Center Grove High School
After winning the 800 meter run at the 2010 IHSAA State Finals as a junior, Austin returned to Bloomington a year later and arguably delivered the greatest boys state meet performance in Indiana high school history. He bested Rudy Chapa’s supposedly unbreakable 1600 meet record set 35 years earlier, by 1.20 seconds in a time of 4:03.00. Just over an hour later, running in the slow heat of the 800, he shaved nearly a second off Tom Martin’s 34-year-old meet record with a winning time of 1:49.25. Another hour after the 800, Austin ran a 47.45 second split in the 4x400 relay to help Center Grove win the event and their first IHSAA Track and Field State Championship.
Austin Followed the state meet with more record-setting efforts on the national stage. A week later, he took second in the Adidas Grand Prix High School Dream Mile in 4:01.83, which at the time was the sixth fastest high school mile time ever run in the US in prep-only competition (Track and Field News), The following week he won the 800 at the New Balance Outdoor Nationals with a time of 1:48.09 and then won the US Junior National title in the 1500 the week after that, posting a 3:48.34. He was named the 2011 Gatorade Indiana Boys Track and Field Athlete of the Year and was a 2011 Track and Field News All-American in both the 800 and the mile. Austin’s achievements on the track while attending Center Grove High School were made possible through the exemplary coaching abilities of distance coach Howard Harrell and head coach Eric Moore.
After high school, Austin went to the University of Wisconsin and continued to impress. During the 2012 season, Austin finished 11th (Second Team All-American) in the 800 at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. He also became the fifth UW athlete ever to qualify for an IAAF World Junior Championship meet defending his US Junior National title in the 1500 with a time of 3:46.50.
On February 2, 2013, Austin became the youngest Indiana high school graduate at the time to clock a sub-4:00 mile, winning the Meyo Invitational mile in 3:59.33 at 19 years old. Three weeks later he set the UW indoor mile record by winning the event in 3:58.59 at the Alex Wilson Invitational. One week after that, he broke his own school record and took third place in the mile (First Team All-American) at the NCAA Indoor Championships, clocking a 3:57.93. Another First Team All-American performance was delivered at the 2013 NCAA Outdoor Championships, where Austin finished fourth in the 1500.
Top performances in 2014 included second place finishes at the Big Ten Indoor Championships in the 800 and the distance medley relay and a third place finish at the Big Ten Outdoor Championships in the 800. He redshirted in 2015. In a gritty performance at the Big Ten Outdoor Championship in 2016, he set a personal best in the 800, finishing third in 1:47.52, a time that then ranked fifth all-time at UW. He then placed fourth in the NCAA West Regional in 1:48.17, qualifying for one final run at the NCAA Outdoor Championship.