascent from “zero to hero” was not hatched from any outlandish training regimen. It was based on the simple principle of being consistent. Despite many members of the team being involved in theater productions at the school, they would run late at night in the freezing cold after theater practice in the winter months. In the summer it was much of the same. The team would meet at 6am to train.

“It was just that consistency that really took us to the next level,” says Shively who went from running 17:40.02 to finishing in second at state cross country meet  with a 16:26.8 and leading his team to victory. “It was just crazy what a year of training can do and how really inexperienced I was as a freshman. I remember getting second at state as a sophomore and  things started to come into perspective a little bit more and my coach started telling me like just the potential that he saw in me.”

Coach Randy Mijares told Shively he was a natural runner and had great mechanics, something that the videos of Shively running bare out. There is no wasted motion and everything is moving forward. Shively began thinking winning the state title was a possibility, but didn’t think he would be nationally ranked or in any national conversation.

A good winter of training after his sophomore season led to another monumental jump. Shively blazed a 4:22.28, a personal best by 20 seconds, indoors on Feb 6. He followed that with two second place finishes at the state meet in the 800m (2:00.78) and 1600m(4:16.90) before finishing up the season with a new personal best of 4:10.02 for the mile at the Hoka Festival of Miles on June 2.

Shively’s coach has kept things in perspective and within reach for his team and Shively. There is no hammering and no workout leaves him writhing in pain on the track. The plan is not to peak in high school and to think long term and competing for the Team USA on the international level.

Though Coach Mijares has told Shively that he has the potential to run 4 minutes, Shively didn’t believe him at first.  Since his sophomore year, Shively has come to believe Mijares’ judgment as he hits the goals he and his coach have set.

And if he doesn’t break four minutes for the mile in his final year of high school, it will be ok with Shively.

“I have big goals for high school, but  I think my goals go way beyond that,” he says. “ I would love to run really fast next year on the track, but if I don't necessarily run as fast as I want to, then I don't think that means I'm not going to succeed in the future. Like I said before, I want to be able to compete toeing the line in the USA kit. Whether that be for the World Championships or the Olympics someday, that's when I really want to be at my best. Honestly, in a way, it's that long progression and building up until those moments later in my career.”