Byron Grevious

Year of Graduation: 
2024
A runner on a track in Exeter red.

"Having the facility we have here, having an actual indoor track with a track surface — it makes it feel like an indoor season. To have access to places like BU, where kids are flying from around the country... and be an hour away is a huge opportunity."

Byron Grevious ’24 stood calmly as the lights dimmed, pyrotechnics erupted and the announcer introduced the top 15 runners from around the country before the two-mile race at the New Balance Nationals Indoor Championship (NBNI) in March in Boston. Grevious took a quick relaxed jog toward the starting line when his name was called and then, boom, he was off.

He finished sixth in the event, setting a school record of 8 minutes, 51 seconds, and walked away from the overall competition as a three-time NBNI All-American. He was also a key part of Big Red’s distance medley relay team (with Jaylen Bennett ’25, Oliver Brandes ’23 and Owen Dudley ’23) and 4x800 relay team (with Brandes, Dudley and Max Lacombe ’24). The relay teams finished fourth at the meet and earned NBNI All-American status.

Although his athletic career at Exeter started quietly during the pandemic, Grevious has established himself as one of the premier runners in the country. He consistently faces the best of the best with composure and confidence. “Byron is a champion in every aspect of his life,” head track and field coach Hilary Hall says. “He’s a champion performer; the bigger the stage, the more he leans in and embraces it. His humility exhibits his championship character. He’s a champion teammate and leader by the way younger students look at how he operates in all those arenas. He’s handing all of that down, and not in any deliberate way. It’s just who he is.”

Grevious arrived at Exeter as a prep from Southport, Connecticut, unsure of which fall sports team he would join. While running was a big part of his life — his parents, both accomplished runners, entered him in local road races where he excelled — soccer was a lifelong passion. Cross-country won in the end, and Grevious immediately began training with some of Exeter’s top athletes.

“I came into prep year with the legend of Will Coogan ’20,” Grevious says of  one of Exeter’s most decorated runners. “Varun Oberai ’21 and Connor Chen ’21 were the ones to step into his shoes, and those were the guys I was chasing when I got here. Being with them helped with my maturity as a runner. I just wanted to see if I could hang with them, and I tried not to think about it too competitively.”

As a lower, Grevious led Big Red to a New England cross-country championship with a first-place finish and set a school record in the two-mile (9:04.27) at the indoor track nationals. He closed out the year with a strong outdoor track season, claiming New England titles in the 1,500 and 3,000 meters before head-ing to Eugene, Oregon, where he finished fifth in the country in the 5,000 and 12th overall in the two-mile at Nike Outdoor Nationals.

All that seems like a warmup for the current school year. In the fall, an unde-feated Grevious earned a second straight individual championship and helped propel Exeter to another New England cross-country title. Then he placed second overall at the Nike Northeast Regionals and qualified for the Nike Cross Nationals, where he finished 12th in the most talented field in the country. 

These impressive individual and team results are testimony to the environment provided by the William Boyce Thompson Field House — which opened five years ago — and the school’s proximity to premier indoor facilities at Boston University, Harvard and New Balance that provide opportunities to train and compete all winter.

“If I ran at my old school, indoor track would feel like a training block for outdoor,” Grevious says. “Having the facility we have here — having an actual indoor track with a track surface — it makes it feel like an indoor season. And to have access to places like BU, where kids are flying from around the country to come compete in meets throughout the winter, and us be an hour away is a huge opportunity for us.”  

Grevious’ winter was a busy one. He was invited to compete at The Armory in New York City in the Millrose Games, which is billed as the world’s most prestigious indoor track and field competition. He is just the second Big Red runner in recent memory to earn this honor. He finished sixth in the boys high school mile with a time of 4:12.95. “Competing at Millrose was like a performance,” Grevious says. “The atmosphere was really cool; the way it is set up, the crowd is right above us and feels like they are on top of you.”

These results have brought him some newfound fame. “I had a kid come up and ask if I was Byron Grevious at a meet at Harvard this winter,” Grevious says. “I was not even competing; I was just there to support my teammates. It caught me off guard, but it was kind of cool. I just hope it doesn’t take a toll of me or forces added pressure on myself. We’re still in high school. I just want to have fun in my sport.”

“Byron has achieved great heights in his results to date,” says Brandon Newbould, boys cross-country and distance coach, “and joins the rest of his team in making the Academy proud for so much more than fast times. The character and integrity shown by this team, along with their rigorous standard of academics as student athletes, is a noble representation of our Academy.”   

 

This story was originally published in the Spring 2023 issue of The Exeter Bulletin.