Jantzen Oshier has a very legitimate shot at running a 4-minute mile, an extremely rare feat in high school.
Photo by Louis Lopez
When Jantzen Oshier was in eighth grade, he already had his life planned out – he was going to be a world-class triathlete.
"That was kind of what I thought," he told MaxPreps. "That was what the whole plan was – my life, honestly."
However, a funny thing happened two years later when his coach at
Trabuco Hills (Mission Viejo, Calif.), Liam Clemons, convinced him to give distance running his full attention and by the end of that year he had totally abandoned his triathlon dream.
That leads us to the present. As a 6-foot-3, 145-pound senior this spring, Oshier leads the nation in the 1,600-meter run with a time of 4 minutes, 4.24 seconds. He also qualified for the second annual Adidas Jim Ryun Dream Mile by winning the first qualifier at Azusa Pacific College in a time of 4:07.
Ryun, the first high school athlete ever to crack the 4-minute mile barrier, watched Oshier run that 4:07 and was quite impressed. He later spent some one-on-one time with the California standout at his school.
Ryun told MaxPreps, "He was very impressive. He went right to the front and ran a brilliant race. His time was really good for that early in the year. I look forward to seeing him run in New York (on June 11). It will be very tough competition, but he is very capable of staying with whoever is in the race."
Jantzen Oshier gave up competing intriathlons so he could concentrate onrunning — the results have been great.
Photo by Chris Burns
A free spirit who makes friends quite easily, Oshier started running at age 5 and won his first race, a kids' 1K. But he quit several years later in favor of swimming. He found out he didn't like swimming, so he switched to mountain biking. It was only natural that he eventually would move to the triathlon as an eighth grader.
As a 15-year-old, he won his age group and was second overall in the Wild Flower Triathlon at Lake San Antonio, Calif. He was the youngest at the time to ever complete the 56-mile Vision Quest. The next year he again won the Wild Flower event – by about 20 minutes – but was disqualified because he, unknowingly, had broken a rule by passing on the wrong side of the divider.
"It was kind of bittersweet," he conceded. "They didn't tell me until the awards. It was a huge bummer, but that's life. You've got to learn to lose."
Meanwhile, he ran in one city track meet as an eighth grader, setting a record in the 800 meters and finishing second in the 1,200.
As a freshman at Trabuco Hills, he ran cross country - mostly as a conditioner for the triathlon – but still won the freshman city championship. In track that spring, he turned in a strong 4:27 mile leg on a relay. Clemons looked at his young runner's potential and exclaimed, "He was teasing me," because he still had his heart set on the triathlon.
Still, Clemons was the first to admit, "His form was awful. He was very awkward. His knees were whacko and his shoulders were hunched over from biking. He had to work on his arm carry and foot strength. I took his shoes off of him. We did a lot of barefoot running. That helped him iron out his form and mechanics."
As a sophomore, Oshier won the Orange County 1,600 in 4:19.
"I won by a lot and for some reason that race was a big turning point for me mentally," Oshier recalled. "The fact that I had run a big race, suddenly it made sense – the whole running thing."
A challenge from his coach followed.
"I convinced him to give me a year," Clemons related. "He finally signed on and stopped doing the triathlon. His junior year I had him full-time."
Oshier was told if it didn't work out, he could quit running as a senior. However, Clemons had sold him on track being his ticket to college. He knew the triathlon would not earn him a scholarship, and, truthfully, college had not been in his plans until he quit the triathlon.
"It was exciting to focus on one sport instead of three (running, biking and swimming)," he said philosophically.
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