Byron Grevious

Phillips Exeter Academy, Southport, CT, c/o 2024
AthleticNET Bio

Byron Grevious sport was soccer from a very young age. At 4-11 in middle school, his coach put him at left wing back which gave him the opportunity to control the game and run up and down the field. His commanding voice gave him a presence over the team that his coach valued. As he got older, he grew to his current height of 5-07. He realized that size was beginning to matter and wondered when he might hit a growth spurt and actually keep it up and not be afraid of getting injured.

He wasn’t completely immersed in soccer. He  ran some track in elementary and middle school. In the seventh grade he took up cyclocross along with a friend. He would pick and choose between soccer and cyclocross races to compete in. 

He attended a public school during his middle school years in Southport, CT. When it came time to decide on a high school to attend he had options. One of those was Staples High School, Henry Wynne’s(Virginia alum and All American and now pro runner) HS and some boarding schools. He wanted to get away from the predominantly white population of Fairfield County where he had grown up and sought the diversity of students the boarding schools offered. He chose Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire because it had people from other countries- he now has friends from Vietnam, Hong Kong and all over the world . He was also drawn to the Harkness method- the discussion based method of learning , the academic excellence Exeter offered and the success they had with runners like Will Coogan, now running for UNC-Chapel Hill. He was accepted and began the fall term in ‘21.

The transition was a tough one for the 14 year old. Living in a boarding school three hours from home was difficult. An only child, he had to care for  himself, take on the heavy academic load and he went out for the cross country team which was an added activity to his already full day. Compounding the difficulty was the COVID outbreak that led students to being confined to their rooms for fall term with classes being online and less interaction with other students. The students were then given the option to return home and take the required courses online for the winter term so Byron chose that. He returned in the spring to Exeter’s campus.

“During the COVID, it sort of sucked because that fall term, we were really locked in our rooms other than going out to eat. We did zoom classes in our rooms. Winter term, we had the option to just do online wherever, so I decided to come back home for all of winter term which was really nice actually. It helped me transition academically to how much I was studying and working, but also I had  my parents there.“

Having decided to make the switch from soccer to cross country came at a bad time for him physically. A growth spurt caused Osgood-Schlatter’s disease and his knees ached. COVID and the injuries due to the growth spurt coinciding eventually came to benefit him and his transition to high school boarding school life. By the time spring rolled around, he was able to run outdoor track season and ran solid times of 2:08.02 for 800m, 4:11.33 for 1,500m and 8:50.94 for 3,000m and had his academic and lifestyle routine down.

With soccer behind him, he began to workout more and saw immediate success. He won the NEPSTA  D1 Cross Country Championships in 15:27 over 4:01 high school miler and University of Virginia signee James Donahue of Belmont. Then, he traveled to the ultra competitive Running Lane Cross Country Championships in Birmingham, AL  in December where he finished 32nd in a new personal best of 14:41.94.   The race was a pivotal moment in his fledgling career.

“My PR was like 15:29 for the cross country 5k and that put me just on the edge of getting into that really fast race,” he says. “ I would have been in the silver race and that would have completely changed the outcome. I was seeded really low coming into that race. I was a little nervous because it was such a big field of guys and everyone concentrated on Alabama and wanted to run there. I had no idea how fast the course was going to be and I PRed by 50 seconds or something like that. I was coming across and seeing 14 on the screen and thought ‘What is going on? This course has to be short or something.’  It was wild. It took me like 15 minutes to even comprehend what happened until I saw the board that had all the names and times and I was like 30th. It was really cool. I had a couple of freshman records at Exeter, but that was really the first high school race where I really realized I could continue running well.”

Byron didn’t shy away from tough competition and his Exeter coaches encouraged him to compete at these national meets. He enjoyed toeing the line next to the nation’s best.

“To know I’m in the best field possible is really nice.  Especially in my second year in high school and seeing seniors like Gavin Sherry, and Aidan Puffer and these great guys who are now off and doing great things. Just running beside them was really, really cool.”

In the indoor track season, he raced at the New Balance Nationals Indoors in the two mile and finished 12th in 9:04.27. In the outdoor season, he traveled to the Nike Outdoor Nationals to compete in the two mile where he finished 12th in 9:04.02 and the 5k where he finished fifth in 14:36.15.  He also claimed another two NEPSTA titles in the 1,500m(4:03.16) and the 3,000m(8:39.67).

Byron noticed that when he started going to national meets, it was rare to see another black runner. He met Getachew Hayes who also runs for UNC-Chapel Hill once and had a chance to speak with him. He realized it was a small community and that his role may be bigger than he imagined. He embraces that role.

“I realized I could be an example, whether or not I wanted to, I will be because I'm on the national scene. So I sort of have taken it upon myself to try and be a role model and  that's what I want to do as well going into college and whatever is past that post collegiately” says Grevious who is interracial. “ My dad[Stephan] went to Yale and he didn't run with them but he was on the road race circuit. My grandfather also ran and so growing up with them,  in my mind, it was sort of like that's the backbone to why I'm running. And they were just strong black role models that ran distance. And it would be really cool to be to be like that for someone else.”

Grevious’ running resume has elevated to a another level after this past year.  In cross country he finished second at the NXR NE region with a 15:36.1 and followed that with a 12th place finish at NXN in 15:00.9. Indoors, he finished seventh in the Millrose Games mile in 4:12.95, and placed  sixth at the New Balance Nationals Indoors in 8:51.00. His 8:12.19 3,000m at the Last Chance Indoor National qualifier at BU made him the fourth fastest junior in US High School history. Outdoors, he won a pair of NEPSTA titles, the 1500m(3:52.50) and the 3,000m(8:32.72). 

It was the Battle Road Twilight #3 5k on June 3 that really stamped him as one of the best underclassmen in US High School history.

He had run one 5k earlier in the season. At the Penn Relays, the conditions were horrid. There was wind and rain and puddles and though he didn’t run poorly, the 14:32.48 for fifth place, wasn’t what he had hoped for. Going into Battle Roads, he was looking to refamiliarize himself with the 5k before he competed at the Nike Outdoor Nationals.

Grievous had thought mid 14s would be a good goal, but at the starting line, the pacer announced that he was going to run 14:10 pace.

“Five seconds before the starter blew his gun, this guy from Providence who ended up being the pacer told the field ‘I’m going to run 14:10 pace. If you want to be there, you can run behind me.’ So I was like, ok, that’s the goal now.”

He felt his fitness could handle the 67 high pace so he followed the leaders. The conditions were perfect. Slightly windy and a chill in the air so he wore arm sleeves. There was a small crowd there and though the pace slipped to 70 seconds on one lap, the pacer got them back on pace with a 66. At that point, one of the Battle Roads Track Club guys “shot off the back” so Byron went around him and there were three runners remaining. His coach was standing on the side of the track and gave Byron an update on his pace.

“I hear my coach saying,’Byron, this could be like 14 Oh, and I was like ‘What?’,” he beaming with excitement as he recalls the race.

With about 2k to go, the last of the Battle Road Track Club guys was slipping off the back of the pacer. Byron was faced with a decision. Should he go around and follow the pacer or stick where he was? He decided to go around and stick with the pacer. At this point, he was feeling good and the pacer was maintaining the 14:10 pace. Then, he decided to go around him. The pacer let him go. There were three laps remaining and he had now committed to taking up the pacing. He narrates from there.

“So at 1200 meters, I'm leading this by myself. I have no idea what the clock is at. I am just putting my head down. I know I'm about to run really fast. I'm running so scared. I know, there's three guys behind me trying to claw their way back. And so I'm leading with 1,200 and 800 to go. With one lap to go they ring the bell and I take a quick glance behind me.  I see the Battle Roads guy that I had passed three laps earlier, is starting to make his way back to me. And with 200 to go I hear heavy breathing on my right shoulder and it's him! He must have split like a 29 to get back up to me. And I'm like ‘there's no way I did all this work to just get outkicked.’ With 100 to I was probably blacking out. I couldn't see anything. I was just  full form sprinting. I ended up closing in a 29.62 last 400. He must have been like a 59 and I crossed the line in 14:04.44. There's this photo of me I put on my Instagram(@byrunz) of me crossing the finish line doing this [heads above his head like Mo Farah-though he didn’t intend it to be].”

The time was the fourth fastest time ever run by a US High School junior for 5,000m[Source; Track and Field News]. He was able to share the experience with his mom and dad.

“And the funniest thing was five seconds after I crossed the finish line, my dad is standing there in his rain jacket with his cell phone. He hands it to me, and it's my mom[Julie] on the phone. And she's like ‘What happened sweetheart?’  And I'm like mom, I just finished like five seconds ago. And there's a picture one of the guys took, like professional photographer of me talking to my mom with my dad. It was such a cool experience. It happened to be really fast.”

August 1, Byron announced on his instagram page that he had committed to Stanford University to continue his running and academic pursuits. With one year of high school remaining, he is limited in what races he can run and which ones he cannot because of his school’s status. For instance, he was not allowed to run in the high school races at Penn. He could only run the open races. Last year, he wasn’t able to run at the Arcadia Invitational. 

In cross country, NXR will be the target.Exeter was a close third last year and he hopes his team and he can qualify for NXN this year.

In his final year, Byron will also pursue another one of his interests. He and his friend host a radio show on WPEA 90.5 FM. They feature a discussion about an album every week and feature songs from that album.

“My friend and I had a music and talk show. We pick  an album each week and we listen to it, analyze it, talk about songs we really like and write up a little story about it. Then, we have a conversation for an hour and play the songs that we liked. It was great and we're gonna do it all next year. It's a great outlet for me to share music that is really important to me and speak about it to hopefully a larger audience, if anyone's listening. I know my parents listen every week, and his parents listen every week. It's really fun to learn how to speak on the air live, knowing that we can't really take anything back. We have a board that we use to produce the show live that we have to learn how to use.

We also have board that runs the WPEA and committees. I'm the director of operations so I deal with leadership positions that  actually run the radio station. It's a really fun extracurricular activity other than running that I do at school.”