Andrew Springer set a state record earlier this month in the boys 1,500-meter at the state championships, but he saved his most spectacular performance yet for Saturday in Illinois.

Journal photo / Kathy Borchers

Mix the Flash and the Road Runner, and what do you get?

Westerly track star Andrew Springer, the fastest high school one-mile runner in the United States this year.

On Saturday, Springer ran the boys mile in 4 minutes, 2.70 seconds at the Midwest Distance Gala, in Lisle, Ill. The Westerly High School senior not only bettered his own his own state-record time of 4:08.79, but set a New England record as well.

(Last year’s winner beat Springer’s time by less than two seconds.)

As a result of Saturday’s race, the Georgetown University-bound senior stands as the 14th-best all-time high school mile performer, as rated by Track & Field News.

He gets it honestly.

His older twin brothers, Dan and Josh, ran at Westerly High School and then Boston College. As a youngster, Springer ran at Misquamicut in quarter-mile “fun runs” held every week in the summer.

“By middle school he was running pretty seriously,” his father, Roy, said Sunday.

By high school, the wiry student was participating in his two athletic loves: running and soccer.

Eventually, his father said, he had to focus on one. He chose long-distance running.

It paid off.

As a junior, he set state records in the 1,500- and 3,000-meter races. Later, he won a track scholarship to Georgetown.

On June 6, the Westerly senior ran his final high school meet on a Rhode Island track. He won three events at the state championships and led Westerly to its first team victory in 63 years.

With the school year ending, Springer had planned to compete in the 64th annual New England Interscholastic Track and Field Championships, in Burlington, Vt.

Then he got a call from the organizers of the Midwest Distance Gala. They wanted him to participate in the boys mile run, the last of eight competitions at the annual event.

He agreed, and the gala organizers trumpeted the race as one to watch.

“Since year one, the goal is to provide one of the most competitive, exciting competitions in the country,” the organizers said on a web site. “While the Gala has seen its fair share of fast races … this year’s field is simply outstanding …”

Springer had already broken three Rhode Island state meet records, “showing he’s ready to do something special,” they said.

On Friday, Springer flew to Benedictine University to get a look at the track the day before the race, said his father, who stayed in Rhode Island but watched the race on the Internet.

If the young Springer was nervous, he didn’t show it, his father said. “He’s not afraid or nervous, but he is concerned and serious. He recognizes the importance of what’s coming.”

On the track he shot forward in his broken-in Nikes. His brother Dan was there to watch.

Springer’s coach, Ryan “Rock” Palmer, yelled from the sides.

The fans and the yelling added to the excitement, said Springer, who was back in Rhode Island on Sunday.

He “was boxed in early” by the other runners, especially during the first half of the race, his father said. “But eventually he broke out and ran the last lap and a half by himself.”

Paced through the first 800 meters by a runner called a “rabbit,” Springer ran the final quarter in under 60 seconds.

“I didn’t think of anything,” he said. “I just focused.”

He hit the tape ahead of Peter Callahan, of Illinois, at 4:05.20, and Pat McGregor, of Alabama, at 4:07.07.

But the race came at a cost. The Westerly senior, who will run in North Carolina this weekend, missed his graduation ceremony.

That’s O.K., his father said. “He’s the fastest kid in America.”

updavis@projo.com