The average American male can run a mile in nine minutes and 53 seconds, according to healthline.com , but University of Rhode Island second-year student Garett Hartline can run over two miles in that time.

Hartline grew up in Lake Forest, California, approximately 2,950 miles from URI. Hartline grew up with two older brothers who did cross country and track and wanted to follow in their footsteps. Before he began running, he was a competitive swimmer from age eight until eighth grade.

Hartline attended El Toro High School in Lake Forest, California, where he ran the third-fastest 3,200 meter time in El Toro history with a time of 9:01:9 minutes. In 2022, Hartline was named First Team All-State for cross country; he ran a 5-kilometer time of 14:31 that year at Oak Canyon Park in Orange county, California which is fifth all-time in El Toro history.

After his performances at El Toro, Hartline started getting looks from college coaches all over the country.

“URI has a really good ocean engineering program,” Hartline said. “I looked into that before I looked into the running recruitment. I looked for schools that had my major that I was interested in and then I started talking to coaches afterwards.”

Hartline’s decision to commit to URI seems to have been a good one. He had the best placement out of any Rhode Island runner at the 2024 Atlantic 10 cross country championships, where he placed 10th overall with his 8k time of 24:18.7, which was also a personal best.

Hartline also placed fifth overall at the 2024 New England Cross Country Championships, once again leading the Rams in placement with an 8k time of 24:32.68 minutes.

“We went in and me and my coach thought I had a chance of winning it,” Hartline said. “From the start [the goal] was [to] try to get in the front pack and sit there until the end and try to make a move, and I didn’t have it that day, but it was a pretty good showing from me.”

The majority of college athletes play one sport and have one season, but Hartline is a three-season athlete at URI. He participates in cross country, indoor track and outdoor track. Hartline has proven to be a strong contribution to both the indoor and outdoor track teams, posting personal bests in both the mile with a time of 4:27.08 minutes, and the 800 meter race with a 2:08.50-minute time in January.

“I do have trouble transitioning between racing distances,” Hartline said. “If I’m training for a 10k and get put in an 800 [meter] I struggle with that cause I don’t feel very fast. Some people don’t have that problem but I’m not one of those lucky ones.”

Hartline also had a pair of top-15 finishes during outdoor track last season. He finished 12th in the 10,000-meter during A-10 championships with a time of 30:23.50 minutes, and placed 10th at the 5,000-meter race at the New England Championship, finishing in 15:09.36.

“It’s not that hard to stay in season all the time,” Hartline said. “Because we’re not racing all the time, we’re just training and most sports are training all the time.”

With the 2024 cross country season wrapped up, Hartline will have his sights set on the indoor and outdoor track seasons. The Rhode Island men’s indoor and outdoor track team will be looking to win its fifth-straight A-10 championship this upcoming season; the indoor season will begin Dec. 5 and outdoor will begin on Mar. 28.

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