Bartlett rewrites New Jersey recordbooks in first two winter races

Lawrenceville junior Blair Bartlett kicked off her indoor season right where she left off during cross country: establishing herself as one of the best runners in the United States.

Bartlett claims New Jersey mile record

Blair Bartlett (Lawrenceville) surges ahead in the early laps of the girls mile at the Millrose Games. | John Nepolitan for ArmoryTrack.org

Just three weeks after placing 16th in the U20 race at the World Cross Country Championship in Tallahassee, Lawrenceville’s Blair Bartlett took on a very different pace and scenery: the prestigious girls mile at the Millrose Games, on February 1 at the Armory in New York. 

If the star junior was fatigued after a long XC season or rusty when it came to speedwork, it certainly didn’t show: she placed 3rd in 4:39.73 to break the New Jersey state record!

As usual, Bartlett ran a bold race and was not afraid to set a hot tempo up front. After a conservative first 200m, she hit the gas and surged to the lead. Even when she was caught by California’s Jaelyn Williams with 400m to go, Bartlett dug deep and stuck on Williams all the way to the line. Although she didn’t have quite enough to retake the lead on the last lap, her gutsy effort carried her to a historic performance — in just the start of a very promising track season.

Bartlett became the first girl in New Jersey history to break 4:40 in the indoor mile or 1600m. Union Catholic’s Paige Sheppard had actually just set the previous state record a mere eight days earlier, running a 4:40.29 to set the bar high for Bartlett. With both girls being only juniors, don’t be surprised to see some friendly competition between them take the record even lower over the next two years.

Watch Bartlett’s exciting race at Millrose here.

Bartlett shatters state 3200m record

Blair Bartlett (Lawrenceville) stops the clock to win the 3200m at MAPLs in an unbelievable time of 9:42.38. | 2L Race Services

If her mile race at Millrose wasn’t impressive enough, Bartlett one-upped that performance with a showstopping effort at the Mid-Atlantic Prep League championships on February 8: she won the 3200m in 9:42.38!

That’s an absolutely stunning time! It’s the second-fastest indoor 3200m in U.S. history, behind only the legendary Jane Hedengren from Utah, who ran 9:37.50 last year. (Bartlett is #5 on the national all-time rankings when counting converted 2-mile races.)

It also shattered the New Jersey state record in the 3200m. The indoor record had been 10:00.90 for the 3200m and 9:56.96 for the 2-mile, both by Lakeland’s Angelina Perez in 2022. In fact, Bartlett even crushed the outdoor 3200m record, which was 9:53.29 for 3200m (again by Perez in 2022). Safe to say this ranks among the most impressive track performances in state history.

And what’s also impressive is the way Bartlett ran this historic time. She went out in a 4:48 for 1600m, held 5:00 pace for the next six laps, and then blasted laps of 35 and 33 seconds to close out Plus, she did this in a non-competitive race against eight other girls that she had to lap multiple times. While that at least gave her runners to continually chase down, it’s still a lot of traffic to navigate through on the tight turns of an indoor track.

You can watch a video of Bartlett’s record-setting 3200m here, starting at the 3:02:30 mark.

Fun fact: After just its first two seasons, the Tsai Fieldhouse at Lawrenceville now hosts the indoor state records in the girls 3200m and 1600m. Union Catholic’s Paige Sheppard ran a 4:44.77 at last year’s Poreda Invitational, and that’s technically the New Jersey 1600m record (though Bartlett, Sheppard, and others have run comparably faster in full mile races). Don’t be surprised if the Tsai Fieldhouse — which is the only banked track in New Jersey — keeps attracting big talent and adding to that collection over the years.