As a budding distance runner growing up in Fairway, Wyatt Haughton said he always dreamed of competing internationally one day for the USA Track and Field team.
That became a reality this week when Haughton’s family and friends gathered at Kansas City International Airport to see him off to Lima, Peru.
Haughton, 19 and a sophomore-to-be at Brigham Young University, is competing this week at the Under-20 World Track and Field Championships, held once every two years.
He’s set to run in the preliminary round of the 3,000-meter steeplechase on Wednesday.
“I didn’t know it’d happen this soon or this sudden, but it was always something on my radar,” said Haughton before his Sunday departure.
‘Capability of doing much bigger things’
In 2023, as a senior at Shawnee Mission East High School, Haughton completed the trifecta at the Kansas Class 6A championships, winning state titles in the 800-, 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs.
Now in college, Haughton is also the first freshman in BYU track and field history to run a sub-4-minute mile,
Though he considers himself a miler at heart, he has also found himself excelling in the steeplechase.
“Initially, when Wyatt came in as a (high school) freshman, he was much smaller, but very tenacious,” said Tricia Beaham, who coached Haughton on the tail end of a 26-year pathbreaking career at SM East before retiring in 2023. “You saw that in him, and you saw what form he had. He had the potential and capability of doing much bigger things.”
Record-setting run in Eugene, Oregon
Beaham was one of four former or present Shawnee Mission East coaches who converged at KCI’s new terminal on Sunday for Haughton’s send-off.
David Pennington, the SM East hurdles coach, also showed up though he never had a chance to personally take Haughton under his wing.
“We knew that he was so qualified in all the other events. Had he done that (hurdles), as well, he probably would have been just as successful,” said Beaham.
In Haughton’s freshman season at BYU, he finished fourth at the Big 12 Conference’s outdoor championships while getting acclimated to the new specialized event.
The next month at the USA Track & Field U20 Championships in Eugene, Oregon, he set a meet record in the 3,000-meter steeplechase that had stood since 1975 with a time of 8:48.17.
With that first-place finish, Haughton locked up a berth with the USA team now in Peru.
A two-year mission awaits
Haughton said Sunday it was still sinking in, but added, “We’re in the airport. It’s real now!”
Haughton also felt the genuine warmth of those who made the trip to the Northland for his send-off.
“All of these people have helped me get to where I am,” Haughton said as he glanced around at the group.
But this week’s meet will be his last one for a while.
Living up to the commitment to his faith, Haughton will take two years off after the U20 world championships to fulfill his mission as part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. His mission destination is to be determined.
The third oldest of five sons, Wyatt is following in the footsteps of his two older brothers currently attending BYU. Kyler Haughton, the second oldest, was a sprinter who is now on a mission in Pocatello, Idaho.
Also at the U20 World Championships for the USA team is long jumper Josh Parrish, an Olathe North High school graduate and a sophomore at Wichita State.
