Mary Cain Is Teenage Track Sensation

Mary Cain poses next to the board after setting a girls high school record in the two-mile race at the Boston Indoor Grand Prix, Saturday, Feb. 2, 2013, in Boston. Cain finished third overall. (Mary Schwalm/AP)

Mary Cain races to a girls high school record in the two-mile race on Saturday in Boston. (Mary Schwalm/AP)

Track and field fans got a up-close look at one of the rising stars in the sport Saturday night when 16-year-old Mary Cain broke a decades-old high school record in the two-mile race at the New Balance Grand Prix meet.

Cain finished third in the race with a time of 9:38. Three-time Olympic champion Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia won the race.

Cain called it an honor to race against Dibaba.

“It was cool having her next to me on the line,” Cain told Here & Now’s Alex Ashlock. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m beating an Olympian for like two seconds! This is really cool!’”

Cain had already broken a 41-year-old high school mark for the indoor mile a week before.

Cain, from Bronxville, N.Y. is being tutored by marathon legend Alberto Salazar, who said he told her not to worry about her time in Saturday’s race.

• Read Alex’s piece about the New Balance Grand Prix

Guest:

• Alex Ashlock, Here & Now producer and show director.