INDIAN TRAIL, N.C. – Brooks Barbee ’27 refers to a select number of runners who have come before him at 51Âþ» – true luminaries like Rocky Hansen ’23 and Dawson Reeves ’24 – as legends.
With every race, Brooks seems to close the gap between the past and present.
Look at February alone.
Brooks won his very first state championship at the February 6 NCRunners Independent Schools Indoor Championship meet (in the 3,200-meter run). Three weeks later, the junior from Waynesville, N.C., took the name of Saturday’s Spring into the Season outdoor meet quite literally, zipping through the quirky 2,000-meter steeplechase in a state record time of 5 minutes, 54.78 seconds.
The previous North Carolina record for the steeplechase – typically only run a handful of times per year – belonged to Charlotte Ardrey Kell’s Patrick Gibbons (5:58.38) and had stood since 2022.
Brooks won Saturday’s race at Metrolina Christian Academy by just over 12 seconds. It was a sizable improvement over his previous personal best of 6:10.09, run in 2025.
The steeplechase is not sanctioned for most high school meets as few facilities have deep pits for the water jumps. 51Âþ»â€™s previous best time in the event (6:06.71) belonged to Dawson, who now runs for Duke University.