In front of a roaring crowd at Jesuit High School, Crater’s Tayvon Kitchen crushed the Oregon high school record and maybe flirted with a national time — in the 3,200-meter race on Friday at the Nike/Jesuit Twilight Relays.

Kitchen crossed the finish line in 8 minutes, 33.82 seconds. It was well ahead of the previous state record of 8:36.87 set by Crater’s Tyrone Gorze in 2023.

“I think I can go faster,” Kitchen said. “Just being able to do it in tough conditions with the Jesuit pacers, it’s a lot of fun. I think that there’s a lot of guys in the nation capable of running low 8:30 and sub-8:30. So I’m just excited at how far running has come in the last few years.”

Kitchen’s time puts him among the all-time greats in the distance. University of Oregon’s Simeon Birnbaum ran 8:31.73 while in high school in South Dakota in 2023.

While the weather report said it would be cloudy on Friday, the sun came out and the temperature on the track was flirting above 70 degrees.

“I was like, please let them push the race back, please,” Kitchen said laughing. “But they didn’t and it almost went early actually, but I can’t complain too much. I came away with the record despite the weather. But I had the advantage of pacers and a great crowd cheered me on, so just a fantastic day.”

Kitchen also holds the state record in the 3,000 (8:01.56 set in 2025) and ran a sub-four-minute mile (3:59.61) during the 2024-25 indoor season.

A BYU commit, Kitchen is also a two-time state champion in cross country and helped lead the Comets to four straight state championships in the fall.