Miles Batty (born 4 June 1987) is a former track athlete who specialized in
middle-distance disciplines. In high school, he was one of the most prolific cross country and distance track runners in the state of
Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
. Competing for BYU, Batty earned eight first-team All-American awards, two NCAA championships, broke the NCAA record in the indoor mile, and contributed to BYU's track team successes. After graduating from BYU, he finished 10th at the 2012
US Olympic Trials for the 1500-meter race and went on to compete professionally through a sponsorship contract with ASICS.
Running career
High school
Batty attended and ran for
Jordan High School until he graduated in 2005. In addition to being state champion of Utah in cross country, his personal best in the
mile
The mile, sometimes the international mile or statute mile to distinguish it from other miles, is a British imperial unit and United States customary unit of distance; both are based on the older English unit of length equal to 5,280 English ...
as a high schooler was 4:22 (min:sec).
Collegiate
Right after high school, Batty went on a two-year mission to
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
, during which he did not participate in any competitive running. Upon his return to BYU, he struggled to get into shape and even questioned the chances of himself succeeding as a college runner.
In February 2012 at the 2012 Millrose Games, Batty broke the indoor collegiate mile record by almost half a second with a time of 3:54.54. His record time was beaten in February 2013 at the 2013 Millrose Games by
Chris O'Hare
Chris O'Hare (born 23 November 1990) is a Scottish middle-distance runner who competes in the 1500 metres. He has represented Scotland at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and Great Britain at the 2016 Olympic Games.
Personal life
O'Hare was born an ...
with a time of 3:52.98. Batty dropped to number three on the NCAA all-time mile list in 2014 when Lawi Lalang clocked a 3:52.88, also at the Millrose Games.
After qualifying and winning at
NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...
's track championship, Batty was named National Men's Track Athlete of the Year by USATF in 2011,
and also helped BYU's distance relay team win the national championship. As of August 2011, he was ranked number 9 in the United States in the 1500 meters discipline.
Awards and honors
* 2018
West Coast Conference
The West Coast Conference (WCC) — known as the California Basketball Association from 1952 to 1956 and then as the West Coast Athletic Conference until 1989 — is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I consisting of ...
Hall of Honor Inductee
* 2013 NCAA
Today's Top 10 Award
The Today's Top 10 Award is given each year by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to honor ten former outstanding senior student-athletes. The award was previously known by three different names, each reflecting the number of rec ...
* 2012 NCAA
Walter Byers Scholarship
The Walter Byers Scholar (also known as Walter Byers Scholarship, and Walter Byers Postgraduate Scholarship) program is a scholarship program that recognizes the top male and female student-athlete in NCAA sports and that is awarded annually by th ...
* 2-Time NCAA Champion
* 8-Time NCAA First Team All-American
* 2011 NCAA Indoor Track Athlete of the Year
* 2011
USA Track & Field
USA Track & Field (USATF) is the United States national governing body for the sports of track and field, cross country running, road running and racewalking (known as the sport of athletics outside the US). The USATF was known between 1979 and ...
Athlete of the Week
Top Performances
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Batty, Miles
1987 births
Living people
American male middle-distance runners
BYU Cougars men's track and field athletes
Track and field athletes from Salt Lake City
BYU Cougars men's cross country runners