Caden Leonard Just Put the Nation on Notice—After a Dominant Junior Year, the Texas Champion Is Gearing Up for a Senior Season That Could Change Everything

THE RUNNING EFFECT PODCAST

Dominic Schlueter

Running, Sports

4.8 • 686 Ratings

🗓️ 25 July 2025

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

If you follow high school distance running, you already know the buzz is real.

Caden Leonard has emerged as one of the most dominant prep runners in the country, and his résumé is growing almost as fast as his closing kick.

Let’s start with the highlights: he’s a two-time Texas 6A Cross Country State Champion; he was the 2025 Texas 6A State Track “Double Gold” winner in the 1600m and 3200m; he came in 2nd place at the Brooks PR Invitational, clocking an impressive 8:50.22 for two miles; he came in 3rd place at Nike Cross Nationals, earning All-American honors; and was back-to-back Gatorade Texas Cross Country Player of the Year.

And when it comes to personal records? Caden’s stats speak for themselves: he’s run 4:04 in the mile; 8:50 in the two-mile; 14:33 in the 5,000m (Cross Country); and 14:19 in the 5,000m on the track.

What makes Caden’s story even more compelling is how he runs. Not just fast, but smart. He’s been described as “a surgeon on the course,” known for his surgical precision in pacing, tactics, and race-day execution. Within that racing tactician, there’s a young man driven by purpose, humility, and a clear mission: to win—and grow—in every sense.

Caden is getting ready to transition to the University of North Carolina, so this is a prime time to check in with him and see where his head is at.

In today's conversation,

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Before we hop into today's episode of the podcast, I want to tell you a little bit about our presenting
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1:06.2	The link is also in the episode description to make it easy to go to the website and check out the deal.
1:12.4	Appreciate you all.
1:14.5	We're having like a lot of great up and coming runners in Texas and we just graduated a great
1:20.0	senior class of runners, but it's going to be really hard this year to do that again.
1:25.0	But I'm excited and I'm willing to, um, like,
1:27.9	accept the challenge to just go for it. Um, there's, there's no like fault and trying and, uh,
1:33.2	going for it. So honestly, just, just going for my goals and, um, being ambitious about it. So That was Kaden Leonard today on the Running Effect podcast.
	...

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