Read about the St. Louis area’s top high school boys track and field athletes and their accomplishments from the 2025 season.
WASHINGTON, Mo. — Harry Mitchell didn’t consider track and field as a sport until his parents encouraged him to try it out when he was a fifth grader.
“I won my 100- and 200-(meter runs) in basketball shoes,” Mitchell said. “After that, my parents realized I was pretty good at it and got me spikes.”
Borgia school history, that is.
The recent graduate left an indelible mark at Borgia, helping the track and field program to the first team state championship in history. The speed demon set school records in the 100-, 200-, and 400-meter runs.
Something that never would have occurred had he not given track a chance.
“I’ve had a really good relationship with the Mitchells from the beginning,” Borgia coach Brent Woodcock said. “The fact that Harry was such a talented athlete just made it easier to kind of understand and try to roll with. Yeah, I’m definitely happy his parents made him try track. Harry makes all of us look really good.”
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The All-Metro boys track and field athlete of the year scored 28 of the Knights’ 52 points in the Class 3 state championship meet May 23-24 at Jefferson City High School. He won state titles in the 200 and 400 and was runner-up in the 100.
He was also the anchor on the 800 relay team that collected a runner-up finish.
Mitchell’s personal-best times in the 100 (10.61 seconds), 200 (21.33 seconds) and 400 (48.53 seconds) will hang high in the Borgia gym as school records along with the team championship banner he helped win.
“Winning that state title meant a lot just to show everyone around at the school that we have a good team,” Mitchell said. “It might get more people to come out so we can keep winning more state titles.
Mitchell is only the second Borgia athlete to win two individual titles in one state meet. In 2021, Samuel Schmidt won the 100 and 200 for the Knights.
When Woodcock took over the program three years ago, he knew he had a behemoth he could craft a state championship with in Mitchell.
Someone who would spearhead the charge.
“We had Koen Zeltmann last year and he was kind of the spiritual leader, and then Harry was the physical specimen,” Woodcock said. “So it was really neat that Harry would push and beat Koen pretty much anytime we did some sprints. And I think that really helped Koen out. When Koen won his state championship last year, I think, it gave everybody else a boost in confidence, like, OK, we can do this.”
A fourth-place team trophy last season gave the Knights the taste they needed to finish the charge this year.
And Mitchell wouldn’t be denied individually, either.
“That clutch 400 was just, it gives me goose bumps thinking about it,” Woodcock said. “It was fantastic. And as soon as he did that, I knew nothing was going to stop him in the 200.”
Mitchell ran his school record times in the 400 and 200 at the state meet.
Early in his track career, when state championships weren’t up for grabs, Mitchell barely paid attention to where he finished. All that mattered were his times.
“I took it all as a learning experience that I’m using these guys who are faster than me to push myself to be even better,” Mitchell said.
Not that he finished outside the top three often, and when he was a senior, he was nigh-unbeatable when he stepped onto the track.
He picked up four individual championships this season in both the 100 and 400.
And in the 200, the senior won all seven times he raced.
“It’s just more like it’s been almost in my mind, my race, and I’ve always run it, and I feel like I’ve always done the best at it,” Mitchell said.
Now, after helping Borgia’s track team get put on the map, Mitchell has turned his attention to taking the next step for Maryville University’s program.
“(They’re) getting a game changer … a program changer,” Woodcock said. “They’re getting a really raw, talented phenom. He’s going to go in there and develop and become a track monster.”
Being able to help another program intrigued Mitchell, and when he was given the chance to become a Saint, he jumped at it.
“I really liked the coach, so I could just see myself fitting there more than any other school,” Mitchell said. “I was ready to commit almost right after my visit.”
Though he is leaving the Borgia track and field program, Mitchell is leaving behind a lasting legacy.
“I feel like I was able to push my teammates getting better, and that’s why we were able to do so well last year and this year,” Mitchell said. “We’re just all able to push each other at practice, and we just had really good team chemistry this season.”
Read about the St. Louis area’s top high school boys track and field athletes and their accomplishments from the 2025 season.
