Crater Standout Honors Prefontaine Anniversary But Soloing 7:58.92 To Win Class 5A Final

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

Becky Holbrook photos

EUGENE - The spirit of Pre was alive an well in the effort that Tayvon Kitchen put into Friday's 3,000 meters final at the Oregon state track and field championships. 

Kitchen, a senior at Crater and BYU recruit, added a legendary state meet performance to what has a been an incredible 2025 on indoor and outdoor tracks since January. 

Kitchen ran 7:58.92, making him the first high school prep to run under 8 minutes in a 3,000 meters race twice. 

"It's Pre’s anniversary of his death," Kitchen said. "I wanted to go out and embody Pre, go from the front, go hard like he did and try to get his record too."

The state meet record actually belonged to his former Crater teammate, Tyrone Gorze, who ran 8:04.60 two years ago. 

Kitchen went out hard, 60 seconds for the first 400 meters, and it still didn't prevent him from making history. 

A morning crowd at Hayward roared on Kitchen's final lap and gave him a standing ovation for running not only faster than Steve Prefontaine, but Eric Logsdon, Galen Rupp, Matthew Maton, EJ Holland, Gorze, or anyone else in the history of the meet. 

"You're standing on the shoulders of giants," Kitchen said, trying to reference a quotation he remebered from Isaac Newton. "Like Pre, Tyrone. It's not just me. A lof ot people have done impressive things at the state meet."

His time is the second-fastest ever recorded by a high schooler outdoors, behind the en route 8:58.66 by Drew Griffith of Butler Area PA last year. 

Kitchen already owned the absolute 3,000 meters record, according to Track and Field News, because of the 8:55 he ran on Feb. 14 at the Dempsey Indoor, in a college field. 

The last lap was hard. He closed in 64.5. 

"That last one hard. I was lactic," Kitchen said. "I wanted to maybe PR today but I knew it would be hard solo. When I saw the clock (at the bell) I knew I needed to hang on to go sub-8."

The crowd lifted him. 

"It was incredible. The crowd was getting very hyped. I could hear people screaming," Kitchen said.