The Congress Avenue Mile has always been something of a misnomer. Really, it should be renamed the Congress Avenue Festival of Miles. Because that’s what it is. With numerous heats and 900 runners ranging in age from 6 to 83 (including Texas Governor Rick Perry), this is a series of mile races that flies down the Congress Avenue dragstrip.

But, front and center, are the high school boys and girls. The best milers come from all around the state and their two races were the centerpiece for all the other miles on a warm, windy Sunday morning.

Most of the crème de la crème of the high-schoolers (but not all) were in town anyway for the delayed UIL Championships Friday and Saturday at UT. And most of them ran yesterday.

King of the day was C.J. Brown, a senior from Southlake Carroll, who finished second to Colby Lowe at Congress Avenue last year. Brown had a big weekend in Austin. He was fifth in the 3200 yesterday (9:14) and also won the mile at states in 4:10.

Now certainly the mostly downhill Congress Avenue course is faster than a flat track, but on Sunday Brown won in a remarkable 4:07.95. on legs that were anything but fresh.

The Congress Avenue course was slightly different than in years past. The course used to begin on the steps of the Capitol with a steep—too steep– downhill first mile. The new course began on 11th Street near Lavaca, right next to the rehabbing Governor’s Mansion. All the races began on a downhill but it wasn’t as precipitous as the old course which made for some saner splits in the first 400 meters.

James Bonn, a big, easy running senior from distance power Lockhart HS, took the pace out in a relatively easy 57 seconds for the first 400. Although the huge pack was tightly bunched, Bonn was in command for the first half mile, but after passing the 800-meter mark (in 2:05), Brown assumed the lead.

But it wasn’t much of a lead and with 400 meters to go, Bonn took it back and began to open up his huge, loping stride. He put three or four meters on Brown and Parker Stinson of Cedar Park (winner of the two-mile yesterday) who was just back in third.

Bonn, brother of former Lockhart great Tommy who was in one of the pace cars, pushed the pace on the Ann Richards Congress Avenue Bridge, but with the finish only 100 meters away, Brown took the lead and the victory in 4:07.95. James Bonn, who finished third in the 800 at states and sixth in the mile, finished in 4:08.20 with Stinson, only a junior, in third in 4:10:10.

“My legs were dead,” said Brown who will go to Texas A&M in the fall along with Bonn. “I was running with the other guys on the West team and was just trying to hang in there for the first 5-600 meters, but then my teammates told me to go for it. Still, I wanted to wait before I made any move. I thought James might have me, but then I was able to get next to him and just get him at the finish. It was fun, but I’m really pretty tired.”

He should be.

Significantly, the most rested girl among the high-school milers was Chelsey Sveinsson, the fabulous junior to be from Greenhills School in Addison. But because Greenhills is a private school, Sveinsson didn’t run in the state meet. Instead of running against high-school girls in Texas, the 16-year-old has been running in open competition against world-class women in such major meets as the Texas Relays, Penn Relays and Reebok Grand Prix meet in New York where she ran 4:16 for 1500 meters.

Although Sveinsson was clearly the class of the girls field (rested or not), she went out fairly conservatively and didn’t put herself into contention until 800 meters (reached in 2:27). “The beginning of the race was really fast,” said Sveinsson who drove down from Dallas on Sunday morning with her parents, “but we just kept rolling. I wanted to be up near the front after 800 meters.”

From there, Sveinsson motored to the finish in 4:54.60 to claim the victory over Tara Upshaw of Southlake Carroll in 4:59 and Kim Kirby of Coppell in 4:59.

“This was a really good race for me,” said Sveinsson’s who was fourth last year at Congress Avenue. “I’ve really been looking forward to it because I got to meet so many of the girls. I don’t get to race against them much so I really didn’t know many of them, other than to just say hi.

“Last year I was a little disappointed so it was great to move up and win Congress Avenue. But I really did have an advantage because I didn’t have a race on Friday or Saturday like most of the girls did.”

Not that it would have mattered because this is a girl with something special. Sveinsson, who races next at the Nike Nationals, is clearly the class of Texas and, in the next couple of years, might well prove she’s the class of the country.

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