#9 BoysIAAF Score: 1,038 points
Jim Ryun comes in at #9...in his secondary event. It turns out that was nothing, because Ryun could even set world records in his secondary event.
Running for the University of Kansas in 1966, after running a prelim in 1:51 just a few hours earlier, Ryun broke the world record at 880 yards by running 1:44.9 on a cinder track. That time converts to 1:44.3 for 800m, a time that also equaled the 800m world record at the time. For context, that time - in his secondary event, run on cinder, over 50 years ago and just hours after running a prelim - would still rank #16 on the 2019 world list. That 2019 world list is made up of people running their best event, on synthetic surfaces, without running a prelim, over 55 years later. And, oh yeah, they weren't sick at the time.
Wait...did I forget to mention that Ryun was also sick when he ran that world record, on cinder, in his secondary event, after running a prelim? He talks about it here:
Such was the level of Ryun's other-worldly, decades-ahead-of-his-time performances that he could rank in the top ten greatest state high school records and later run world records at a distance that wasn't even his best event.
In 2016, Olpe's Kyler True would come tantalizingly close to Ryun's state record, running 1:49.87. Even 2008 Olympian Christian Smith (Pawnee Heights/Kansas State), who's incredible story is profiled here, was a second off Ryun's state record in high school.
The question is, where will Ryun rank in his best event? Keep following to find out!